Manassas City presents 2024–25 SOL results; officials outline targeted school-level interventions

Manassas City Public Schools released 2024–25 Standards of Learning (SOL) pass rates and chronic absenteeism figures during the school board’s meeting, and district staff described a multi-pronged response focused on strengthening instruction, expanding coaching and targeting supports at individual schools.

The presentation opened with Jennifer Casada, executive director of accountability and finance, summarizing statewide context from the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE): new reading and math standards and assessments are “more rigorous” and require students to show deeper reasoning. Casada said the change required students to demonstrate “30 to 40 percent more content” in reading and math to pass the new SOLs. Craig Gafeller, deputy superintendent, outlined the district’s response emphasizing tier 1 instruction, additional coaching and school-level reorganizations to provide more instructional monitoring and targeted interventions.

Why it matters: the VDOE changes altered the baseline for statewide comparisons, and the board’s aspirational target — 80 percent passing in reading and math — was set under previous standards. Casada stressed that the target remains…