The amount of required verified credits that the class of 2022, has to take was reduced to five required verified credits in high school, with students only needing to earn one credit in English reading, English writing, Mathematics, Science, and History/Social Studies. The Standard diploma required six credits before this change and the Advanced diploma required nine.

The number of credits that students will have to take to receive an Standard diploma is 22 credits, and 26 credits for an Advanced diploma, will stay the same. The number of required verified credits, which you earn when you pass the course and the corresponding SOL test, other approved assessment, or an AP test, will be reduced to five for the Standard and Advanced diploma.

This decision was made by the The School Board to revise and update the Standards of Accreditation and develop the Profile of a Virginia Graduate. Julie Grimes, the Communications Manager for the Virginia Department of Education, said, “[This] outlines the knowledge, skills, competencies, and experiences students should attain during their K-12 education to make them “life-ready,” to be on a path to successful citizenship and participation in the evolving global economy.”

SOLs or Standards of Learning, are required tests that all students throughout Virginia must take. Grimes said, “SOL results inform parents and communities about whether students — as individuals and collectively — are meeting the commonwealth’s expectations for achievement in English, mathematics, science and history.” The SOLs also allow the Board of Education to identify which schools need more support.

The SOLs are a big part of the Virginia education system with 2,905,630 tests administered in 2016-2017 according to Charles Pyle, the Director of Communication at the Virginia Department of Education. Pyle also said, “In fiscal year 2017, $25,380,678 from the General Fund was provided to support the costs of contracts for test development, administration, scoring, and reporting as well as other program-related costs of the commonwealth’s assessment system.”

The Virginia Department of Education also made changes to the amount of SOLs that students have to take. In 2014, they eliminated five elementary and middle school SOL tests.

The Board of Education will be implementing substitute tests that students will take instead of the SOL. This will affect only the rising 9th graders. Jaclyn Smith the Director of School Counseling at Dominion High School, said, “There is an alternative to an SOL for social sciences called a performance based assessment that provide students the opportunity to demonstrate critical thinking, creativity, communication, collaboration, and citizenship.”