The Constitution of Virginia (Article VIII, § 2) requires the Virginia Board of Education (Board) to prescribe standards of quality for the public schools of Virginia, subject to revision only by the General Assembly. These standards, codified in Chapter 13.2 of Title 22.1 of the Code of Virginia, are known as the Standards of Quality (SOQ) and set out the minimum requirements for providing a quality public education that must be met by all Virginia public schools and school divisions. In accordance with § 22.1-18 of the Code of Virginia, the Board is required to annually report which schools and divisions were in compliance with the SOQ. Local school boards submit their compliance status for the preceding school year each summer to the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) through the SOQ Compliance Data Collection. A summary of these reports and data are included as part of the Board’s annual report to the General Assembly.

In October 2020, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) issued a report titled Operations and Performance of the Virginia Department of Education. One of the recommendations included in this report was for VDOE to direct the creation of a pilot program to more comprehensively supervise school division compliance with a subset of key state standards in the SOQ. In accordance with this recommendation, the 2021 General Assembly included a provision in Item 143.J of the 2021 Appropriation Act (budget) mandating the pilot program and appropriating funds to support its establishment and execution, as follows:

J. Out of this appropriation, $120,000 the second year from the general fund is provided for the Department of Education to develop and implement a pilot program to more comprehensively supervise school division compliance with a subset of key standards by requiring (i) the submission of more comprehensive compliance information, (ii) selective independent verification of compliance, (iii) monitoring of corrective action implementation, and (iv) analysis of compliance trends and issues. The Department shall conduct the pilot program during the 2021-2022 school year and submit a report on the results to the Board of Education and House Education and Appropriations Committees and Senate Education and Health and Finance and Appropriations Committees no later than November 30, 2022.

Staff in the VDOE Office of Policy began work on the SOQ Compliance Pilot Program in spring 2021, including the hiring of a SOQ Compliance Project Manager. The following report is a result of this work and provides a synopsis of the issues identified in the JLARC report; an overview of the pilot design; key observations from data and information collected during the pilot; and recommendations for improving the SOQ compliance monitoring model, based on observations from the pilot, that are both practical and meaningful.