The Virginia Alternate Assessment Program (VAAP) is designed to evaluate the performance of students with significant cognitive disabilities in grades 3-8 and high school. Beginning in the 2021-2022 school year, the portfolio-based VAAP was replaced with a new multiple-choice assessment in the content areas of reading, mathematics, and science that was administered to students in an online or paper format. 

The new VAAP is based on academic content standards derived from the Standards of Learning (SOL) in reading, mathematics, and science that have been reduced in depth, breadth, and complexity.  These content standards are referred to as the Virginia Essentialized Standards of Learning (VESOL).

The assessments measure foundational skills required for success in the workplace and help measure the workplace skills that can affect job performance. WorkKeys assessments are:

• Relevant: WorkKeys® assessments are developed to solve actual workplace problems. Unlike other assessments, they don’t simply give an indication of reading and writing competency. Instead, they measure a range of hard and soft skills relevant to any occupation, at any level, and across industries.
• Recognized: Successful completion of WorkKeys core assessments can lead to earning an ACT WorkKeys® National Career Readiness Certificate™ (ACT WorkKeys NCRC®) — a credential that verifies the skills found to be most essential across industries and occupations.

The Workplace Documents Assessment

The Workplace Documents assessment measures skills that individuals use when they read real workplace documents and use that information to make job-related decisions and solve problems. The documents include messages, emails, letters, directions, signs, bulletins, policies, websites, contracts, and regulations.

The Business Writing Assessment

Workplace writing needs to be clear and free of distractions such as poor grammar, misspellings, and extraneous information. After all, careless errors may lead the reader to believe there are also errors in the facts, and the writer loses credibility and trustworthiness.

The Business Writing assessment measures the skill used when writing an original response to a work-related situation. Components of the Business Writing skill include sentence structure, mechanics, grammar, word usage, tone and word choice, organization and focus, and development of ideas.

The Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) is a standardized test designed to measure learned reasoning and problem­ solving skills in three different areas: verbal, quantitative, and nonverbal. These abilities, acquired both in and out of school, are important because children use them on a daily basis to learn and solve problems. It is important to note that the CogAT is neither an intelligence test nor an achievement test. It measures developed rather than innate abilities.

Teachers use Cognitive Abilities Test results to tailor instruction to match how students learn, consider students for enrichment programs that pique their interest and challenge their thinking, and uncover gaps between student achievement and ability.

Informational links:

Understand scoring

Local Alternative Assessments, including Performance Assessments, are used in place of SOL tests in certain grade level content areas to support balanced assessment practices as part of the Virginia Assessment Program for grades 3, 5, 6, and 7.

The 2014 General Assembly omitted five Standards of Learning (SOL) tests in grades 3, 5, 6, and 7. The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) still requires school divisions to continue to teach and measure student achievement of all content standards. The LAAs are required for grade-level content areas in which Virginia SOL tests were eliminated and are created locally by Roanoke City Public Schools.

LAAs are used to fulfill state requirements for annual performance and progress monitoring in the following grade level content areas:

• Grade 3 History
• Grade 3 Science
• Grade 5 Writing
• Grade 6 U.S. History I
• Grade 7 U.S. History II

A Performance Assessment requires students to perform a task or create a product and is scored using a Virginia Department of Education rubric.

Performance Assessments are structured to be culturally responsive, student-centered learning and equity by:

• Providing learners creative ways to demonstrate learning
• Tasks that measure subject-matter proficiency
• It is part of the learning process
• Supporting learners with diverse needs
• Requires students to apply the content and skills they have learned
• Students have an opportunity to demonstrate achievement of the "Five C's" – critical thinking, creativity, communication, collaboration, and contribution  – described in the VDOE’s Profile of a Graduate.

State Rubrics for Scoring Performance Assessments

To provide consistent achievement expectations for all Virginia students, school divisions are to use the common rubrics. The rubrics are linked below in each content-specific section, when scoring student responses to performance assessments or performance tasks included among the local alternative assessments in these courses.

• Grade 3 Science
• Grade 3 Social Studies
• Grade 5 Writing
• Grade 6 U.S. History I
• Grade 7 U.S. History II

For our Families

• LAAs measure student learning of the grade level content standards within classroom instruction throughout the school year.
• Families do not receive a numerical score as they would for an SOL test.
• Students participate in PAs as part of the LAA, aligned to the grade level content area. 
• Information and timeframe about PAs is communicated by the teacher/school.
• Final score reports will be placed in ParentVUE.

The Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test® (NNAT3) is a universal screener administered to grade one students each year. NNAT3 is a brief, nonverbal measure of general intellectual ability that yields a norm-based score. The NNAT3 consists of 48 multiple choice questions in pictorial form.

The NNAT3 has no verbal content. It consists of geometric shapes that are universal, and its directions are pictorial with minimal verbal instructions in order to make it accessible to a wide variety of students, including those with limited educational experiences, and those who come from diverse cultural, socioeconomic, or linguistic backgrounds.

Informational links:

Sample Report
Explanation of Scores

Early literacy screening is the key to providing effective literacy instruction and preventing future reading problems. The Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS) provides a comprehensive assessment of young students' knowledge of the important literacy fundamentals that are predictive of future reading success. PALS is used to learn what students currently know and what they are ready to learn next, and to identify strengths and needs in the program and curriculum. 

PALS assessment provides a summed score used to compared against a benchmark that represents minimum expectations for fall and for spring. If a student’s summed score is below the benchmark, that student should receive instruction that is in addition to the regular classroom literacy instruction.

Informational links:

Family Information
Resources for home
About PALS

SOLs for Virginia public schools establish minimum expectations for what students should know and be able to do at the end of each grade or course in English, mathematics, science, history/social science and other subjects.

SOL assessments are the main part of the Virginia Assessment Program for grades 3-12. SOL tests are used to fulfill:

• Federal requirements for annual testing in reading, mathematics, and science
• State requirements for testing in writing and social studies
• Graduation requirements for verified credit to earn a standard or advanced studies diploma

The SOL tests are completed by students in Virginia’s public schools using the online testing application, TestNav™. This application allows SOL tests to be administered securely to students using a wide variety of devices including desktop computers, laptop computers, and tablets.

Almost all SOL tests are now taken online. Online tests in science, mathematics, reading and writing include interactive non-multiple choice items that require students to apply what they have learned. Only students with a documented, disability-related need take pencil-and-paper tests.

Computer Adaptive Testing

A computer adaptive test (CAT) is an assessment that is customized for every student based on how the student responds to the test questions. Students who take online grades 3-8 mathematics and grades 3-8 reading tests will be administered a computer adaptive version of the SOL tests.

Informational links:

Standards of Learning (SOL) and Testing

Video on Computer Adaptive Testing

The Virginia Growth Assessments measure students' growth and progress in reading and mathematics in grades 3-8. These assessments are mandated by the Virginia Department of Education and will be administered in the fall and winter.

These assessments are much shorter — about half the length of a normal SOL test — and are not high-stakes tests. These assessments will not be used to assign a passing or failing score to a student. Rather, these assessments will be used by teachers and schools to inform instruction. These data give the teacher a baseline of a student’s proficiency in reading and math.

Informational link:
Overview of the Student Detail by Question Report

The Virginia Kindergarten Readiness Program (VKRP) is a statewide initiative focused on building a more comprehensive understanding of school readiness and success. VKRP gives schools, teachers and families a complete picture of school readiness in 4 key areas: mathematics, literacy, self-regulation, and social skills.

Informational links:

How VKRP benefits my child

Research behind kindergarten readiness