Reading of the area schools’ overall improvements in Standards of Learning was a relief akin to a cool breeze on a hot day.

For starters, the Virginia Department of Education noted that in the commonwealth there was a one percent uptick — about 11,500 students — in the number of students passing exams in math, reading and science as compared to last year. That might not seem like an impressive number, but the fact that there was an increase is encouraging.

Locally and more importantly, Southampton and Isle of Wight county schools are expected to be fully accredited. Franklin High School is also expected to be fully accredited, though S.P. Morton Elementary and J.P. King Jr. Middle schools could again see only partial accreditation; the official results will be announced by VDOE next month around this time.

How then can the latter two sites hope to see better scores? It’s not a turnaround that can be accomplished in a single school year. We think that only when parents make a dedicated contribution to their own children’s education, will everyone benefit. Two examples are reading aloud with their sons and daughters, and helping them to identify numbers, shapes and colors, etc. These can go a long way to ensure their children are ready and, no less important, eager to learn.

Logically, it seems, a child prepared for school on day one can go on to greater learning and thereby earn higher scores for everyone.

In the meantime, we trust that Franklin High and the other two school systems will not rest on their proverbial laurels, but continue to find ways to better educate their respective students. Then everyone can look forward to even higher scores.