Students taking Standards of Learning assessments in Williamsburg-James City County Schools met or made gains across all five subject areas as compared to the prior school year, the school division said.
The joint school division exceeded the average state performance across the board in SOL tests given in reading, writing, mathematics, science and history. The Virginia Department of Education released the 2024-25 results Aug. 29.
WJCC Schools saw the most improvement in the history SOL, with 74% of students passing, an increase of 3 percentage points.
Other passing rates for WJCC Schools included reading, 78%; writing, 80%; math, 77%; and science, 77%. The writing pass rate was 15 percentage points over the rate in 2022-23, while the history pass rate was 9 percentage points higher than that year.
“Last year’s SOL results are just one way our students demonstrate how they learn and grow across the school year,” WJCC Schools Superintendent Daniel Keever said earlier this week. “I appreciate the hard work and commitment of each of our teachers, staff members, school leaders, and support employees, who are setting our students up for success in all arenas they pursue.”
In addition to academic growth, Virginia’s School Quality Profile reported a continued improvement in WJCC Schools’ chronic absence rate — down to 9.9% last year from 10.6% the previous year, according to a news release. Chronic absenteeism is the measure of students who are absent for 10% or more of the school year.
The SOL reports are additionally broken down by division and school, and contain information about passage rates for different demographic groups. Examples of growth reported across student groups include:
Math pass rates among English learner students increased by 5 points.
History and science pass rates among Black students increased by 2 points each.
Science pass rates among Hispanic students increased by 8 points.
Algebra I pass rates among all students increased by 4 points.
“Our key priority remains the pursuit of academic success for every student,” Keever said. “I am proud of the progress we’ve made and look forward to our shared work ahead as we strive to become the premiere school division in Virginia.”
School districts across Hampton Roads mostly mirrored the statewide trend of slow but steady growth in the SOLs.
After the results were released, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said student performance improved even though the tests were harder. Pearson, the company that administers the SOLs, found that the tests cover 30% to 40% more content compared to last year.
Kim O’Brien Root, kimberly.root@virginiamedia.com
