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Henrico County public school students took a slight step backward on the state's Standards of Learning tests during the 2017-18 school year.
County students performed worse in all five overall subject areas on the SOLs than they did during the previous school year, according to statistics released today by the Virginia Department of Education.
Henrico's overall average pass rates were slightly below the state averages in three of the five tests – reading, writing and mathematics – but slightly above the state average in history/social studies and science.
Henrico's overall pass rates were:
• 78 percent in reading, down one percentage point from the previous school year (statewide average: 79 percent);
• 75 percent in writing, down one point from the previous school year (statewide average: 78 percent)
• 76 percent in mathematics, down one point from the previous school year (statewide average: 77 percent)
• 85 percent in history and social studies, down two points from the previous school year (statewide average: 84 percent);
• 82 percent in science, down one point from the previous school year (statewide average: 81 percent).
Of the 31 individual tests taken by Henrico students across all grade levels last school year, scores decreased in 25, increased in three and remained the same in three.
The biggest increase on an individual test came on the end-of-course geography SOL (up from 83 percent to 89 percent). The biggest decrease came in the eighth-grade history and social studies SOL (down from 100 percent to 89 percent).
Students in Chesterfield outperformed those in Henrico in three of the five overall subject areas.
Among the best-performing schools in Henrico:
• Rivers Edge Elementary and Tuckahoe Elementary, where pass rates for each of eight SOLs were 93 percent or higher;
• Nuckols Farm Elementary, where pass rates for each of eight SOLs were above 90 percent and for seven of the eight were 94 percent or higher;
• Shady Grove Elementary, where pass rates for all nine SOLs were 91 percent or higher;
• Short Pump Middle, where pass rates for 10 of 13 SOLs were 90 percent or higher.
Glen Lea Elementary, a Title I school (meaning a high-percentage of students come from low-income households) performed the worst on the tests; the highest average pass rate across eight tests at the school was 59 percent.
