On the fourth year of Standards of Learning testing since schools shuttered in 2020, students in third through eighth grade by and large passed the exams at rates similar to or slightly better than last year. Improvement is steady, but slow — few localities in Hampton Roads were back to pre-pandemic numbers. That’s according to data released by the Virginia Department of Education on Thursday.
“We made the tests harder, and yet the students’ performance improved,” said Gov. Glenn Youngkin, speaking at an event to highlight the data in Richmond on Thursday. “That is a testament to the capabilities of Virginia students. When we set high expectations, the results improve.”
Pearson, the company that administers the state Standards of Learning tests, found that the tests cover 30% to 40% more content compared to last year.
“This includes more complex items, higher order thinking skills, less memorization, more application of more knowledge,” state Superintendent Emily Anne Gullickson said.
Youngkin touted improved test scores and rates of absenteeism. Chronic absenteeism, defined as missing 18 or more days of school, fell from 15.7% in the 2023-24 school year to 14.8% last school year.
The rates at which students passed their SOLs improved statewide. The percentage of students who passed reading SOLs increased to 71.9% from 71.1%; math passage rates increased to 68.3% from 66.4%; history went up to about 66% from about 65%; and science increased to 71% from 68%.
The SOL reports are additionally broken down by division and school, and contain information about passage rates for different demographic groups. Statewide, economically disadvantaged students also saw some gains, but remain significantly below the overall rates: 53.1% of students from low-income families passed the math SOL compared to 54.9% last year. For the same group, the percentage of students that passed the reading SOL increased from 56.4% to 58.2%.
Hampton Roads school districts mostly mirrored the statewide trend of slow but steady growth. In Chesapeake, 73% of students passed the history SOL compared to 72% in 2024. But that’s still significantly lower than the 2019 passage rate of 85%.
Hampton saw the largest growth in science testing, where 78% of students passed compared to 74% last year. That’s a percentage point higher than in 2019. In reading, history, math and science SOLs, Hampton was within 5 percentage points of pre-pandemic testing levels.
Newport News also saw the most improvement in science, up from 57% of students passing that test to 61%. And though history SOL passage rates improved by 2 percentage points from last year, less than half — 49% — of students in the district passed that test. In 2019, the number was 67%.
Norfolk saw the biggest increase in math tests, where 57% of students passed compared to 54% last year, but there’s still a ways to go to reach 2019 levels of 70%.
In something of an anomaly compared to other districts, Portsmouth saw substantial growth in percentage of students that passed the history SOL, jumping from 55% last year to 66% in 2025.
Virginia Beach’s most significant improvement was in the history SOL, where students passed at a rate of 77% compared to 73% last year.
Suffolk had some of the highest discrepancies in the region between 2019 and 2025. The rate at which students passed the history SOL held steady from last year at 61% but is still well below the 76% of 2019. Science testing passage increased by 4% to 68%, but it used to be 83%.
Isle of Wight is furthest away from its 2019 passage numbers in science, which was at 73% compared to 83% pre-pandemic. The science passage rate increased by 2 percentage points since last year.
Poquoson documented a 12% fall from 83% to 71% in history passage rates, the most significant decline of divisions in the region. That decline pushes Poquoson further from its 93% passing rate of 2019, but the city is still on balance scoring pretty high, with more than 80% of students passing the other SOLs.
Williamsburg-James City County schools saw the most improvement in the history SOL, with 74% of students passing, an increase of 3 percentage points.
York County public schools had the biggest percentage increase in science SOLs, where 84% of students passed, up from 80% last year.
Kate Seltzer, kate.seltzer@virginiamedia.com
