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Board hears progress report on ELA standards and Virginia Literacy Act implementation
Summary
Virginia Department of Education staff reported on statewide rollout of 2024 ELA Standards of Learning and first-year implementation of the Virginia Literacy Act, covering resources, professional development, and federal grant programs supporting tutoring and screening.
The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) presented an extended update to the Board of Education May 20 on the implementation of the 2024 English standards of learning (ELA SOLs) and first-year rollout of the Virginia Literacy Act (VLA), outlining statewide supports, professional learning, and federal grant-funded tutoring and screening work.
Why it matters: The ELA standards and the Virginia Literacy Act together shape early literacy screening, the required division literacy plans, curriculum adoption and tutoring supports for thousands of Virginia students. The department’s actions — on screening, instructional guidance, and partnerships with vendors for tutoring — shape how divisions allocate resources and prepare teachers for the coming school year.
Key details from the department’s report: - Timeline and resources: VDOE distributed “understanding the standards” documents, grade-level crosswalks and instructional guides in 2024 and 2025, held regional symposiums, hosted webinars (several hundred to more than 800 participants), and released digital instructional guides with progressions and sample text sets to support vertical alignment. - Textbook and HQIM adoption: The state completed a secondary textbook adoption process and posted correlation reports for divisions; VDOE staff said a broader high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) adoption pathway will provide further adoption options and rollout supports for divisions. - Tutoring and interventions: The department described partnerships with vendor tutoring programs (Lexia and Ignite) under federal relief/ESSER-authorized supports, noting weekly coordination and division site visits, and that the department had successfully obtained an extension (appeal) to continue funding tutoring for an additional year through late-liquidation ESSER funds. - Federal comprehensive literacy grant (CLSD): VDOE is in year 1 of a five-year U.S. Department of Education CLSD grant to support 90 schools through three learning networks (Just Right Readers, Students with Disabilities Learning Network, and an English Learner learning network); an end-of-year evaluation will be available in August 2025. - Screening and data: VDOE and Virginia Literacy Partnerships (VLP, UVA) rolled out a new early screening system (VALS/Virginia Language and Literacy Screener) for pre-K to grade 3 on the VA Connects platform. The report noted fall-to-midyear reductions in the percentage of children classified “high risk” in K–2 and explained the system’s instructional indicators and reporting options for division- and school-level use. - Professional learning and credentials: The department and VLP reported tens of thousands of enrollments in online courses aligned to evidence-based literacy instruction, training and coaching supports for reading specialists and elementary principals, and an online reading specialist micro-credential with hundreds enrolled and several dozen completers.
Board questions and context: Members asked about timing (textbooks and full impact will take multiple years), sustainability of one-time funds (All In and ESSER late-liquidation plans limit future funding beyond 2026 without new appropriations), accuracy/timeliness of vendor and student outcome reports, and differences among tutoring vendors. VDOE staff said more division-level outcome reporting will be available later in the summer and offered to provide deeper analysis on vendor performance metrics to board members.
What the transcript does not show: The presentation described many ongoing programs but did not present comprehensive student-level SOL outcome data for the 2024–25 school year (those are typically available after testing windows and VDOE’s analysis). Staff said additional, division-level reports and an August 2025 evaluation of CLSD year‑one outcomes will be shared with the board and field.
Next steps: VDOE will continue summer and fall professional learning, roll out the statewide walkthrough tool pilots, refine instructional guides based on teacher feedback, and provide additional evaluation reports (including end-of-year and CLSD grant data) in August and subsequent meetings.
