For Immediate Release: January 29, 2025
Contact: communications@doe.virginia.gov
Todd.Reid@doe.virginia.gov
Richmond, Va. - The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) was released by the National Center for Education Statistics at the U.S. Department of Education earlier this morning. These results are from the test administered a year ago in late January through early March 2024. The fourth graders taking this NAEP test in winter 2024 were kindergarteners and first graders when Virginia schools were closed for the pandemic; the eighth-grade test takers were taught remotely in fourth and fifth grade while their schools remained closed.
“The learning loss suffered by extended classroom closures was deep and persistent and we went to work unleashing an extensive recovery effort that went into full effect in calendar year 2024,” said Governor Glenn Youngkin. “The early indications of those efforts were seen in our May 2024 SOL scores. The efforts we’re taking like ALL In high-intensity tutoring and Cell Phone-Free classrooms throughout the Commonwealth show us that we’re making progress, but we have a lot more work to do.”
Virginia—like the nation as a whole—saw increases in grade 4 math scores, no change in grade 4 reading, and declines in grade 8 reading and math results. These year-old data reflect the prolonged and pervasive negative impact that school closures, unnecessary disruptions, and the shift to remote learning had on our children. They mirror the results from the more recent May 2024 Virginia’s Standards of Learning assessments that showed that learning loss had plateaued and there were signs of improvement. There are also promising signs of grade 4 gains for English Language Learners, economically disadvantaged students, and students with disabilities.
“We know where we want our children to be—on track and ready for life. But we can’t help them get there without being honest about where they are today,” said Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera. “This administration will continue to use data to implement proven strategies and to prioritize resources to the students, schools, and communities that need the most help. We must act with urgency to continue to support improved student achievement in all grades.”
“We are seeing fourth grade students show signs of recovery, but last year’s eighth graders are now high schoolers. We know they missed school at critical development stages, and we need to make sure they are getting the supports they need to recover,” said Superintendent of Public Instruction Lisa Coons. “Our ALL In recovery efforts continue to help our children catch up. Our schools are working hard to help their students recover, and we are encouraging our school divisions to see how they can provide these ALL In supports for their at-risk and non-proficient high school students.”
Independent Research indicates that Virginia students suffered the greatest degree of learning loss overall in the entire nation from their extended school closures. Over the past two years, Governor Youngkin has implemented a consistent focus on core strategies to focus on learning recovery and getting every student back on track for success. This included setting more rigorous academic standards, prioritizing literacy, creating more transparency around outcomes, rolling out programs that provided high-intensity tutoring and addressed chronic absenteeism, and establishing Cell Phone-Free Education. The January 2024 NAEP scores released today continue to show the staggering decline in student achievement and that some signs of improvement are emerging.
Additional Details on Improvement Strategies
All In VA: The Governor and General Assembly appropriated $418 million to fund the Commonwealth’s ALL In efforts being implemented by school divisions across three school years.
These ongoing ALL In VA efforts continue through the 2025-26 school year and include:
1. High-Intensity Tutoring: School divisions have hired additional tutors, paid teachers stipends, and added more evidence-based tutoring during the school day.
2. Extended Time: School divisions added hours before and after school as well as added time on Saturdays to provide students additional time outside of the school day for tutoring.
3. Summer Programs: Schools have focused on summer school hours and attendees, and some schools added days to the beginning and end of the school year. Many schools added additional services for at-risk students and expanded hours of programming to support learning recovery.
4. Resources: Several schools focused on using the state's free personalized supplemental math and reading resources. 119 school divisions are participating with one or more of the state's no-cost to school divisions personalized resources in 2024-25.
Attendance Matters: A key component of ALL In VA continues to be the work of VDOE and school divisions to return children to the classroom on a daily basis. Children who are chronically absent from school perform 19 percentage points below their peers in reading and 26 percentage points below in math and do not receive the academic supports they need to recover learning loss. After the near doubling of chronic absenteeism in Virginia classrooms resulting from extended pandemic closure of schools, Virginia schools realized a 16% reduction in students who were chronically absent last year. The rate of chronic absenteeism fell to 16.1% in 2023-24 from 19.3% in 2022-23, and efforts continue to return more children to regular attendance.
Virginia Literacy Act: Since the winter 2024 NAEP test administration, Virginia schools have fully implemented the Virginia Literacy Act. The VLA ensures that every student in kindergarten to fifth grade receives core literacy instruction rooted in scientifically-based reading research and evidence-based literacy instruction. Virginia teachers now use evidence-based literacy curriculum, assess student learning using approved literacy screeners, use student-level data to inform instruction and intervention, and participate in literacy instruction training.
Bell-to-Bell Cell Phone Free Education: Following the leadership of Governor Youngkin’s Executive Order 33, every school division in the Commonwealth has banned cell phones in the classrooms during instructional time and 100 divisions have adopted the recommended Bell-to-Bell Cell Phone-Free Education policy removing phones during the instructional day altogether. This work ensures K-12 Virginia students have a distraction-free environment to focus on learning and reduce the alarming mental health crisis and chronic health conditions from cell phones and social media.
About NAEP and Virginia schools:
NAEP testing was conducted in the Commonwealth last winter from the end of January 2024 through early March 2024.
NAEP is designed to report results at the national and state level without requiring every student in every school to take the assessment. An estimated 12,661 Virginia students participated in NAEP Reading and Math assessments in 2024. A representative sample across the Commonwealth was selected which included students from 58 divisions and 212 schools.
The national sample size for NAEP is approximately 235,000 students in both Grades 4 and 8 Reading and Math.
Full 2024 NAEP data has been released.
Today’s Press Conference presentation is also available.
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