CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Albemarle County Public Schools improved in most of Virginia’s Standards of Learning (SOL) tests last year, while Charlottesville City Schools showed major improvement in history, math and science, according to data released by the Virginia Department of Education in late August.

ACPS’s pass rates showed improvement in all five subject areas, with the biggest gain being a 4.5-point increase in the writing pass rate, from 75.2% in 2024-25 to 79.7% in 2025-26. CCS’s biggest division-wide improvement came in history and social studies, which jumped 9.6 points from 58.8% the prior year to 68.4%.

In the county, history improved 2.6 points from 72.1% to 74.7%, mathematics improved 1.6 points from 74% to 75.6%, reading improved 1.3 points from 75.3% to 76.6% and science saw a modest 0.7-point increase from 70% to 70.7%.

While the division made improvements across the board, ACPS spokesperson Jason Grant told Cville Right Now the “big news” is that the division is currently outpacing the statewide passing rates. Across the Commonwealth, 74.5% of students passed their reading SOLs, 75.5% passed writing, 69.6% passed history, 72.9% passed math, and 70.9% passed science.

“The state of Virginia as a whole had improvements,” Grant said. “But we outpace the state across the board. So, that’s good that we’re moving the right direction, there.”

In the city, the pass rate in math increased by about 2.8% from 66.8% the prior year to 69.5%. Science jumped 2.5% from 57.6% to 60.1%. Reading took a slight 0.3% dip from 66.9% to 66.6%, and while CCS did not report the pass rate for writing, VDOE data listed it as below 50% in 2025-26 and 2024-25.

CCS Director of Assessment and Accountability Carolyn Swift highlighted the division’s improvements in math in particular. The division hit its goal of a 70% pass rate in math, representing a strong improvement from just five years ago, when the division had only 55% of students pass their math SOLs.

“So, we have seen a 15-point increase in our math over the past five years, which is huge,” she told Cville Right Now.

Swift also highlighted that this increase in math has come despite the state standards for the subject, as well as the standards in English, changing in the last few years, with the new tests first being administered in spring of 2025.

“The SOLs have increased in their rigor and the types of questions they’re asking,” Swift said. “So, in the face of all of that, we are continuing to see gains.”

In the county, one of the biggest areas of focus has been the elimination of achievement gaps, with the division making major strides toward that goal. Black and Hispanic students made major gains in all five subject areas, with the biggest jumps coming in the writing pass rate for Black students, from 42.9% in 2024-25 to 55.9% (a 13-point increase), and in math for Hispanic students, from 52.2% to 57.3% (5.1-point increase).

Black students also narrowed the gap with White students’ scores in all five subject areas, with the largest decrease coming in writing, from a 44.3% difference to 35% (9.3-point decrease). The gap between White and Hispanic students decreased in reading, math and science, with the biggest decrease coming in math, from 33.9% to 29.1% (4.8-point decrease).

Grant credited the closing of these gaps to the division’s focus on providing consistent application of the curriculum across all schools, ensuring all students are receiving quality instruction.

“I think that consistency of quality education across the division will consistently be sort of a North Star for us,” he said.

The achievement gaps in the city are something Swift said the division is “not shying away from.” She said the division has kept its focus on the black student population, which saw improvements this year in its pass rates in history, math and science with a small dip in reading, but the population finished with under 50% passing in all five major subject areas.

Swift also highlighted specific areas of growth from CCS’s Black students, including, among other gains, a 14.6% gain in Grade 3 reading from last year and a 13.3% gain in Algebra I over the past three years.

Swift said these gains tell her the division has strategies in places that are working, and it next needs to “continue to focus on that growth, build on that progress, but then also replicate that in some of the other areas.”

When Swift presented the data to the Charlottesville School Board during its Sept. 3 meeting, one of the things that was discussed that stuck out to her was getting more community partners involved to help extend learning beyond the school day and find ways to strengthen the efforts already happening in CCS.

“It’s a community thing, so we need to get everybody involved, and families and different partnerships,” she said. “So, we’re looking at different ways we can bring that in.”

For ACPS, Grant said the focus this upcoming year will be on continuing to implement its instructional materials as well as continuing its professional development for students.

“What these scores indicate is having the quality instruction, implementing that instruction, working with our staff to make sure we learn from each other and we learn how to implement curriculum consistently across the school division, that’s showing that that’s having a positive effort on student achievement and learning, so we’re going to continue to lean into that,” he said.