More than 80 percent of Virginia school divisions have submitted plans to receive funding from the “ALL In” plan unveiled by Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) earlier this year. Youngkin created the funding opportunity with the Virginia General Assembly as schools as students continue to struggle, even years after the pandemic forced schools to go digital.
Superintendent of Public Education Lisa Coons said in a press release on Wednesday that Virginia’s education administrators in 110 school divisions “are making major efforts to find specific and meaningful ways to help their students tackle learning loss.” The agency reported the 110 participating school divisions “cover all regions of the commonwealth,” and include “large divisions such as Fairfax County and Virginia Beach,” and “some of the smallest such as Highland County schools.”
Coons said she is “appreciative of Governor Youngkin and the General Assembly’s leadership and funding to support local school divisions’ efforts,” and estimated “Virginia students will begin to catch up and get a step ahead as they progress through this school year.”
Youngkin secured $418 million in discretionary money from the Virginia General Assembly, aimed at providing “flexible funding for the implementation of the Virginia Literacy Act, learning loss recovery, and additional operating infrastructure,” according to The Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Despite this, schools were initially slow to respond. The outlet reported that Youngkin originally challenged schools to implement their spending plans by October 16, but only 26 school divisions had submitted spending plans by the target date. As of November 2, the outlet reported 70 divisions had submitted plans, and just 48 were approved by the Virginia Department of Education.
Still, the Augusta Free Press indicates that recent data published by the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) from its Virginia Standards of Learning Assessment may have highlighted the severity of Virginia students’ pandemic learning loss.
The data revealed that more than half of Virginia’s students between third-grade and eighth-grade are at risk or failing to meet the state’s standards for reading, and more than two-thirds of the same population are at risk or failing to meet standards for math, the outlet reported.
Additionally, the data revealed that current students are far behind their pre-pandemic peers. Current students are scoring six points lower than their pre-pandemic peers in reading and 15 points behind the same peers in math.
VDOE also implemented its new Virginia Principal Mentoring Project on Wednesday, which will offer mentoring to 24 principals at Virginia’s at-risk schools.
Coons said the program will support principals “in some of our most challenged schools,” and equip “them with the support that can help them and their schools be successful.”
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
