Parent & Caregiver Resources for Virginia Assessments

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Family Supports

Visit the Family Supports web page, part of the Road to Readiness School Performance and Support Framework Resource Hub, for resources to help parents support their child’s learning from home in math, reading, and science.

Standards of Learning (SOL) Test Parent Report and Video

These two resources provide parents information about their child’s achievement on SOL tests completed in fall 2024.

Fall 2024 SOL: Student Detail by Question Video Overview (YouTube video)

This short video provides an overview of the information included in each section of the Student Detail by Question reports in fall 2024. Student Detail by Question reports include a brief description of each test question on an SOL test and whether the question was answered correctly or incorrectly. This report provides the most specific information available for an SOL test. Student Detail by Question reports may be obtained directly from your child's school.

The Parent Report for SOL Tests and Virginia Growth Assessments

The Parent Report (view a sample report) is available through your child's school. It gives additional information about your child's performance on the Virginia Growth Assessments and on Standards of Learning (SOL) tests.

Virginia Growth Assessments in math and reading are taken in the fall and winter, and school divisions decide whether to use these growth assessments or a different assessment to measure progress during the year. SOL tests are taken near the end of the school year or near the end of a semester-long course.

You can ask your child's school for the Parent Report for each Virginia Growth Assessment and SOL test your child completes. You can use this report along with the Student Detail by Question report (also available through your child's school), teacher input, classroom work, and report cards for a better picture of your child's progress and achievement.

More resources, including tips about conversations with your child's teacher(s) and ideas to support your child's learning from home, are available on the Parent Resources: Assessment page.

Resources for the Parent Report

What Parents Need to Know About Literacy can help parents learn more about the Virginia Literacy Act (VLA). (Spanish version: What Parents Need to Know About Literacy)

Parent Teacher Planning Tool can help facilitate conversations with your child's teacher. (Spanish version: Parent Teacher Planning Tool)

Please visit the Parent Resources page of the VDOE website for more information and resources designed to help parents advocate for and support their child's education.

Questions to Ask Your Child’s Teacher About Reading

Whether your child is a book worm or needs more support, summer reading is essential to keep them on track. Here are questions to ask your child’s teacher as well as tips and resources to help you learn more.

Questions to Ask Your Child’s
Teacher About Math

Math skills are essential for life– including daily tasks, problem-solving, creativity, career options and more. Here are questions to ask your child’s teacher as well as tips and resources to support math at home.

Resources to Support Students

Engaged parents and caregivers are a critical part of a child’s successful learning experiences. Reading with students and talking about what is being read is important to the development of strong readers. Talking about and doing math within the family is a great way to engage students and encourage success. Some of the many online resources available for reading, mathematics, science, and history and social science are provided to help parents and caregivers support their children and continue their learning at home.

Understanding Virginia Growth Assessment Scores

A Virginia Growth Assessment score, also called a Vertical Scaled Score, is one piece of information in the Parent Report and the Student Detail by Question reports for the Virginia Growth Assessments.

Resources for 2024-2025 Virginia Growth Assessment scores in reading and math have been developed for parents:

Interpreting the Student Detail by Question Report

The most detailed, individualized score report available for a Virginia assessment your child has completed is called the Student Detail by Question Report, or SDBQ Report. You can ask your child's school for these reports.

Two resources are available to assist with understanding these reports:

This short video gives an overview of the Student Detail by Question reports for SOL tests completed in fall 2024. Student Detail by Question reports describe each test question on an SOL test (or Virginia Growth Assessment) and tell if the question was answered correctly or incorrectly. You can ask your child's school for the Student Detail by Question report.
The Overview of the SDBQ Report (PDF) is available to help understand and use the Student Detail by Question Report.

Virginia Growth Assessments

Virginia Growth Assessments are computer adaptive tests, shorter than the Standards of Learning tests, that were developed in grades 3-8 reading and mathematics as a result of legislation passed in the 2021 Virginia General Assembly. These growth assessments are made of test questions aligned to the Standards of Learning. All test questions on Virginia Growth Assessments have been reviewed by Virginia teachers, tried out with Virginia students, and accepted for use on the growth assessments.

Beginning with the second year of implementation (2022-2023) and beyond, the legislation requires that the grades 3-8 reading and mathematics growth assessments be administered to students once in the fall and once in the winter (mid-year) during the school year. In addition to the growth assessments, the SOL tests for grade 3-8 reading and mathematics will continue to be administered.

The fall Virginia Growth Assessments will focus on content from the student’s previous grade level. For example, a student taking Grade 5 math in the 2024-2025 school year will take a fall Virginia Growth Assessment focused on Grade 4 math content. The winter 2024-2025 Virginia Growth Assessments focus on content from the student's current grade level, giving priority to content taught first semester.

To meet requirements in the 2021 legislation, the computer adaptive test (CAT) allows a student to receive some test questions from below or above the current grade level. For example, students taking the Grade 5 Virginia Growth Assessment in math will mainly receive Grade 5 test questions; however, depending on the student’s responses to the on-grade-level test questions, the student may also receive some Grade 4 test questions or some Grade 6 test questions.

It may be helpful to know that the Grade 8 Virginia Growth Assessments for reading and math only include test questions that are at or below the 8th grade level since there are no above-grade-level items available in the current CAT test question banks. In addition, a student who meets the criteria for a paper test will only receive on-grade-level test questions.

Computer Adaptive Testing

A computer adaptive test, or CAT, is an assessment that is customized for every student. How a student responds to questions determines the difficulty of the next question. Correct responses lead to more difficult test questions, while incorrect responses result in the selection of less difficult items for the student.

Watch the videos to learn how computer adaptive testing provides students with a customized assessment experience.

A Guide to Computer Adaptive Testing

This video explains the basics of computer adaptive testing.

Computer Adaptive Testing in Virginia

This video provides information about computer adaptive testing in Virginia.