Starting in the 2026-2027 school year, the cut scores for Virginia’s Standards of Learning (SOL) assessments will increase. While details surrounding the implementation remain uncertain, and as inconsistencies trickle down through departments, one thing is clear: students, families, and educators need to brace for the new changes. 

The increase in SOL cut scores is part of a larger plan devised by the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) to raise expectations in the Virginia K-12 education system. According to the VDOE, “By modifying cut scores, the Board ensures that ‘proficient’ reflects the skills and knowledge students need to be ready for success in college, career-ready, or in military pathways after high school.”

Implementation

The biggest change to SOLs is the increase in cut scores, which is the minimum score a student has to earn in order to pass the exam. While students in the past years could earn around a 400 and pass the exam, that benchmark will no longer be sufficient starting next year. Additionally, pending legislation may also change SOLs scores to a 100 point system that will be worth 10% of a student’s final grade.

The immediate implementation of higher benchmarks for SOLs sparked concerns and debate among stakeholders, including parents, teachers, school board members, and community members who were concerned about the new, challenging standards for students, leading the state to create a four-year phase-in plan, which gradually increases cut scores over four years.

“We were really nervous in September that [SOL revisions] would directly impact [current students], and [they] would have been scored with one set of cut scores last year and a new set with any SOLs [they] took this year, and for students who have to repeat an SOL, that just seems extremely unfair,” LCPS Chief Academic Officer Ashley Ellis said. “I can’t even rationalize that to a family, so I think the state got that feedback loud and clear from districts across Virginia and backed off. That’s why this year is a planning year and why they’ve added an approaching percentage to really slow roll it over the next four years.” 

The current 2025-26 school year will be a preparation year with the passing/proficient score remaining 400. At the start of the 2026-27 school year, new cut scores will be implemented along with a temporary “approaching” level performance, with this score range counting as passing on all reading and math SOLs, to recognize student growth towards proficiency. This approaching score range shrinks each year and will be removed for the 2029-2030 school year. 

This new passing score will not affect students needing to retake SOLs they have failed this year, and students who have already met verified credit requirements will not be required to take additional assessments.  

Why Change?: Raising Expectations (And Stress)

The VDOE implemented these changes for the betterment of education in Virginia – but does raising expectations in Virginia necessitate raising expectations at Loudoun County and at Rock Ridge? 

According to assessment data from the VDOE, showcasing the pass rates of students for the past three school years, Rock Ridge has outperformed Loudoun County and Virginia averages for the reading and writing SOLs yet has underperformed in the Algebra 1 and Geometry SOLs, with lower pass rates than both the county and state. 

While it appears from these statistics that Rock Ridge is underperforming on the math tests, math teacher and Math Department Chair John Riddell does not believe that raising cut scores is what students need to improve. 

“I don’t think [this change] was necessary,” Riddell said. “I think back when I was in high school, the passing rate was still 400. This 425 [cut score] is completely new to me. I was not expecting it to change, [and] I don’t think the students at Rock Ridge need this change.”

English teacher Sara Watkins agrees and believes that changes to the cut scores won’t actually solve the problem the state is attempting to address. “Change is necessary, [but] every change is not necessarily good,” Watkins said. “To me, just raising the cut scores is not the right change. Why are we so worried about the cut scores? And why can’t we actually focus on the actual targeted interventions to support students in the first place? It’s not that we don’t provide interventions, but if the state is so worried about our graduates and their levels of being able to read, simply raising the cut scores isn’t going to cut it when it comes to actually getting those levels up.”

For the county as a whole, Ellis also does not believe these were changes necessary for Loudoun County, which has outperformed the state in every SOL offered for the past several years. 

“LCPS performs above average across Virginia, and I can say just from having been here a while, we typically outperform the state in reading and math and our other comparison divisions,” Ellis said. “I don’t think the cut scores are a change that is needed in Loudoun, and I guess I don’t know if it’s needed in the state, but I definitely don’t think it’s needed in Loudoun. I’m confident in the teaching that our teachers provide.” 

Despite Ellis’s confidence in LCPS’ instructional standards, pass rates may dip in the opening years of the roll out. The main concern for teachers and administrators is the fact that students who usually score around the 400 range may end up failing with the new cut scores. 

Their concerns are reflected in data provided by Ellis, which revealed the hypothetical pass rates for LCPS with the new cut scores at the end of the four year implementation. The SOL pass rates are projected to decrease 40.26% for reading, 40.83% for Algebra 1, and 41.3% for Geometry. 

These low pass rate projections mirror the concerns of some teachers at Rock Ridge, who are concerned about increased fail rates. “As an Algebra 1 teacher, I’ve seen a lot of students get in that four hundred to four twenty-five range, and they would go from passing now to failing and having to retake it,” Riddell said. “Do I think that having a higher expectation for students is better? Yeah, but I think it needs to be more gradual, and I really think that if we are to try and help students make that jump from four hundred to four twenty-five, I would need more resources as a teacher.” 

As of March 2026, updated practice exams aligned with the new standards haven’t been released on the VDOE website. 

Additionally, teachers have voiced concerns about increased student anxiety with this new bar being set for SOLs. “I am worried for students who are unable to pass this year,” Watkins said. “I guess what I hate is that the stress on students now is a lot. It’s only gonna be increased as the cut scores increase. I do worry for the student’s emotional states, because thinking about that societal pressure, that’s what the cut scores are an illustration of, and I hate that kind of pressure that we put on students.”  

Sophomore Roma Rudrakshala is already feeling that added pressure in anticipation of meeting next year’s new cut scores. “I feel like there’s so many more ways to go about this, and I feel like SOLs are something that have been constant for a very long period of time, so I feel like it’s just changing how people feel about these tests and their pressure.”

Freshman Veera Katoch is also worried about potentially failing the SOL. “I think it would be a lot more stressful and harder to pass, and I think it’s just adding on to the stress that’s already there,” Katoch said. “I just think that the SOL determines how much you learned in the whole year, and I feel like if I don’t get a good score, then I didn’t learn anything, and if the cut scores get higher, I might even fail, which is even worse.”

Yet, some teachers who prepare students for standardized tests regularly don’t find the new changes entirely problematic. “Our foundation is [that students] have to believe in themselves regardless of what they do,” reading specialist Chrissy Gates said. “And a score is just a number, but [students] don’t reflect a number. I think in general, expecting students to be excellent in subject areas, no matter what number you put on it, is always a good thing. It’s always going to have a positive impact because it not only says, ‘We believe in you, students,’ but it says, ‘We believe in you, teachers,’ and it creates a positive growth mindset.” 

However, what teachers and students are supposed to be preparing for exactly–and to what extent–remains murky.

Communicating Uncertainty 

Unclear communication seems to be a recurring theme among these changes, with a lapse of information coming from the state. While a plan has been created, no one really seems to know how it will unfold. 

This current 2025-2026 school year is labeled as a preparation year, and the VDOE listed several resources that would be provided this year to support students, families, and educators. These include providing clear guidance on verified credits for graduation, distributing instructional resources, giving school districts time to develop additional personalized support materials, offering more professional development for educators, and supplying communication materials to help schools inform parents and the community about the changes. 

However, with the school year over halfway finished, the school and county have not yet received the expected material.

“Those resources have not been provided by VDOE at this time, which is another reason that I don’t feel comfortable communicating with teachers just yet, because I don’t have those resources that have been promised by VDOE,” Ellis said. “It’s kind of radio silence. The last we heard was in December before the winter break that the board approved the final cut scores and that this year would be a planning year.”

Although Testing Coordinator Kathryn Blessing feels confident that the county will be able to manage these changes, she still hopes for more communication from the state in regard to the reasoning behind the revisions. “I guess I wish I knew why those score ranges and why those cut scores [are being implemented],” Blessing said. “I also think it’s a little bit unclear about how this benefits students and families, and I feel like that would be a great thing to start off for general communication – like here’s the reason why it was done.”

According to Ellis, official communication to families will most likely go out in the fall, when they start the year of implementation, and in the summer for teachers, after she receives information from the state. 

However, as the next school year inches closer, some teachers at Rock Ridge are worried they do not have enough time or resources to adequately prepare themselves and their students for the upcoming changes. 

“[The resources we’re given are] never enough,” Watkins said. “We could have all the best examples; they could give me literal work to give the students but anything that we get as a resource, even the most helpful resources as a teacher, we have to adapt it, not only for our own way we teach, but also for the students that we have in front of us. It all comes down to time. For me, my comfort level might be probably two years. Let me see the standards. Let me kind of let them simmer in my brain, start to roll them out, and incorporate them into the way I teach.”

In addition to needing more time, some teachers believe that having access to more resources from the state will allow them to better support their students for the new revisions. 

“In the past, for other SOLs, they would always release last year’s SOL to help us prepare for this year,” Riddell said. “They haven’t been doing that recently, and we used to rely on JLABS, [but] they got rid of that, so we have a lot less resources than I thought. The only other resource that we’ve really been given is TestNav, but there are only about forty-two sample questions for Algebra 1 that we can refer back to, and they’re good questions, but I would love more practice.” 

Watkins feels that without adequate resources being provided, it will become increasingly difficult to support her students in the coming years. “What it really comes down to is that there are a lot of students, and there are a number of students who could use more targeted support, and that’s what we’re not getting more of necessarily,” Watkins said. “It feels to me like we’re still working with the same level of support we’ve had, and so this year, the cut scores are remaining the same, but next year is going to be a problem. It really feels like [there] needs to be a more coordinated effort, probably across multiple levels and departments, in order to get the other resource support.”

The Road Ahead

According to Deputy Superintendent of Student Outcomes & School Quality of VDOE Tiara Booker-Dwyer, the current legislative section includes several bills that may impact the rollout of the SOL revisions that have been proposed. “Executive Order 4 directs a statewide listening tour and the convening of an Innovative Assessment Workgroup,” Booker-Dwyer said. “The outcome of these efforts may inform future decisions related to assessments.” 

As of March 21, The VDOE didn’t respond to follow up questions from The Blaze, preferring to refrain from comment until after the mandated listening tour. 

According to the executive order, the listening tour will most likely conclude in April, and final decisions from the state on the implementation process can only be made after. 

House Bill 1957 has also proposed further changes to the SOL, including changing it to a 100-point scale, making it worth 10% of a student’s final grade in the class, and administering it the last two weeks of school. However, these changes are not yet finalized. 

“When seeking an update on the implementation status of this legislation, VDOE’s student assessment staff shared that portions require enactment by the 2026 General Assembly, which may result in potential changes; thus, there is no finalized implementation direction available for districts at this time,” LCPS Supervisor of Assessments Services Leigh Bennett said. 

Despite the uncertainty and anxiety surrounding the new standards, Rock Ridge faculty don’t seem to equate success with a single number. “I think to quell people’s worries and just prevent unnecessary anxiety, I think Rock Ridge is always going to do what’s best for students,” Blessing said. “We’ve never obsessed about single SOL scores. Certainly, SOL scores are part of a student’s educational profile and history, but I do think that if you’re teaching students and not teaching to the test, the cut scores kind of blend into the background.”

This story was originally published on The Blaze on March 21, 2026.