Virginia Department of Education Did the Right Thing

Standards have been lower and lower

This may be my last blog post before the November 4 election. Happy reading! I promise I will continue writing once I am elected.

Today I received the Loudoun Times-Mirror October 10–16 edition. I enjoy reading local newspapers and have written a few opinion letters in the past. In this issue, it mentioned that Virginia’s Department of Education published new SOL test standards. From what I can see, the standards are merely set to match the levels from before COVID-19.

According to the article, however, some school board members and the superintendent don’t seem to like the change. One reason is that the new state test standards would lower LCPS students’ passing rates. For example, the overall Algebra I passing rate would have dropped from 91% to 51%. That definitely doesn’t look good to some concerned people. But wait a minute—concerned about what? Their image, or the real value of education?

In one of my previous blog posts, I mentioned that our standardized testing agencies have been lowering their standards for years under the influence and pressure of DEI ideology. This includes the SAT, which used to be a reliable measure of a student’s college readiness and a way for parents to compare the quality of different high schools, as well as the SOL (Virginia’s Standards of Learning) discussed in the article.

For those reasons, our testing results can no longer show whether our students have truly mastered the knowledge they’ve learned at LCPS. What’s the real motivation behind continually lowering testing standards? To keep your jobs and continue fooling parents and students alike?

I want to ask a simple question to the school board members and Mr. Spence, the superintendent: What percentage of LCPS students could pass an international standard Algebra I test—91% or 51%? And how many of them would not have to retake the course in college?

Let’s be honest. The purpose of education is to prepare students for college and for life—no more kidding around.