The FCCPS Virginia Assessment Parent Portal Resource Page

UPDATED Fall 2023 - Growth Assessment (GA) Frequently Asked Questions by FCCPS Families

NEW for Winter 2024: Updates to VDOE's Parent Reports and Resources.

Growth Assessments

The Virginia Department of Education continues to adjust the required assessment practices based on current legislation.

Purpose of Assessment and basic information: Throughout the school year students take Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) Growth Assessments so that teachers can collect data points for each student related to the Standards of Learning (SOL). This data helps schools ensure that students are progressing, and identifies learning gaps. FCCPS monitors these data points within the full International Baccalaureate instructional framework to make sure students are progressing at the appropriate pace. 

For additional detailed information, review Growth Assessment Frequently Asked Question by FCCPS Families , which provides answers to common questions from FCCPS.

Grades Taking the Assessment: Students in grades 3-8 take reading and math Growth Assessments. Seventh and eighth grade students enrolled  in credit-bearing classes such as Algebra I, Geometry do not take Growth Assessments.

Dates:During the 2022-23 school year and beyond, students in grades 3-8 will be tested in math and reading three times:  Fall Growth Assessment, Winter Growth Assessment, and the Standards of Learning (SOL) Assessment in the spring. Students in End of Course SOL classes (that provide credit towards graduation) do not take Growth Assessments.The specific date varies by course and grade. Fall Growth Assessments take place in late September – early October. Winter Growth Assessments are scheduled in December-January. SOL Assessments occur in the spring as in past years. Specific dates can be found on the FCCPS Assessment Calendar

What to expect during the assessment: Growth tests are given in school, typically online. Students use school-issued laptop computers. The VDOE modified the assessments to make them shorter in length. Most contain fewer than 25 questions, and take 60-120 minutes, depending on the student. Growth Assessments are untimed. Students who need more time are granted extra time to complete the assessment. See our accommodations tab (coming soon)to see which accommodations are available on the SOLs. 

Practice links: No practice necessary. If you would like to see item types and examples, please visit the VDOE SOL Practice Items web page.

What Does the Scores Mean? 

Student results are available to families online through the VDOE. The Virginia Assessment Parent Portal  is a new web-based portal where parents can review each student’s Growth Assessment Student Detail by Question (SDBQ) Report and SOL scores. In order to access this information, parents must set up a family account for the Virginia Assessment Parent Portal.

Staff will receive a Growth Assessment Student Detail By Question (SDBQ) report for each student. The report shows which item types in each reporting category (SOL content standards) the student answered correctly and incorrectly, sorted by highest level difficulty to lowest level. Item descriptors are not unique to a single item but give staff data on SOL strands for individual students. 

What Do Parents and Teachers Do with the Scores? 

• The score reports provide a baseline that shows where each student compares to other students in the state.

• The score reports provide information on specific skills and content already taught that a student needs intervention or remediation. 

• The score reports verify what still needs to be taught. The focus is readiness and skills needed for current grade-level instruction yet to occur.

• The data in score reports cannot be used in isolation to determine mastery of content. It is essential to consider other formative and summative assessment data in conjunction with the SDBQ data.

• In 2022-23, the VDOE has advised districts to focus on the SDBQ and not the Vertical Scale Score  because  they are continuing to validate the data. FCCPS is providing information about the vertical scale score for informational purposes, but until the VDOE provides complete guidance on the use of this data point, families and staff should not use the vertical scale score for interpretive purposes. 

Resources based on the results: Please contact your student’s teacher for more information on SOL instruction.