The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) expects “all students to take the applicable state tests.”
-Virginia Board of Education Regulations Establishing Standards for Accrediting Public Schools in Virginia www.doe.virginia.gov/boe/accreditation/
Teachers use individual SOL test item data to evaluate their instruction.
Student Detail By Question SOL reports at the school level allow teachers to see what concepts students mastered and which need expansion for the coming year.
Schools use SOL data, with other data elements, to drive their school improvement planning.
Schools need valid, uniform, long-term data trends to appropriately allocate resources and to identify areas of growth.
Students need standard and verified credits to receive a diploma from a Virginia public school.
Students earn a standard credit for successfully completing a high school level course. They earn a verified credit for achieving a score of 400 or higher on an SOL test or through the issuance of a locally verified credit or by achieving a VDOE determined score on an approved substitute test.
Parental Refusal for Testing
While Virginia does not have an opt out provision, parents can choose to refuse educational assessments for their child (Growth Assessments, SOL, CogAT, ACCESS, MAP, etc.). Parent refusal of the ACCESS for ELLs test does not exit the student from the EL program.
Parents must put their refusal in writing and address it to the staff member serving as School Test Coordinator at their child’s school. Refusals must be made annually and can be made for individual tests, or for all required tests.
Parents should note that an SOL Student Score Report will still be generated, which shows a score of 0 and includes the text “Fail” and “Parent Refusal.”
If the student is taking a high school level course, they may not earn a verified credit, which could hinder progress toward achieving a diploma. There is no penalty to the student’s grade and failure to test will not prevent the student from moving on to the next academic course.
Learn more about graduation and diploma requirements at
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/instruction/graduation/index.shtml
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