Since day one, Governor Youngkin has been committed to restoring excellence in education -- this means telling the truth about how our schools are serving our students.
Where We Are
The 2025 Education Recovery Scorecard revealed that Virginia ranks 41st in the nation in reading recovery and 51st in math recovery after the catastrophic learning loss our students experienced from the pandemic. The Honesty Gap 2025 Report, which calculates the difference between proficiency on each state's summative test and NAEP proficiency, ranks Virginia last in the nation for the honesty gap in math and second-to-last in reading.
Despite these stark rankings, past Administrations changed our definition of proficiency to be below NAEP Basic -- meaning Virginia ranks last in the nation for rigor in academic standards.
Accreditation and Accountability
We can no longer hide the truth from parents. According to Learning Heroes, more than 9 in 10 parents (92%) think their child is at/above grade level, while only 44% of teachers believe their students are prepared for grade level work.
To address these discrepancies, Governor Youngkin has set Virginia on a path to be the most transparent and accountable state in the nation by providing a clear picture of student achievement. The Board of Education voted to overhaul Virginia's old accountability system to create one meaningful, understandable system -- the School Performance and Support Framework.
The new Framework uses Mastery, Growth, Readiness, and Graduation rates (for high school) to evaluate how schools are serving students to give a real, accurate image of the K-12 educational landscape across the Commonwealth. These difference components will be weighted and combined to place each school in one of four categories: Distinguished, On Track, Off Track, or Needs Intensive Support. Schools will then receive additional support in identified areas.
Where We Are Going
With this new Framework, Virginians across the Commonwealth will – for the first time in our history – have access to a comprehensive understanding of school performance, and schools will have targeted supports in areas where they are most necessary.
Early Childhood Care and Education Portal
The ECCE Portal compiles resources aimed at preparing all the Commonwealth's children for kindergarten by supporting birth-to-five programming, including the Virginia Preschool Initiative, Early Childhood Special Education, Head Start and Early Head Start, Child Care Centers and Family Day Homes, and others.
Data Transparency Portals
School Performance and Support Framework
The SPSF Portal publicly reports how well every public school in the Commonwealth is serving students and provides links to available supports for school improvement. It provides a breakdown for every school of how many students are mastering grade level expectations and growing in their learning, graduation, attendance, and readiness for success at the next level. The Support Hub provides an overview of the resources and tools available to schools in the "Off Track" and "Needs Intensive Support" categories.
Individual Student Assessment Summary Reports
The WAAS Portal displays measures of students' academic growth over time based on SOL testing, diagnostics reports, and student projections.
- Elements of VVAAS are public-facing, allowing the public to compare the growth and achievement between all of the Commonwealth's school divisions.
- Other parts of VVAAS are parent- and teacher-facing, allowing parents and teachers access to reports detailing a student's proficiency and growth overtime, or identifying areas where additional education support may be useful, or highlighting opportunities for accelerated learning.
2024 Grade 8 Math SOL Scatterplot
SAS Report Breakdown
Virginia Higher Education Planning Guide & College Outcomes Portal
The SCHEV Outcomes Portal offers a comprehensive collection of data and resources related to higher education in Virginia. One such resource is a collection of institution- specific Fact Packs that provide a detailed analysis of each institution across several metrics such as enrollment trends, retention and graduation rates, post-graduation wages by major, program alignment with high-demand industries, and financial analysis of institutions. Also included are annual completion reports on the number and types of degrees and certificates awarded by Virginia's higher education institutions.
Retention and Graduation Trends
High-Growth Industry Alignment
Reliance on State Funding
Virginia Office of Education Economics Portal
The VOEE Portal provides continuously updated data and analysis on Virginia's regional tabor market. This data is being integrated into decision making across the education and workforce development pipeline to ensure our talent pipeline is aligned to employer current and projected skill and knowledge needs.
Virginia Has Jobs
Virginia Has Jobs is a new initiative through the Department of Workforce Development and Advancement (Virginia Works), built to showcase Virginia's diverse industries and career paths. The initiative helps job-seeking individuals
When Governor Youngkin Came into Office
Virginia students were suffering from the catastrophic learning loss of COVID-19 school closures and struggling to reach proficiency.
- Learning Loss – Virginia suffered the worst learning loss in the nation
- Closed Schools – Virginia was 46th in the nation to reopen schools
- Low Proficiency – only 32% of Virginia 4th graders were proficient in reading, and 38% of Virginia 4th graders were proficient in math
- Poor Readiness – 45% of all Virginia public high school seniors were not college-ready in math on the SAT
- Exacerbated Achievement Gaps – achievement gaps between student groups were exacerbated by the effects of the pandemic
These facts were a result of years-long systematic dismantling of high expectations. Previous administrations had created a culture of low expectations for Virginia students, including
- Lowered Expectations – the Virginia Board of Education voted to lower the proficiency cut scores—meaning how many correct answers it takes to demonstrate proficiency—on Standards of Learning Tests in math and reading
- Dismantled Accountability – The Virginia Board of Education had voted to change accreditation requirements to deemphasize grade-level proficiency in math and reading – despite the stark proficiency rates, Virginia parents and students received a picture that Virginia schools were serving students just fine, with every school in the Commonwealth having full accreditation
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- Virginia’s old accreditation system was overly complex and confusing, diminishing awareness of declining student achievement
Governor Youngkin’s Commitments as a Result of Where We Were
- Aim to be the most transparent and accountable state in the nation by providing a clear picture of student achievement
- Produce individual data reports for teachers, parents, and students on each student’s learning proficiency, growth, and gaps
- Provide a public report on how every school is serving every student
- Revise the Standards of Accreditation to ensure that schools that earn full accreditation are truly preparing students for the demands of the workplace
- Ensure accreditation ratings accurately and clearly reflect the quality of our individual schools
- Provide enhanced support and direct intervention to schools that fail to achieve accreditation that engages families, educators, and the community
Early Childhood Care and Education
TRANSPARENCY
Parent Navigator— Every parent now has access to a portal that provides information about every available child care choice, including scholarship information, in Virginia's nation-leading public-private choice program.
ACCOUNTABILITY
Virginia Quality Birth to Five — All child care centers are held to the highest standard of accountability through VQB5, which measures and helps improve the quality of all publicly-funded birth-to-five classrooms and support families to choose quality programming across program types.
K-12 Education
TRANSPARENCY
Empowering families and teachers with actionable information — Every parent, teacher, and student now receives the same easy-to-understand data at the same time, presented in a way that opens conversations that lead to improved outcomes
- Bridging the Gap
- Parent Report
- WAAS
Providing public transparency — Actionable data on how every school is serving every
student is now publicly available to Virginians for the first time in Virginia's history
- School Quality Profiles
ACCOUNTABILITY
Fixing accreditation and accountability — Virginia now separates accreditation and accountability instead of the confusing and complex combined system, ensuring one meaningful, understandable system of accreditation and accountability
- The new School Performance and Support Framework uses Mastery, Growth, Readiness, and Graduation rates (for high school) to evaluate how schools are serving students to give a real, accurate image of the K-12 educational landscape across the Commonwealth
- These different components are weighted and combined to place each school in one of four categories: Distinguished, On Track, Off Track, and Needs Intensive Support. Schools receive additionalsupport in data-backed areas
- The system uses 3E readiness — Virginia's new pathways system that ensures every student graduates high school repared for employment, enrollment, or enlistment – in accountability metrics, ensuring schools are preparing students for success in life
Higher Education
TRANSPARENCY
- SCHEV Outcomes Portal – All public institutions of higher education have created institutional fact-packs that provide detailed analyses of return on investment for the most popular majors, enrollment trends, retention and graduation rates, post-graduation wages by major, program alignment with high-demand industries, and financial analyses
- Outcomes over inputs – Because we have redefined success to be focused on outcomes rather than inputs, everything in higher education is focused on transparency about what those outcomes are and building accountability for results
ACCOUNTABILITY
- Decisions driven by labor market decisions – The Virginia Office of Education Economics Portal provides continuously updated data and analysis of Virginia’s regional labor market and ensure our talent pipeline is aligned to the current and projected employer skill and knowledge needs
- Access to information on jobs – The Virginia Has Jobs portal helps job-seeking individuals access training, apprenticeships, reskilling options, and credentials to grow their skills and find opportunities in high-demand, growing fields