Interpreting Virginia Growth Assessment Data
Heidi Gilman Bennett
Most students in grades 3-8 took the "Virginia Growth Assessment" in reading and math. Parents and guardians received a hard-to-decipher letter from ACPS after the fall 2022 testing, and should receive another letter after the winter 2023 testing window ends on Jan 17.
What is this test? It's a relatively new computer-adaptive test, shorter than the SOLs, designed to show how students are progressing against grade-level expectations.
Why should you pay attention? When the fall results were shared, your kid's scores ("vertical scaled score") were shown, but didn't help you understand how your kid compared to how other students are doing. Now you can compare Fall 2022 scores!
Here's what you can see:
For math, is my kid performing in the highest 25% of students in the state? In the lowest 25% of students in the state? Somewhere in the middle?
Same for reading.
Important things to know:
There are no "passing" or "failing" scores...that's just for spring SOLs.
You should see growth in learning from fall to winter. In the fall, students were seeing questions for content they hadn't yet been taught.
Students may have seen some test questions one year above or below their grade level... this helps teachers get useful info for planning instruction.
If your kid is taking high school-level math, they didn't take the math test.
Right now, these scores aren't "predictive" of performance on spring SOLs, but other divisions are working on "growth targets" and other resources.
And YET... if your kid is scoring in the lowest 25th percentile, that's important information! Our recommendations:
Email your kid's teacher and principal saying you noticed.
Ask for a meeting with your kid's teacher(s). Ask again if you don't get a response in a few days.
When you request the meeting, respectfully ask for additional test scores and relevant data including attendance and behavior.
At the meeting, ask for the "reading intervention plan required by HB410" for every student not meeting benchmarks and/or the "intervention plan" more broadly.
Additional questions and tips available here.
And if your needs aren't being met, it's time to get INVOLVED in advocacy to change the system for your kid and many others.
Be a partner in education with your child's teacher.