First quarter assessment scores in Prince William County remained relatively level with last school year’s test scores for the first quarter, the school division said in a presentation at the School Board’s Dec. 4 meeting.

Virginia Growth Assessment

The VGA is a mandated assessment from the Virginia General Assembly. The legislature made a change this year, however, that allows divisions to use alternative assessments.

Prince William County applied and was approved to use HMH as a replacement for the reading VGA, though the division still administered the math VGA to students in grades 3-8.

VGA is reported on a vertical scale score ranging from 900-2,000, “which allows us to look at change over time, growth from year to year,” said Michael Neall, the division’s director of research, assessment and data services.

VGA math scores for the fall are nearly the same across-the-board as the same time last school year.

A comparison of first quarter Virginia Growth Assessment math scores for students in grades 3-8 from 2022, 2023 and 2024.

Literacy

The school division uses multiple sources of information to assess literacy skills. The Virginia Language and Literacy Screening System, VALLSS, replaces the PALS assessment and measures reading fluency, decoding, phonics and comprehension. Students are placed into risk bands based on their scores: high, moderate and low.

The guidelines for the VAALSS assessment, which the school division uses to assess literacy skills.

All students in grades kindergarten to 1st grade are screened three times a year. As students get older and move up grade levels, the assessment is used for targeted needs, Neall said.

Results of the VALLSS assessment showed students with disabilities and English learners had a higher likelihood of falling into the high-risk bands. At the 3rd-grade level, for example, only 25% of 3rd-graders scored into the high-risk band, while 39% of English learners and 52% of students with disabilities placed in that band.

The HMHM Literacy Assessment is another measure used by the school division. It is administered in grades 2-8 three times per year.

The division collected baseline HMH data for the school year in September, which showed that 44% of all elementary students and 45% of middle school students are reading on or above grade level.

The growth of the number of students reading on or above grade level using the HMH assessment.

The division is using a focused student support dashboard, which provides real-time data on critical risk factors for students. The dashboard shows cumulative course failures and gives them a corresponding risk factor rating. School principals and staff monitor the dashboard, and teachers can utilize it.

Progress toward graduation is also tracked using a progress monitoring dashboard. Key indicators include earning course credits across academic areas and obtaining verified credits as defined by the diploma type.

Along with reading and math test scores, the division presented information on attendance and chronic absenteeism, which has been an area of emphasis for the school system over the last several years.

As of the first quarter of the 2024-25 school year, chronic absenteeism rates are slightly higher than the same time last school year. So far this school year, the absenteeism rate sits at 15.4%, while at the same time last year, chronic absenteeism was 14.7%.

Next steps

The division is focusing on using the data outlined in the presentation, along with other indicators, to guide instruction and develop student-focused plans.

The division also continues to provide credit recovery and credit accrual options to students to earn course credit, giving students an additional opportunity on a course they might have struggled with.

Moreover, school counselors are using the dashboards mentioned in the presentation to track students that are showing deficits in one or more area to develop remediation plans for the students.

“This improvement in technology has been a huge asset to the division in making sure that we can identify students by name and by need and not just students that rise to the forefront of our attention,” said Stephanie Soliven, the division’s associate superintendent for teaching and learning.

School Board members were generally positive about the updates and information that was presented.

Gainesville District member Jennifer Wall noted the bulk of the work will fall to teachers, who already have a significant amount of work on their plates.

“With all of the professional learning, professional development and all of the things we’re putting onto teachers to help them, I do think we need to start looking at the length of our work day and finding ways to create more time and space for our teachers to learn the things that we’re asking them to do, to learn how to use the data,” Wall said.