by Charles Pyle

In his September 2 contribution to Bacon’s Rebellion, John Butcher offers a tight analysis of the performance of students on the 2025 Standards of Learning tests. It was good to see the byline of my former Northside neighbor, who decades ago could always be counted on to purchase far more Boy Scout popcorn and peanuts than he could possibly consume.

John rightfully ignores Governor Glenn Youngkin’s fabulous statements that the statistical noise captured in the 2025 pass rates on the 2025 Reading and Math SOLs somehow represents improved performance despite more difficult assessments.

If public education were organized along the lines of Holy Mother Church, a swarm of bishops would be in Richmond investigating this apparent miracle.

Historically, pass rates always fell with the introduction of more rigorous tests. I used to tell reporters — I left VDOE in 2023 after 20+ years as communications director. I now amuse myself by delivering news and snark on WRVA — that if you raise standards and there is no impact on pass rates then you haven’t raised standards. Over time, pass rates recovered and increased as more and more students met and exceeded the higher benchmarks.

An April 17 VDOE bulletin (you may have to scroll to the bulletin because of the department’s silly decision to communicate by “newsletter” instead of through easily searched and retrieved numbered memoranda) to school divisions on the 2025 reading and math tests refutes the governor’s claim.

Yes, a smattering of content from the most recent versions of the reading and math standards was included in the 2025 SOLs. But because the Board of Education has yet to approve new benchmarks for the revised tests, the cut scores for 2025 assessments were “equated” to align with the achievement expectations on the “dishonest” 2024 SOLs. Quoting from the bulletin:

“As in previous spring test administrations when new test forms have been administered for the first time, the statistical process of equating is required to ensure the level of achievement on the new test forms is consistent with the previously administered test forms.”

You can find my previous Bacon’s Rebellion articles on how the Youngkin administration seemingly went out of its way to put off carrying out the governor’s campaign promise to raise standards. A lot of spin as the clock winds down.

I expect you will be reading more about this.