These requirements address the problem of promoting students before they are academically ready. The requirements must also meet the demand of Virginia's business community in that all high school graduates have demonstrated ability in essential skills, such as reading, writing, and math. Second, the State Board of Education believed it would not be fair to hold only a school's students accountable for academic achievement. The school must be held accountable to students, parents, taxpayers, and employers. Schools with students not passing the minimum learning standards can lost their accreditation.
Consequences occur at both the student level and the school level.
For individual schools, the ongoing accreditation of a school by the Commonwealth of Virginia is based on a designated percentage of students passing the test. However, in order to give students, parents, and schools time to adjust to the sweeping nature of the reform, the Board of Education decided to phase in this requirement as well. No individual school can lose its accreditation because of poor performance by its students on the SOL tests until the 2006-2007 academic year. The new Standards of Learning tests have raised the bar for academic proficiency several notches. When performance expectations and measurements are increased, there is an initial lull or adjustment period while students and teachers focus on the new criteria for instruction.