For Immediate Release: September 2, 2022
Contact: Charles Pyle (804) 371-2420
RICHMOND — Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow issued the following statement today in response to the release of National Assessment of Educational Progress long-term trend reading and mathematics data by the National Center for Education Statistics.
“The NAEP long-term trend report provides our first national picture of the catastrophic consequences for students of the pandemic and the prolonged closure of schools to in-person learning.
“While we won’t have state-level NAEP data until later this fall, it is reasonable to expect that the performance of Virginia students — which began to decline well before the pandemic — will mirror the national trends in reading and math, especially given how long our students and teachers were kept out of their classrooms.
“Governor Glenn Youngkin, Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera and I are committed to the recovery of every student in every school. The announcement of the Bridging the Gap initiative yesterday represents our first step toward meeting this unprecedented challenge.
“Working in partnership with parents and teachers, we will bridge the gap and create a culture of excellence and high expectations in every school in the commonwealth.”
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