2024-25 SOL scores improve statewide; area scores mixed
By MIKE WILLIAMS
Patriot Publishing
In late August, Governor Glenn Youngkin announced notable improvements in the Standards of Learning test results among Virginia students in math and reading for the 2024-25 school year.
The governor said the improvements were particularly noteworthy considering this year’s tests required students to know 30 to 40 percent more content in order to pass compared to last year’s test.
Governor Youngkin said the results reflect his administration’s effort to raise expectations in schools.
“We challenged our students, and they answered the call,” Youngkin said.
The state’s average SOL pass rates were:
Reading – 74 percent,
Writing – 76 percent,
Math – 72 percent,
History and Social Sciences – 66 percent
Science – 71 percent.
In comparison, the scores for this area’s school divisions were mixed.
Pulaski County had a 71 percent pass rate among all students in reading – three points behind the state average, but one percent better than the previous year’s test results.
In math, Pulaski County again lagged behind the state average with a 66 percent pass rate. The county’s score held steady from the year before.
Pulaski County also was behind the state average in history and social sciences with a 61 percent pass rate – down a point from the year before.
Pulaski County’s pass rate in science was 61 percent – well below the state’s pass rate and three percent less than the year before.
Only in writing did the county surpass the state average pass rate with a 99 percent pass rate – up two percent over the prior year.
In Radford, students topped the state average in both reading (84 percent) and writing (81 percent) and met the state average in math (72 percent).
Radford students trailed the state average in history and social sciences (64 percent) and science (69 percent).
Radford scores showed improvement year over year in four of the five areas, with writing showing a four-point decline.
In Wythe County, local scores exceeded the state average pass rates in all but one area – writing.
Wythe’s writing score was a 55 percent compared to the state’s average of 76).
Wythe students topped state averages in reading (80 to 74), history and social sciences (78 to 66), math (81 to 72) and science (79 to 71).
Carroll County pass rates topped the state averages in all five tests.
In Montgomery County, local scores topped the state averages in four of the five tests. Montgomery scored a 66 percent pass rate in writing compared to the state average of 76.
Conversely, Giles County scores were behind the state pass rate averages in all five tests.