Virginia’s governor and the Virginia Department of Education are modeling an exciting, collaborative approach to reforming standardized testing and redefining school accountability with the state-legislature approved Standards of Learning (SOL) Innovation Committee. The Committee was created by action of the 2014 General Assembly and is charged with making recommendations to state-level policymakers in two areas. First, the Committee is seeking to bring more balance to Virginia’s assessment and accountability systems. Topics of study and discussion so far have included integration of growth measures, reductions in high-stakes testing, inclusion of performance-based assessments, and flexibility for school districts. Second, the Committee has been asked to make recommendations that will encourage creativity and innovation in Virginia’s classrooms, balancing consistent standards with increased flexibility in the ways in which those standards are taught.
Committee members bring diverse perspectives from across the state, representing boards of education, administrators, teachers, parents, and community members. Despite these diverse perspectives, however, their work to date indicates a strong consensus regarding the need to personalize learning for students and free teachers to do their very best work. Committee members acknowledge that the accountability systems designed in the 1990s were needed to bring a coherent and consistent set of expectations to schools across the state and to ensure that all children would be expected to achieve at high levels. As they consider “Accountability 2.0,” the Committee continues to focus on the achievement of all children while at the same time thinking differently about what Virginia’s students need to be prepared for life beyond school. The committee’s Interim Report, published in fall 2014, establishes a “commitment to inspire, engage, and personalize learning for every student.” Recommendations from this report influenced legislation passed earlier this spring, and the Committee will release further recommendations before the 2016 legislative session.
It’s been almost a year since the SOL Innovation Committee’s first meeting, which I approached with a mostly open mind—and a bit of skepticism. I’ve been witness to plenty of task forces, commissions, and committees where there was too much pontification and too little thoughtful work or action. This group, I believe, is different. The voices of practitioners, researchers, and policymakers are all being heard and valued. There is open acknowledgement that none of us has all the answers to the challenges we face in rethinking assessment and accountability, but there is also a persistent and sincere message coming from the group that we must do something and we can do something to make our system serve students better. And I believe we will.
