RICHMOND, Va. -- Applause rang out in a Northern Virginia classroom Thursday as Governor Glenn Youngkin signed a new executive directive to address teacher shortages and learning loss across the Commonwealth.
The order comes as Virginia students fell behind academically this past school year after the effects of COVID-19 and virtual learning, revealed by recent SOL scores data released by the Virginia Department of Education.
Statewide during the 2021-2022 school year, 66% of children passed the standardized test for math. That's compared to 82% who passed during the last pre-pandemic year, 2018-2019.
73% of Virginia students passed reading this past year compared to 78% before COVID-19.
"With schools being closed for an extended and unnecessary time, we in fact saw learning loss grow," the governor said. “It’s sad to think we have a full generation of students that aren’t fully prepared.”
Youngkin's plan aims to remove barriers to hiring teachers through several initiatives including:
- Making it easier to issue and renew teacher licenses
- Allowing retired teachers to fill classroom vacancies
- Ramp up recruitment of out-of-state teachers, career switchers, military veterans, and other professionals while "ensuring high standards"
- Establish an apprenticeship system in which education providers can train new teachers
- Expanding childcare opportunities for teachers
- Create a system to identify why teachers are leaving the profession
The governor also unveiled a pilot program called "Bridging the Gap" which allows teachers and parents to collaborate on personalized learning plans for students who suffered learning loss during the pandemic. Fifteen school divisions are currently participating in the program, including Chesterfield and Hanover.
“It’s a moment for us to work together with individual learning loss plans and how to put the team together— parents, students, teachers, maybe others— in order to address that particular student's needs," Youngkin said.
RELATED: Community leaders declare educational crisis in Richmond Schools: 'The system has failed them'
The governor's announcement came one day after multiple groups of community leaders declared an "educational crisis"in Richmond Public Schools during a Wednesday press conference outside city hall.
The district's SOL scores were much lower than the overall state's. About two-thirds of RPS students failed writing, history, science, and math. Advocates with Richmond Crusade for Voters, Richmond NAACP, and Richmond For All called on RPS to take corrective actions, including the creating individualized intervention plans and making changes to the implementation of the curriculum, because low-income minority students were being "failed by the system."
While a spokesperson for Superintendent Jason Kamras declined to comment Wednesday, CBS 6 asked Kamras for a response to the advocates' concerns during a press event Thursday.
“I’ll be the first person to say we have a lot of work to do in RPS, absolutely. Our scores are nowhere near where they need to be, so no argument from me on that front," Kamras said.
But he added the pandemic disproportionately impacted RPS -- a district that serves mostly minority and low-income students.
VDOE data shows 86% of the district's students are Black or Hispanic, and 58% are economically disadvantaged. Throughout the pandemic, it's been well documented that COVID-19 took a more significant toll on those communities financially and by death and illness rates.
“We just spent three years in a once-in-a-century pandemic that deeply impacted our families, more so than many other families in the region," Kamras said. "I think to deny the impact of that frankly would be a disservice to our kids and families.”
It's a trend seen across the country.
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, dubbed the nation's report card, American 9-year-olds' performance in reading and math plummeted between 2020 and 2022.
In fact, scores revealed that today's children are performing at the same level in math as they did in 1999. And in reading, their scores fell back to the performance level of 2004.
The results led to U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona penning an op-ed in USA Today pointing to "profound impacts of the pandemic on youth."
"While NAEP scores were not increasing before March 2020, these results show that we cannot be complacent about accelerating our students’ academic outcomes," Cardona wrote. "This data should serve as a further call to action for states, districts and communities to use [American Rescue Plan] funds quickly, effectively and on strategies we know work. We must raise the bar for our students now and use the resources we have to meet that bar. We must recognize this moment for the urgency it carries: Our students – and the progress of our country – depend on it."
Democratic Congressman Donald McEachin, who represents all of the City of Richmond, said he was also concerned about the outcomes of student achievement in the latest batch of SOL scores.
While congress directed about $190 billion in COVID-19 relief funding to school districts across the country, McEachin said the government should eliminate red tape on how federal funds can be used.
“Make sure that we're providing the resources and the funding that localities and states need but that we're not putting burdens on them in the process of giving them that funding," McEachin said Thursday. "So that they're able to use those funds in a way that helps their unique communities and that we're not trying to institute one-size-fits-all all across the country, because that's an impossibility."
State and local funding make up about 90% of financial resources for public schools, but McEachin said he supports opportunities for the feds to step in when it comes to investing in improving school infrastructure.
For a district like RPS, with ten buildings that are more than a century old and mounting work orders that maintenance teams struggle to keep up with, extra assistance would be welcomed.
During a May interview on the Gary Flowers Show, Kamras explained about half of the district's 50 facilities need to be rebuilt and about ten more need major renovations. He said the district would need at least $1 billion to complete necessary work to facilities but the funding isn't available.
“We (federal government) can be involved with school construction, not with the actual bricks and mortar, but providing the funding for school construction, because more modern buildings means modern technology, which means better outcomes, which means better scores," McEachin said.
McEachin expressed confidence that the funding exists to invest in aging schools but questioned if Congress would prioritize it.
"The question is -- will there ever be enough political will? We can get the money together. We need to get the political will together, and from this legislator's point of view, I have the will. We just need to get it done," he said.
Depend on CBS 6 News and WTVR.com for in-depth coverage of this important story. Anyone with more information can email newstips@wtvr.com to send a tip.
