Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

2020-21 SOLs: the Racial Gap Widens

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by

James A. Bacon
in ,

Here is a pro forma breakdown of Standards of Learning pass rates by race and subject. I say “pro forma” because these numbers do not reflect the fact that one-fifth to one-quarter of public school students failed to take the test in the 2020-21 school year. Adjusted numbers might prove to be even more dismal, although I am too early in my analysis to suggest that is, in fact, the case.

Two things are abundantly clear. First, test scores fell across the board — all races and all subjects. Second, the racial gap widened. As anyone could have predicted, test scores among Asians fell the least of any racial/ethnic group — although the decline was big enough to be profoundly discouraging. Pass rates for whites fell significantly more, while pass rates for Blacks and Hispanics went into free-fall.

A 34% pass rate in math SOLs for Blacks is nothing less than catastrophic. It is difficult to imagine how thousands of Black students can ever recover from this setback.

The great irony here is that 2020-21 was also the school year that the Virginia Department of Education and many politically progressive school districts began applying the precepts derived from Critical Race Theory to the training of teachers and administrators, and in some instances to teaching in the classrooms. While blaming “systemic racism” and “white supremacy” for the racial gap in test scores, the Northam administration presided over a response to the COVID epidemic that was widely predicted to impact Blacks and Hispanics the most negatively — and, in fact, did.

It turns out that the “systemic racism” in Virginia schools arose from politically progressive parents and big-city teachers’ unions who magnified the risk of COVID exposure and pressured school closures. While most private schools and many non-metro public schools figured out how to maintain in-person learning during the pandemic, school districts with large percentages of Blacks and Hispanics relied disproportionately upon distance learning or hybrid distance/in-person learning.

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42 responses to “2020-21 SOLs: the Racial Gap Widens”

  1. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    re: ” While most private schools and many non-metro public schools figured out how to maintain in-person learning during the pandemic,”

    Have you got comparative academic results to show how they did better or are you just presuming so?

    Actually you should be able to show the non-Metro public schools data, right?

    1. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      You don’t give a damn, Larry. None of the Democrats do. You will find an excuse for the failure to educate these children just like you will find an excuse for your piss-ant failure of a president. What a black day…. I have not been this furious since Desert One, and I covered the funeral of one of those dead Marines. Biden must go. You just shut up a while.

      On this topic, to my friends in the other party, understand now why opening schools is so important that it overrides all your self-centered whining about the masks and the vaccines. If wearing a mask (when somebody is looking) helps keep the kids in a real class, put up with it and shut up.

      1. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        Actually the opposite. I care that we have folks who will misrepresent the issues.

        In Virginia, we have a long history of disparate treatment of children’s education, and it has had generational impacts.

        How did you get from SOLs to Biden?

        1. Nancy Naive Avatar
          Nancy Naive

          Biden has no SOL?

        2. Nancy Naive Avatar
          Nancy Naive

          I hope this comes soon
          https://news.google.com/articles/CAIiEPzO-zvBgYSs_b1jP3f5-LsqGQgEKhAIACoHCAowyNj6CjDyiPICMJyFxQU?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen

          Can’t imagine how that’ll go over in Lynchburg.

          1. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            ya lost me on that one!

          2. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            Life on another planet? So how’s that going to fit a literal reading of Genesis?

          3. Stephen Haner Avatar
            Stephen Haner

            We’ve started the collection for your tickets.

          4. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            Thanks. We’ll make it nice and comfy for you when the atmosphere here is gone.

        3. Nancy Naive Avatar
          Nancy Naive

          Ah. The news, Larry. 12 Marines KIA, 15 WIA in suicide bombing.

          He’s lashing out as if the last 19 years and 3 other presidents never happened, and of course, it’s all Biden fault.

          1. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            I know. There ain’t no easy way to bail from nation building… we have trouble learning that lesson.

            People think we can just up and leave nice and neat and tidy – just get those folks to the airport – oops… suicide bombers.. WTF?

            OKAY – it’s clear now – Biden should have NEVER tried to leave to begin with! Bad on him! lots of Conservative catnip there..

          2. Matt Adams Avatar
            Matt Adams

            Jody Product, zip it up. You were a draft dodger like the last two Presidents.

          3. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            Foxtrot Uniform. Now tuck your Jodie product product in bed and read ’em a story.

          4. Matt Adams Avatar
            Matt Adams

            Spoken like someone who doesn’t know what a Jody is referring to.

            I guess that’s because you were too busy being a draft dodger. Seems like daddy only had daughters.

        4. tmtfairfax Avatar
          tmtfairfax

          Yes, we do have a disparate treatment of children in public education. We spend much, much more on low-income kids. But it takes a commitment on the part of those students and their parents to make use of those extra resources. At some point, a person becomes responsible for his actions and decisions. Many of these kids and their parents do choose to take advantage and get a good education. But many don’t and wind up where they chose to be. Stop blaming people who follow the rules.

          1. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            We don’t necessarily spend more and that’s an issue. In fact, some studies show we spend less because less experience,lower-paid entry level get assigned to teach these kids.

            You keep referring to parents. If the parents barely have a high school education and are working at minimum wage jobs, shift work, etc. – how does that work?

            We have some folks who have good educations and make good money and we have other folks who barely have a high school education and live in poverty.

            You tell me who is getting blamed.

            You’re blaming the parents of the kids who are struggling. Why?

            How much help can a parent who barely graduated from high school actually give to their kids?

            Ask yourself how it is their parents don’t have good educations. How did that happen? bad parents again?

          2. tmtfairfax Avatar
            tmtfairfax

            My paternal grandmother had an 8th grade education; lost her husband when she was in her mid-30s during the Depression; and, yet, all four of her sons made it through high school. The barriers she faced were a lot higher than those faced by poor people today. Many people choose to be poor through their failure to take advantage of what taxpayers provide them. Let’s blame those who make bad decisions.

          3. vicnicholls Avatar
            vicnicholls

            My maternal grandfather had an 8th grade education. Did an apprenticeship as an electrician. His kids all got high school educations, all the grandchildren were college grads (and some of us got 2 degrees), some in technical disciplines. We also got a true handyman way of fixing cars, homes, growing our own food, that we can and could do. We fix things and look for ways to lower our tax bill and/or save money. We’ve all made bad decisions in our life, but its time for us who have little and scrimp for it, stop having to shoulder those who constantly blame others rather than trying to make their lot better.

      2. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        Antivax, antimask and antiventilator…
        She can’t be in class next week
        https://news.google.com/articles/CAIiEG0SSeB0CS2aJ3B8wq8fl6sqGQgEKhAIACoHCAow6ryiCTCei5gCMOuI5gM?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen

        Yeah, AND we don’t care.

        1. Stephen Haner Avatar
          Stephen Haner

          Didn’t read closely, but pretty much standard Christian Scientist, I guess (always loved the name…)

          1. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            I always like Heaven’s Gate. So many fools. So few comets.

  2. Rafaelo Avatar
    Rafaelo

    I asked two high school teachers, in two different states, what they thought of Standards of Learning (“SOL”) tests. The response was, bad for schools: forced to teach to the test. Bad for the kids limited to learning only what’s on the test. Demoralizing, wearying, driving good teachers out of the profession. My survey of two teachers had a response rate of 100%, and 100% agreement, with a statistical margin of error of 0%.

  3. Andrew Buckles Avatar
    Andrew Buckles

    Interestingly enough my daughter (Mixed race like 1 in 12 Virginians – so who knows where she slots in the breakdown above) was just under Exceptional on the Math/English SOLS but failed the History. What was the difference?

    Partially it might be because the base subjects were reinforced at home, hard.

    But also the Math/English were done at least in part in person when that was finally allowed, and the history was done entirely online. She passed the “Class” portion, but learned nothing. Straight A’s across the board in all subjects, including the tested history. Mind you, this is a child that is steeped in history knowledge, but the specific facts they tried to pass on did not stick.

    This is just one person’s opinion watching one child, but the online only instruction just didn’t stick – and it was nearly impossible to reinforce at home (or in my case in the office where my child sat every day since I wasn’t working at home)

  4. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    I thought this interesting in terms of SOL scores and race:

    https://www.pgpf.org/sites/default/files/income-varies-widely-across-racial-and-ethnic-groups-in-the-United-States-chart.gif

    1. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      So it’s poverty v. wealth, not a question of race. Gee, nobody has ever mentioned that possibility before….Then you have to explain the wealth of the Asian background families in this hopelessly Eurocentric racist hell.

      1. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        It’s only a Eurocentric Hell if you ain’t. But, ya make do with what’s around. “Uh yep, tables sticky from beer. Floors slick with what used to be beer. Heaven.”

    2. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      As soon as they get the 4-year college degree, they’re perceived as being smarter and of greater value than their white cohort members by a wide margin.

      https://nces.ed.gov/programs/raceindicators/images/figures/figure-rfd-2.png

      Combined, the data just says they’re putting a greater percentage in the bull’s eye.

      https://www.census.gov/content/census/en/library/visualizations/2019/comm/womens-history/_jcr_content/map.detailitem.950.high.jpg/1551805899405.jpg

      And, the ladies are out-educating the men in all races.

  5. James Wyatt Whitehead Avatar
    James Wyatt Whitehead

    The key to any learning in the past year and half is how much home support did a kid have? I think the differences in the sub group scores can be connected to which sub group had a stable home with adults in charge.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      I agree but you also need to acknowledge that if the parents have a poor education, their mentorship of their kids is not going to be a good.

      Jim keeps talking about racial disparities and sometimes includes economically disadvantaged.

      A significant aspect of racial disparities is parental education and income disparities – as a direct result of racist policies in Virginia for decades.

      we need to acknowledge that when we “blame” parents.

      1. tmtfairfax Avatar
        tmtfairfax

        So how could my single mother grandmother, with an 8th grade education, ensure that, when all was said and done, her four sons had high school educations? I suspect her parents had the same 8th grade education, if that. And I know for sure that her Famine emigrant maternal grandfather signed his Civil War pension application with an X. He was illiterate in English and probably Irish too?

        I find it incomprehensible that some assume that African American and Hispanic people cannot make similar decisions for their kids irrespective of their level of education. Does everyone make the right decisions? No, and it happens irrespective of one’s racial or ethnic backgrounds. Some of the best educated people in the U.S. are immigrants from Africa.

        1. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          You have to look back to see where grandmom and mom were in their education.

          Some of the best educated blacks from Africa and Asians are from wealthy families to start with unlike many blacks whose ancestors were slaves and even after free did not get a decent education.

          Yes, some will overcome such circumstance but many will not and when you look at the academic status of whites verses blacks what do you see?

          A gap. And you see a very similar gap between middle/high income and low income – regardless of race but the reality is there are a lot more low-income blacks.

          Have you seen this:

          https://files.epi.org/uploads/Income-by-race-and-ethnicity-2000-2019-950×991.png

          How do you explain this?

        2. vicnicholls Avatar
          vicnicholls

          and I’ve worked with and work with them and yes, Africans are intelligent, friendly, hardworking folks – just like Asians.

        3. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          So how good a grandparent who was actually denied attending a public school do?

          How good could a grandparent have done when they were denied access to public education and to all but the most menial of jobs and lived in poverty without opportunity at a better job or for that matter – college?

          Did the fact that your grandparents actually had the opportunity at getting a public education help set in motion the downstream success of the succeeding generations of your family?

  6. Steve Gillispie Avatar
    Steve Gillispie

    Any reasonable person not intellectually compromised by partisanship or ideology following the facts or even with family members in the public school system knows that with rare exceptions our educational system has almost completely lost its ability to educate.

    SOL’s, while the purpose and objectives were noble and much-needed, has been an unmitigated disaster. The destruction CRT and wokism has dealt to the quality of faculty, administrators, curricula, and classroom discipline is driving us to the poorest educational results of any co-called “developed” country.

    How has this happened? Look at the comments above on what is perhaps our greatest national crisis. We see irrelevant adolescent cutsie quips, silly redirects, wrong assertions, and overall a refusal to entertain that maybe some of today’s Liberal shibboleths are just plain wrong. These are the kinds of people now in control of education or actually doing it.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      Last I heard , Virginia was among the best education systems in the nation.

      You get the cutsie comments when you promote lies and disinformation about facts.

      The FACT is that Virginia actually ranks 10th or better out of 50 on K-12 in the USA.

      You continuously lie about that and you may get cutsie comments.

      We’re not the best but it’s a LONG WAY from ignorant blather like this: ” our educational system has almost completely lost its ability to educate” that totally ignores the truth.

      We have problems, especially with low-income kids who are harder to educate, and retain less over the summer, and whose parents are low-income and poor because of Virginia’s racist policies that denied them a decent education.

      The real CRT was when Virginia systematically denied an education to blacks for decades , those folks grow up and are economically damaged by alack of a decent education and when they have kids, unable to really mentor their kids like a well-educated parent might.

      The real CRT is the refusal to acknowledge this history of Virginia’s treatment of blacks in education, and how it still affects education in Virginia.

      Despite that – we STILL rank in the top 10 in the country.

      We need to tell the truth about it.

  7. Steve Gillispie Avatar
    Steve Gillispie

    Any reasonable person not intellectually compromised by partisanship or
    ideology     following the facts or even with family members in the public
    school system knows that with rare exceptions our educational system has
    almost completely lost its ability to educate.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      Denial of facts and reality seems to be a common affliction among some conservatives, maybe who they are.

      1. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        Proof of his denial: “Any reasonable person not intellectually compromised by partisanship…”

        Unicorns

  8. Steve Gillispie Avatar
    Steve Gillispie

    US education results have been sliding further and further down the slope of international comparisons for many years. The current radical left surge for more indoctrination and anti-intellectual focus is of course worsening the trend. although it will be several years before this shows up in international studies.

    There is a plethora of data showing this to be a fact. Those interested can start by mining the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) databases.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      Here’s facts:

      6. Virginia
      The sixth-most educated state in the U.S. is Virginia, which ranks seventh for Educational Attainment and eighth for quality of education. Virginia has the fourth-highest percentage of graduate or professional degree holders in the country at 16.1%

      https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/most-educated-states

      So are you impugning Virginia or what?

      If you ranked Virginia alone to world standards where would we rank? We’d surely rank higher on international comparisons than if grouped with the entire country, most of which is lower than us.

      Wby do you (and JAB and others) purposely misrepresent the truth on this?

      We’ve got issues with racial disparities – yes.

      but that does not mean the ignorant assertion that we are “failing”.

      In fact, our NAEP scores have remained fairly static for a decade or more.

      You guys simply will not acknowledge truth as well as the history of how we mistreated blacks in education for decades and now deny the obvious effects of that.

  9. Steve Gillispie Avatar
    Steve Gillispie

    Historically, the term “useful idiot” has referred to a naive or
    unwitting ally of a ruthless political movement especially a communist
    movement.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      yep – commie plot…

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