HB 585

Abstract

Middle and high school end-of-course assessments; number and type. Requires, except for those middle and high school students with significant cognitive disabilities who participate in an alternate assessment, each student in middle and high school to take only those end-of-course Standards of Learning assessments necessary to meet federal accountability requirements and Virginia high school graduation requirements. The bill requires, with such funds as may be appropriated for such purpose, and except in the case of students who participate in an alternate assessment, the Standards of Learning assessments for Virginia Studies, Civics and Economics, Virginia and U.S. history, and biology to include items that require the student to apply knowledge and skills in preparing a response. Such items shall include open-ended questions, long-form writing, and other tasks, with student responses scored by the Department of Education according to statewide scoring rubrics. The bill requires student performance on the Virginia and U.S. history and biology end-of-course assessments to account for 10 percent of the student's final grade in each such course. The bill also requires the Department of Education to convene and consult a work group to develop a plan for the implementation of such assessment items no later than the beginning of the 2027–2028 school year.

Middle and high school end-of-course assessments; number and type. Requires, except for those middle and high school students with significant cognitive disabilities who participate in an alternate assessment, each student in middle and high school to take only those end-of-course Standards of Learning assessments necessary to meet federal accountability requirements and Virginia high school graduation requirements. The bill requires, with such funds as may be appropriated for such purpose, and except in the case of students who participate in an alternate assessment, the Standards of Learning assessments for Virginia Studies, Civics and Economics, Virginia and U.S. history, and biology to include items that require the student to apply knowledge and skills in preparing a response. Such items shall include open-ended questions, long-form writing, and other tasks, with student responses scored by the Department of Education according to statewide scoring rubrics. The bill requires student performance on the Virginia and U.S. history and biology end-of-course assessments to account for 10 percent of the student's final grade in each such course. The bill also requires the Department of Education to convene and consult a work group to develop a plan for the implementation of such assessment items no later than the beginning of the 2027–2028 school year.

Secretary of Education and Superintendent of Public Instruction; revisions to Standard of Learning summative assessments. Directs the Secretary of Education and the Superintendent of Public Instruction to convene and consult a work group to revise the Standards of Learning summative assessments of proficiency and to develop a plan for implementation of such revised assessments that shall consider best practices and innovations in summative assessments of proficiency, alternative approaches to current and new assessment items, assessment items that include open-ended questions, long-form writing, and other tasks, a plan for pilot implementation of such assessment items prior to the 2027–2028 school year, the development of a bank of vetted sample assessment items, recommended legislative and regulatory changes and funding necessary to implement approaches considered by the work group, and a proposed timeline for implementation. The bill requires the Department of Education to submit its initial plan for implementation of revised Standards of Learning summative assessments developed by the work group to the General Assembly no later than November 1, 2023, with annual updates on implementation of such plan no later than November 1 each year thereafter through 2027.

Middle and high school end-of-course assessments; number and type. Requires, except for those middle and high school students with significant cognitive disabilities who participate in an alternate assessment, each student in middle and high school to take only those end-of-course Standards of Learning assessments necessary to meet federal accountability requirements and Virginia high school graduation requirements. The bill requires the Department of Education, in addition to such assessments, to develop or adopt and require each high school student to take, during junior year or at such other time as may be appropriate, statewide skills-based and performance-based end-of-course assessments in biology and U.S. history that are aligned to the Standards of Learning for each such subject. The bill requires each such assessment to be graded by the Department of Education according to statewide grading rubrics. The bill requires student performance on each such assessment to account for 10 percent of the student's final grade in each such course. The foregoing provisions of the bill have a delayed effective date of July 1, 2027, and the bill provides that the first such assessments shall be administered during the spring of the 2027–2028 school year. The bill further requires the Department of Education to (i) semiannually publish on a publicly accessible portion of its website sample statewide skills-based and performance-based end-of-course assessments in biology and U.S. history during the 2022–2023 through 2026–2027 school years and (ii) annually administer a pilot program during the 2023–2024 through 2026–2027 school years whereby it administers skills-based and performance-based end-of-course assessments in biology and U.S. history to high school juniors in select school divisions to determine the validity of such assessments and make such adjustments as may be necessary before the first such assessments are administered statewide during the spring of the 2027–2028 school year.