Addressing learning loss
New funding, governor’s plan have potential to raise student performance
Three years since schools moved to remote learning to curb transmission of COVID-19, too many of Virginia’s kids continue to struggle. Results of the Standards of Learning tests released by the state Department of Education this month found students across the commonwealth making modest or no gains in most subject areas.
The bipartisan budget agreement state lawmakers approved earlier this month provides needed funding for local school divisions to address pandemic-era learning loss. That’s a critical step to improve student performance, but Virginia faces an array of challenges and will need more than a one-time cash infusion to get kids back on track.
Standardized tests may be a flawed model by which to judge student performance, but it is a useful measure of how well Virginia’s children are learning the fundamentals of reading, writing, math, science and history. This year’s results were lackluster.
Statewide, student scores held steady in reading and writing, showed slight gains in math and science, and fell slightly in history. Locally, performance across the divisions in Hampton Roads was mixed, with reading, writing and history scores all but unchanged and modest gains in math and science.
Some highlights: Portsmouth and Norfolk saw science scores increase by 7 and 8 points, respectively. Suffolk and Newport News improved math scores by 7 and 5 points. Suffolk also had a 5-point jump in history.
There are a lot of factors at play here, but there’s no question that some students fared better than others in a remote learning environment. Say what you want about closing schools — there are plenty of opinions about it, to be sure — but children learn in different ways and the absence of in-person instruction set many kids back.
So how can Virginia effectively address this crisis?
The budget agreement is a good start. The deal includes $152 million to increase the state’s share of funding for additional school support positions, removing a cap that the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported had been in place since 2009.
It also funds a 2% raise for teachers, which comes in addition to the 10% salary bump split over two years included in the 2022-24 state budget. While teacher pay in Virginia still lags behind the national average, that’s a step in the right direction.
But the big figure is $418 million dedicated to school divisions to address pandemic-era learning loss and implement the Virginia Literacy Act. Every school system will receive some additional funding as a result.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin outlined his administration’s recommendation for using that money on Sept. 7. His “ALL IN VA” plan calls for school divisions to “allocate 70% of the funding for ‘high-dose’ tutoring, 20% to expand the Virginia Literacy Act and 10% for chronic absenteeism response,” according to the Washington Post.
Those are the correct priorities. Absenteeism is a troubling problem; Youngkin said that nearly one in five students in grades 3-8 were chronically absent in the 2022-23 school year. And speeding tutoring help to those students at-risk of falling further behind is sorely needed.
But while the broad outlines of the governor’s plan hit the mark, the details — or lack thereof — raise questions.
The administration calls for hiring additional tutors and support staff, but Virginia still has hundreds of teacher vacancies it cannot fill. It recommends “3 to 5 hours of tutoring per week” in “groups with a 1:10 ratio led by current teachers, retired or part-time teachers, and/or trained tutors,” but heaping more responsibility on overworked teachers isn’t likely to improve things in the classroom.
The legislature and the governor deserve credit for seeking to reverse these worrisome test results and putting money behind it. It is a crisis deserving this level of urgency and, certainly, all Virginians should be hoping these solutions help.
But these measures must be backed by further raises for teachers, more funding for school divisions (especially rural districts) and a better plan to address Virginia’s aging schoolhouse, roughly half of which are at least 50 years old.
This funding and the governor’s plan are a good start, but they are only a start.