Despite some improvements, Henrico Schools’ SOL scores reveal disadvantaged groups still are falling behind

Henrico County Public Schools students have made some progress in improving standardized test scores since pass rates significantly dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic, but not all student groups have recovered at the same pace.

The Virginia Department of Education released the scores of the 2023-2024 Standards of Learning tests Aug. 20, and Henrico’s SOL pass rates this year have seen little change compared to last year but steady improvements compared to 2020-2021 during the midst of the pandemic.

This year, 69% of Henrico students passed SOLs in reading, 66% passed SOLs in math, and 68% passed SOLs in science, with pass rates almost identical to those last year. In 2020-2021, HCPS saw much lower scores, with a 63% pass rate in reading, 48% pass rate in math, and 58% pass rate in science.

However, current pass rates have still not reached pre-pandemic levels. In 2018-2019, 76% of Henrico students passed SOLs in reading, while 82% passed SOLs in math and 81% passed SOLs in science.

And the pass rates of HCPS’ Black and Hispanic students have witnessed much less recovery compared to their white and Asian counterparts. Between 2018-2019 and 2023-2024, achievement gaps have nearly doubled. Pre-pandemic, Black and Hispanic students had pass rates about 20 percentage points lower than those of white and Asian students, but current results show pass rates 30 to 40 percentage points lower.

In 2018-2019, white and Asian students had pass rates in the 90s for math and science SOLs, with current pass rates back up in the 80s after significantly dropping during the pandemic. Math and science pass rates for Black and Hispanic students, which hovered around 70% in 2018-2019, also took a similar decline during the pandemic, but are now still lagging around 50%.

Similarly, the 2023-2024 reading SOL pass rates for white and Asian students have almost reached the pre-pandemic pass rates of 85-90%, while pass rates for Black and Hispanic students have fallen from around 60% pre-pandemic to 50% currently.

HCPS official: 'We're always doing everything we can'

Henrico Schools officials have been working to boost students’ academic performance on SOLs and other assessments, HCPS Assistant Director of Communications Ken Blackstone said. Last school year, Henrico began efforts to implement Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s ‘ALL In VA’ plan, which mandates that school divisions carry out high-intensity tutoring for grades 3-8 to address COVID learning loss.

“Our goal at HCPS is to ensure that we’re always doing everything we can for all our students to be broadly successful in developing their knowledge and skills,” Blackstone said. “These efforts include active participation in the VDOE All-In Tutoring program, along with individualized intervention and remediation efforts when students demonstrate a need.”

Henrico’s SOL scores still fall short of the state average this year, however, with Virginia pass rates being several percentage points higher in reading (73%) and math (71%).

Henrico students also had an 85% pass rate on writing SOLs and a 53% pass rate on history SOLs this year, but fewer students participated in those exams, with only 52 HCPS students completing writing SOLs (compared to 7,700 in 2018-2019) and 3,500 completing history SOLs (compared to 14,400 in 2018-2019).

Instead of certain SOLs, many Henrico students took performance assessments, which are often embedded throughout the curriculum and allow multiple ways for students to demonstrate “mastery” of a subject, according to Blackstone. HCPS began implementing performance assessments in lieu of a few SOL exams in 2020-2021 after the option was approved by the VDOE, and they will likely remain in place at least through 2024-2025.

“Multiple opportunities are given for students to build and demonstrate mastery of the content and skills,” Blackstone said. “An advantage to having the performance assessments is that we can receive data in real-time and use it immediately to adapt a child’s individualized instruction and learning.”

This year, all students enrolled in Virginia Studies, Civics and Economics, and End of Course Writing completed performance assessments instead of traditional SOLs, along with all high school students and students at four middle schools (John Rolfe, Elko, Fairfield, and L. Douglas Wilder) enrolled in World History I.

About 90% of students in World History I passed performance assessments, Blackstone said, and End of Course Writing scores will be finalized at a division-wide scoring event later this month. Proficiency determinations are only made for these courses and not for Virginia Studies and Civics and Economics.

Disparities remain

Stark disparities still exist between the SOL scores of many schools located in Eastern Henrico and the scores of schools in the West End. Six elementary schools in Eastern Henrico saw fewer than half of their students pass reading, math, and science SOLs, while only one elementary school in the West End saw pass rates of less than 50%.

At the middle school level, both Fairfield and Brookland middle schools witnessed fewer than half of their students pass reading, math, and science SOLs. Achievable Dream Middle and High and John Rolfe Middle saw less than a third of students pass SOLs.

At a Henrico Board of Supervisors meeting in March, HCPS Superintendent Amy Cashwell addressed similar disparities seen in last year’s SOL results and told board chairman Tyrone Nelson that she was “not satisfied” with the low SOL scores reported from certain schools, after Nelson urged her and Henrico School Board members to put an end to the “same old story” of long-lasting achievement gaps between Western and Eastern Henrico.

Nelson, who represents the Varina District, also said that SOL scores from schools in Varina and Fairfield were “embarrassing” compared to schools in the West End, and asked Cashwell and her team to “please put your whole weight behind making Varina and Fairfield schools as successful as the rest of the county.”

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Liana Hardy is the Citizen’s Report for America Corps member and education reporter. Her position is dependent upon reader support; make a tax-deductible contribution to the Citizen through RFA here.