Governor McAuliffe Receives SOL Innovation Committee’s 2015 Recommendations - National Council of Teachers of English

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Governor McAuliffe Receives SOL Innovation Committee’s 2015 Recommendations


State: Virginia
Level: P12
Analyst: Winstead, Chantal

Governor McAuliffe Receives SOL Innovation Committee’s 2015 Recommendations

The Standards of Learning (SOL) Committee, a bipartisan committee signed into law by Governor McAuliffe in 2014, provided the governor with seven new recommendations for measuring student grown and achievement as well as for evaluating schools. These are in addition to the twelve recommendations released in 2014.

The Committee’s new proposals call for shorter and more developmentally appropriate assessments, including those that are responsive to the needs of English Language Learners and students with disabilities.

Create a profile of a Virginia Graduate that consider the “5 Cs” – critical thinking, creative thinking, collaboration, communication, and citizenship – needed for success in the New Virginia Economy.
Adopt a framework for assessing student learning that recognizes the importance of classroom assessment in improving instruction, emphasizes growth measures in elementary and middle school and provides options for students in high school to demonstrate readiness for success upon graduation.
Identify resources to support this new assessment model.
Encourage further collaboration among higher education institutions, employers and the Department of Education to ensure coordination in the PK-20 educational system. Representatives of higher education institutions (both 2- and 4-year) and of the business community should be mandated members of the SOL Innovation Committee.
Revise the accountability system to include a variety of school quality indicators.
The school quality profiles should include information about school accountability and other factors that provide a comprehensive view of the school. The school quality profiles should be presented in a dashboard format and should provide information “at a glance” with easy access to more detailed supporting data to allow users to view data at a variety of levels.
The Board of Education should maintain and strengthen a threshold of performance below which schools receive ongoing, meaningful support that is prompt and timely. The Department of Education and the local school divisions should collaborate in determining the support that is provided.

To read the full executive summary, click here.To read the full report, click here.

source: Office of Governor Terry McAuliffe