The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) released data on the performance of students on Standards of Learning (SOL) assessments in reading, writing, mathematics, science, and history/social studies for the 2021-2022 school year. 

In the first full year of in-person instruction since the onset of the pandemic in March of 2020, Hampton City Schools (HCS) students made gains in all content areas from the 2020-2021 to the 2021-2022 school year. Additionally, HCS students outperformed the state in the area of mathematics and came within 2 percentage points of the state in reading and history/social studies and 3 percentage points in science. The state pass rate for the 2021-2022 school year for math is 66%, reading is 73%, history/social studies is 66%, and science is 65%. 

Additionally in the category of reading, Hampton City Schools outperformed the state pass rate for the student groups of African-American students (6 percentage points), Economically Disadvantaged students (5 percentage points), English Language Learners (10 percentage points), Hispanic students (10 percentage points), and White students (1 percentage point). 

 

Hampton’s Economically Disadvantaged students surpassed the state in the category of math by 9 percentage points, as well as African-American students (13 percentage points), Asian students (2 percentage points), Hispanic students (19 percentage points), White students (4 percentage points), English Language Learners (23 percentage points), and Students with Disabilities (4 percentage points).

In the category of history/social studies, HCS English Language Learners exceeded the state assessment score by 16 percentage points. In addition, our student groups of African-American students outpaced the state by 10 percentage points, Hispanic (15 percentage points), White (1 percentage point), and Economically Disadvantaged (4 percentage points). 

Five HCS student groups showed higher performance than the state in the category of science: African-American students (8 percentage points), Hispanic students (18 percentage points), White students (1 percentage point), Economically Disadvantaged students (3 percentage points), and English Language Learners (17 percentage points). 

Furthermore, HCS outperformed neighboring school divisions in the region (ranging between 10% to 22%) for those divisions who serve students of similar demographics. 

“It is important to note that the SOL data does not tell the whole story . . . the story of how the pandemic challenged our teachers, staff, administrators, students, and families in unimaginable ways over the past three school years,” states Superintendent Jeffery Smith. “Yet our core business of teaching and learning has remained at the forefront. Through our guaranteed viable curriculum which HCS has created and the commitment of our teachers, staff, and administrators working tirelessly with students and families, learning loss has not been as significant for us, and our students are continuing to show gains in all areas. The story also does not capture credit recovery, successful remediation efforts, individual student growth, the division’s focus on social emotional learning, and on-time graduation and dropout rates.” 

 

This data is still important for our division to analyze and quickly make adjustments where needed as our focus is on continuous improvement. As we begin the 2022-2023 school year, we are continuing to close the gaps in academic areas to include reading, as we know the impact the pandemic had on our young students with early literacy and our students with disabilities. Another area of focus is science, particularly at the 5th grade level. We have already revised our curriculum which will provide more hands-on learning opportunities for our students. 

Smith also shares, “I remain proud and grateful for the commitment of our entire learning community. I am confident in the work we are doing in support of equitable outcomes and opportunities for all students. We will continue our momentum as we prepare our students to graduate the Portrait of a Hampton Graduate and leave Hampton City Schools college, career, and life ready.”