Article VIII, Section 5 of the Constitution of Virginia requires the Virginia Board of Education to make annual reports to the Governor and the General Assembly concerning the condition and needs of public education in the Commonwealth.

Previous annual reports of the Board have noted certain challenges facing Virginia’s K-12 public education system. Despite increases in education funding, some required by rebenchmarking and some spent on additional supports and services, the core features of the Board’s prescribed Standards of Quality have not been adopted by the General Assembly. The prescribed changes to the SOQs were clear steps to halt and reverse the decline that was evident in the pre-pandemic data.

Newly released data shows that learning losses were accelerated during the pandemic. The post-pandemic National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data that was recently released should heighten the Commonwealth’s sense of urgency to take steps to ensure a high-quality education for all public school students. The NAEP reported the biggest drop in fourth grade reading performance in 30 years and the first-ever drop in math. The learning loss was most severe among low-income and minority students and those whose schools were closed longest.

Similarly, the results from the 2021-2022 administration of the Standards of Learning (SOL) assessments highlight both a long-term downward trend and the impact of the pandemic and prolonged school closures on student learning. Despite one-year gains, student achievement in all subject areas remained below pre-pandemic levels.

The youngest learners in the Commonwealth did not fare well on the Phonological Awareness Literacy Survey (PALS) early literacy assessment, which identifies students at-risk in early reading. The rate of students scoring below the PALS benchmark decreased from Spring 2021 to Spring 2022. However, the 2022 below-benchmark rate remained higher than that of Spring 2019 (pre- pandemic).

In addition, Virginia faces a shortage of staff, including teachers, who enter and remain in Virginia’s public schools. This critical shortage predated the pandemic but continues to worsen. For the 2021-2022 school year, there were 2,593 teacher vacancies as of October 2021. For the start of the 2022-2023 school year, there were 3,307 teacher vacancies on the first day of school.

The number of teacher vacancies correlates with the downward trend in Educator Preparation Program (EPP) enrollment. According to the state data, enrollment has decreased from 13,511 students in the 2011-12 academic year to 8,777 in the 2019-2020 academic year.

Early childhood programs are plagued with similar challenges. Compensation for early educators working across publicly funded programs outside of public schools fails to provide a living wage. Direct teacher incentive programs have an impact in reducing teacher turnover.

As the Board moves forward in its work into 2023, there are big challenges facing Virginia’s public education system. The Board will focus its efforts on looking for ways to improve student outcomes and make up for the learning loss of the pandemic. The Board will explore the use of multiple measures to better understand student achievement, including discussing the implications of the Standards of Learning, NAEP, and other national assessments. We, as a Board and Commonwealth, need to address the challenge of bringing the cohort of students that was most impacted by the lack of in-person instruction during COVID up to an appropriate level of achievement; this includes our youngest learners. This new challenge is in addition to the previous challenges caused by inadequate and disparate resources.