Virginia Standards of Learning & Common Core State Standards
VDOE and the Board of Education are using the commonwealth’s established process for adopting and revising academic standards to incorporate content from the Common Core State Standards into the Standards of Learning (SOL). In doing so, the board and department are ensuring that expectations for teaching and learning in Virginia schools are comparable to, or in some instances exceed, those of the voluntary national standards.
Comparison & Analysis
The Board of Education documents below provide side-by-side overviews demonstrating how the 2010 English SOL and 2009 Mathematics SOL align with the Common Core. The comparisons were made using Virginia’s complete standards program for supporting teaching and learning – including the curriculum frameworks for each content area.
- Comparison of Virginia’s 2010 English Standards of Learning with the Common Core State Standards for English/Language Arts (PDF)
- Comparison of Virginia’s 2009 Mathematics Standards of Learning with the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (PDF)
Virginia’s college and career-ready performance expectations also are aligned to the Common Core and international standards.
Key Board of Education Actions
The Board of Education included content in the 2010 English SOL Curriculum Framework and adopted a supplement to the 2009 Mathematics SOL Curriculum Framework to fully align Virginia’s standards with the Common Core.
The board’s response to the Common Core – revising rather than abandoning the nationally recognized SOL program – ensures that students in the commonwealth’s public schools will be on equal footing or better with students in states that have adopted the voluntary Common Core standards word for word without the disruption that would result if Virginia were to abandon the SOL.
Additional Resources
- News Release, July 21, 2010 – VDOE Analysis of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation Report: The State of State Standards – and the Common Core – in 2010
- News Release, June 24, 2010 – Board of Education Reaffirms Support for SOLs; Opposes Imposition of National Standards
- News Release, June 16, 2010 – Board President Reaffirms Support for SOLs; Opposes Imposition of Common Core
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