Suffolk Public Schools administration is pleased with the improvements seen in the Virginia Department of Education’s report on SOL test scores for the 2017-2018 school year.

“As a school division, we are always on a journey toward continuous improvement. We are excited to see the progress that many of our schools have made, particularly those that were not fully accredited last year and have achieved accreditation status this year,” said Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Dr. LaToya Harrison.

Suffolk saw small improvements in SOL tests in some subject areas for the school year, but those numbers are still below the state’s results.

While Suffolk as a division did decline in some subjects, their results mirror a decline that happened across the state.

Writing and science pass rates rose for the entire division compared to last year’s results, but history and math saw three-point declines from the previous year. Reading stayed the same.

“That said, while we are proud of the progress that schools have made in different areas, we realize we have more work to do,” Harrison said. “Our teachers, administrators and central office staff work strategically to provide a quality education to all students, and we believe these efforts will lead to improved outcomes for student.”

The same decline can be seen in the state’s SOL results. Every category — reading, writing, math, science and history — all declined by at least a single point, but no category dropped by more than two points.

SOL test results are reported by student subgroups, including those split along racial and gender lines as well as students with disabilities, students who are economically disadvantaged and those with limited English proficiency.

The numbers show there is still a significant achievement gap between black and white students in Suffolk.

The most apparent gap in achievement is in mathematics and writing, where there is a difference of 18 percentage points between the two sets of children.

The gap continues when looking at students that are economically disadvantaged.

In these subsections of results, major progress can be seen with pass rates, especially with students placed in the economically disadvantaged category.

The writing scores jumped a substantial seven percentage points for economically disadvantaged students.

The school division is making strides to close this gap with the use of grant programs to offer remediation and better involve parents into their student’s academic work.

As of the new school year, the state will no longer look solely at SOL results to decide the fate of public schools’ accreditation status. They will look at more categories such as student engagement, dropout rate, achievement gaps and more.

“We also appreciate that schools are being evaluated in a more comprehensive manner. We believe this paints a more complete picture of a school than just SOL pass rates,” Harrison said.