Virginia students continued to struggle to meet national proficiency standards based on results in the recently released 2024 data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Reading scores remained stagnant among Virginia’s fourth graders while math scores slightly increased. Among Virginia’s eighth graders, scores in both reading and math declined.
Every two years, NAEP tracks the nation’s fourth and eighth graders’ proficiency in reading and math in the largest nationally representative assessment of student progress.
Only 31% of Virginia’s fourth graders were proficient in reading and 40% in math on the national assessment in 2024. For eighth graders, only 29% were proficient in both reading and math.
Parents, most of whom only read reports from the state’s Standards of Learning (SOL) assessment, will be shocked by this data showing such low rates of reading and math proficiency in Virginia. On the 2024 SOL, 73% of Virginia’s fourth graders were proficient in reading and 72% of eighth graders. In math, the 2024 SOL showed 71% of fourth graders were proficient and 63% of eighth grader.

How does such a discrepancy exist?
Virginia’s “proficient” standards in reading on the SOL align to “below basic” on the national assessment. This means a failure to display even partial mastery of the knowledge and skills that are fundamental for work at grade level are deemed “proficient” using Virginia’s standards. Virginia is one of only two states to have its “proficient” standard in reading align with “below basic” performance on the national assessment. Its math standards are only a little better — aligning with “basic” on NAEP, or partial mastery of the skills needed for grade level proficiency.
Many argue the proficiency standards set for the national assessment by the National Assessment Governing Board are too high a bar and above what most states hold to be grade level proficient. But arguing over the loftiness of NAEP’s standards ignores the greater issue at hand.
“You will hear that NAEP ‘proficient’ is too high a bar and not a good proxy for the ability to read with comprehension,” said Robert Pondiscio, senior fellow at American Enterprise Institute. “A fair point as far as it goes, but I defy you to find me a single parent comfortable with her child reading at ‘below basic’ level.”
The 2024 Nation’s Report Card revealed 42% of Virginia fourth graders and 34% of eighth graders were reading below basic level on the national assessment. That means more than one-in-three Virginia students could not show even partial mastery of the reading skills necessary for grade level proficiency. In math, 24% of fourth graders and 37% of eighth graders scored below basic.
Since 2019, the last national assessment before the pandemic interrupted learning, the percent of Virginia students scoring below basic on the NAEP has increased each year, except in fourth grade math which slightly decreased this year after a 12 percentage point jump between 2019 and 2022.

The continued increase in the rate of Virginia students scoring below basic on the NAEP is a reason for concern for Virginia parents who ought to have confidence in their schools to provide a quality education which prepares their children for academic success. It also amplifies Governor Youngkin’s concerns over the inadequacy of Virginia’s academic standards and school accountability measures.
In 2022, Governor Youngkin called for higher expectations for students and greater transparency and accountability in the school system. The governor’s efforts seek to remediate previous decisions made by former Democratic governors, like former Governor Terry McAuliffe who lowered accreditation standards and required students to take fewer tests, and former Governor Ralph Northam whose department of education lowered proficiency benchmarks in reading and math in 2020.
Governor Youngkin and the Virginia Department of Education exposed the state’s “honesty gap” in a 2022 report outlining the Governor and board’s commitment to pursue high expectations and academic excellence for all students. The “honesty gap” denotes the discrepancy between student proficiency standards on state reading and math assessments and the grade-level proficiency benchmarks on the NAEP. Virginia maintained a significant “honesty gap” in 2024, with 31% of Virginia fourth graders and 29% of eighth graders proficient in reading on the NAEP, compared to 73% and 72%, respectively, on the 2024 state fourth- and eighth-grade SOL reading tests. This equates to a 42 point honesty gap in reading proficiency.
Governor Youngkin’s new school accountability system, called the School Performance and Support Framework, provides more transparent and understandable reporting to parents and stakeholders on how students and different student groups are growing towards and mastering grade level expectations, how schools are performing and what supports are needed to ensure students and schools are succeeding.
A December poll by the Thomas Jefferson Institute found registered voters nearly unanimously support a more transparent school accountability framework which offers more insight to parents about how well their child and local school are performing.
While Virginia’s concerning performance on the national assessment ought to rally further support for the governor’s reforms to the school accountability system, democrats in the Virginia General Assembly filed two companion bills this January to delay the implementation of the revised school accountability system. As discussed by Thomas Jefferson Institute President Derrick Max, the senate bill, introduced by Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D-Richmond), would require a “delay” in the implementation of the Youngkin administration’s new school accountability system to allow time to make significant unneeded revisions despite the system having just been approved by President Biden’s U.S. Department of Education in January.
Virginians deserve a transparent and accountable public education system that ensures schools provide an excellent education and struggling students receive the support they deserve. This is especially important as significant achievement gaps persist between Virginia’s least and most advantaged students, and as most of Virginia’s students continue to struggle to meet the nation’s proficiency standards.
Hannah Schmid is an education analyst with the Illinois Policy Institute and a Visiting Fellow at the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. She can be reached at hannah@thomasjeffersoninst.org.