(The Center Square) — Governor Glenn Youngkin announced his ALL IN VA plan, intended to help Virginia students recover from COVID-19 learning loss and return to higher academic standards, in the stride of the announcement of Virginia’s assessment results for the year 2022. -23 school year.
This plan is the latest in a long series of interventions and reforms that the governor has implemented in the field of education during his tenure.
On his first day in office, he issued three decrees on educational matters. The first budget passed under his administration included the largest education budget the state had ever seen and $100 million in funding for lab schools, which Youngkin had highlighted during his campaign.
Today, his influence is reflected in history, social studies, mathematicsreading and literacy, as he and his administration revised state learning standards for those subjects. He revised Virginia Model Policies – a lightning rod issue regarding gender identity in schools is a reversal from the previous administration – and recently visited the Commonwealth Holding “Parents Matter” town halls.
“Education is the number one issue for parents, not just in Virginia but across America. In Virginia, we’re standing up for our kids and empowering parents while liberals stand with union leaders. We will never forget that parents matter,” Youngkin said earlier this summer on social media.
He often followed statewide test results announcements with reminders of his administration’s commitment to improving the state’s elementary and secondary education.
The test results shared on Thursday point to some alarming truths about student progress in these post-pandemic years.
“More than half of 3rd-8th graders have failed or are at risk of failing their SOL (Standards of Learning) reading exam, and nearly two-thirds of 3rd-8th graders have failed or are at risk of failing their exam of Mathematics SOL. exam,” according to a statement from the Virginia Department of Education.
Students have still not returned to pre-pandemic learning levels, with adjusted proficiency standards being lowered in 2020-21.
The “global” ALL GOING Package — as the release from the governor’s office calls it — focuses on three core issues to facilitate faster recovery from learning losses: attendance, literacy, and learning.
“From the 2018-19 school year to the 2022-23 school year, Virginia’s chronic truancy rate for grades 3 through 8 nearly doubled, from 9% to 17%,” according to the plan.
As a solution, the governor suggested that communities form student attendance task forces that can provide recommendations to their schools to reduce chronic absenteeism. It also asks the VDOE to “create a resource guide to help local school divisions increase school attendance in addition to the resources provided through the #AttendanceMattersVA initiative.”
In addition, the VDOE will establish regional networks to support schools in implementing the Virginia Literacy Act, according to plan; School divisions will hire more reading specialists for grades 4 through 8, as they received additional funding under the latest state budget.
For the “Learning” part, he proposes a “high-dose tutoring” plan in which all at-risk and non-competent students will receive 3-5 hours of help per week for 18-36 weeks.
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