Poquoson City Public Schools Students Outpace State Across All Core SOL Subject Areas 

Poquoson City Public Schools (PCPS) students continued to outperform students across Virginia on the 2025–2026 Standards of Learning (SOL) assessments, exceeding statewide pass rates in reading, mathematics, science, history and social science, and writing.

 

Divisionwide, PCPS students outperformed the state by 7.7 percentage points in reading, 7.2 percentage points in mathematics, 10.4 percentage points in science, and 9.2 percentage points in history and social science. PCPS students also demonstrated particularly strong performance on several individual assessments, including Grade 8 Mathematics, Grade 8 Science, Civics and Economics, Biology, Algebra II, and Geometry. 

PCPS also saw notable year-over-year gains in History and Social Science. The division’s overall pass rate increased nearly 8 percentage points, from 70.9% in 2024–2025 to 78.8% in 2025–2026. World History I increased more than 16 percentage points, Civics and Economics increased more than 5 percentage points, and Virginia Studies increased more than 3 percentage points. PCPS students also continued to outperform the state in each of these areas, including by more than 18 percentage points in Civics and Economics and more than 10 percentage points in World History I.

Strong performance was also evident in other subject areas, with Algebra II achieving a 100% pass rate and Biology increasing to 91.6%, nearly 15 percentage points above the statewide pass rate.

“We are proud of the continued strong performance of our students and the work of our teachers and staff,” said Superintendent Arty Tillett. “While achievement remains strong across our division, we continue to look closely at our data to identify where students are growing and where additional support is needed. These results give us much to celebrate while also helping us remain focused on continuous improvement for every student.”

Several individual results demonstrate the strength of PCPS student performance compared with the Commonwealth. Grade 8 students achieved an 86.0% pass rate in mathematics compared with 62.5% statewide and an 89.5% pass rate in science compared with 66.5% statewide. In Civics and Economics, 91.6% of PCPS students passed compared with 73.3% statewide, while Biology students achieved a 91.6% pass rate compared with 77.0% statewide.

PCPS will continue to analyze student achievement and growth data to identify areas of strength and opportunities for improvement. As Virginia continues to implement more rigorous Standards of Learning with increased content expectations and greater complexity, the division remains focused on providing high-quality instruction and targeted support to ensure all students have opportunities to grow and achieve.

“As expectations for students continue to increase, these results reinforce the importance of strong instruction and responding intentionally to what our data tells us,” said Ashley Ide, Assistant Superintendent of Instruction and Support Services. “Our work now is to build on areas of strength while being purposeful about where additional support is needed. This includes a continued focus on improving outcomes for students with disabilities and ensuring our teachers have the tools, training, and support needed to meet a wide range of student needs.”

To support this work, PCPS has already taken intentional steps to strengthen specialized instruction and will continue to expand these efforts through targeted interventions, professional learning, staffing, and additional resources. This includes leveraging state and grant funding, such as the Comprehensive Literacy State Development grant; providing intentional and targeted training during pre-service; and making strategic staffing shifts within the special education program to better align personnel and services. Moving forward, PCPS will continue to evaluate and strengthen these supports to ensure students receiving services have access to the instruction, interventions, and resources necessary for success. 

The results released at this time reflect student performance on the 2025–2026 SOL assessments. More detailed information will be shared at our next School Board meeting alongside other instructional data. Later this fall, the Virginia Department of Education will release student growth measures and official results under the School Performance and Support Framework (SPSF), providing a more complete picture of student performance and progress and informing each school’s overall designation.