Bill > HB299

This bill makes several changes to how the Board of Education (the Board) develops, administers, scores, and releases Standards of Learning (SOL) assessments, which are tests used to determine if students are meeting educational objectives. Key provisions include exempting students with disabilities who participate in alternative assessment methods or the Virginia Alternate Assessment Program (VAAP) from certain administration and grading requirements for SOL assessments, and repealing the requirement for a year-long growth assessment system in favor of end-of-year tests. The bill also clarifies that local school boards must ensure that mandatory and permissive local alternative assessments, which are assessments used when a statewide SOL assessment is not available or required, meet specific quality and integrity standards, including supervised testing environments and teacher grading limitations. Additionally, the bill mandates that SOL assessments and certain local alternative assessments be reported on a 100-point scale, and that students and parents receive individualized score reports within 45 days of an assessment window closing. Finally, the bill introduces provisions for the release of past SOL assessments for instructional use, with specific conditions to protect test security, and requires an annual audit of local alternative assessments. Some of these changes, particularly those related to the weight of end-of-course assessments in final grades and limits on the number of such assessments, have a delayed effective date contingent on the implementation of a new statewide assessment system.