ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Alexandria City Public Schools students improved on every Standards of Learning subject test last school year, and in history and social sciences the division now passes at a higher rate than Virginia as a whole, according to results the Virginia Department of Education released Tuesday.
Alexandria’s history pass rate rose from 61.9% to 71.2% — a 9.3-point gain, nearly three times the statewide improvement of 3.2 points in that subject. It is the only subject in which the division outperforms the state, and the shift is recent: Alexandria trailed Virginia in history in each of the two prior years.
History SOLs are given in fewer grades than reading or math. Alexandria students took about 2,200 history tests last year, against roughly 8,000 each in reading and math…