SB 200

Board of Education; Standards of Learning assessments and related assessment methods; development, administration, scoring, and release. Makes several clarifying revisions to applicable law relating to the development, administration, and scoring of Standards of Learning assessments and related assessment methods for determining the level of achievement of Standards of Learning objectives by all students. First, the bill clarifies that students who are children with disabilities, as that term is defined by applicable law, who participate in alternative methods of Standards of Learning assessment administration or in alternate assessments through the Virginia Alternate Assessment Program are exempt from several requirements set forth in applicable law relating to the administration and grading of Standards of Learning assessments and related assessments. The bill also repeals the provisions requiring the Board of Education (the Board) to establish a through-year growth assessment system in lieu of a one-time end-of-year assessment. The bill also specifies the requirements for local alternative assessments, including permissive local alternative assessments and mandatory local alternative assessments administered pursuant to applicable law, by (i) requiring each school board to ensure that (a) each such assessment consists only of prompts or assessment items to which no student had access prior to the assessment's administration and (b) any teacher participating in grading any such assessment does not grade any assessment completed by a student that such teacher taught in a class or subject area that school year; (ii) directing the Board of Education to develop and make available to each school board by September 1, 2026, best practices for grading and scoring such local alternative assessments; and (iii) directing the Board to perform an annual audit of a certain percentage of any mandatory local alternative assessments implemented by the school board, consistent with the procedures and requirements set forth in the bill. The bill also requires the Board to make available to each school division each Standards of Learning assessment administered the previous school year, subject to the requirements and limitations set forth in the bill. The provisions of the bill limiting the number of end-of-course assessments that may be administered to students in grades seven through 12 and requiring the score received by each student in grades seven through 12 on an end-of-course assessment to account for at least 10 percent of the student's final grade in such course have a delayed effective date of the date on which a contract is awarded to an assessment vendor for the new statewide assessment system, pursuant to applicable law, as certified by the Department of Education.