WV Department of Education Pilots Assessment Tool for Students and Families

CHARLESTON, W.VA. – A new resource to help families support their children’s learning will soon be available in the Mountain State. The West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) is conducting a statewide pilot of new student assessment video score reports designed to make it easier to understand annual assessment data.

The individual student video reports are customized for each public-school student in Grades 3-8 who took the West Virginia General Summative Assessment (WVGSA), and for each Grade 11 student who took the SAT School Day in spring 2021. Students who have Spanish as the primary language spoken in their home listed in the state’s information system also will receive a link to a Spanish version of the video.

Each year after a student takes the WVGSA and the SAT School Day, their family receives a printed report detailing performance on the exam along with a list of data sets that may be difficult to understand. The video reports provide information about the child’s academic performance on the exams and resources that pinpoint gaps in learning. This empowers families with solutions to address their children’s academic challenges.

“We are very excited about these new student assessment video score reports, and we encourage all districts to distribute them to their students and their families as soon as it is feasible,” State Superintendent of Schools W. Clayton Burch said. “The printed data families receive can be intimidating, difficult to understand and eventually lead to frustration if scores reflect learning deficits. However, we believe students and parents will find these video reports informative, engaging and an important building block of a successful academic journey.”

The reports present students’ assessment results in a video format designed to complement the printed score reports students received earlier in the school year. The WVGSA video reports provide a visual representation of each student’s performance, including a comparison of the student’s scores in each content area to previous year’s scores, as well as challenging areas the student may have based on the scores. The video also shows how the student’s scores compare to those of other students in the state, district and school.

The SAT School Day video reports also show how students’ scores compare to average scores in the state, district and school, and includes an explanation of the difference between the College Board’s college- and career-readiness benchmarks and the state’s Grade 11 achievement levels set by a panel of West Virginia educators.

Links to the video score reports are expected to be provided to county school systems next week for distribution to students. Each video report is unique to each student based on their spring 2021 assessment results. The method for distributing the video reports is up to each county. Once students receive the secure link to their respective videos, they will need to log in to access the videos, as well as links to various supporting resources.

“Although we are piloting this year’s distribution of the new video reports now, we plan to have the video reports released next year at the same time as the printed score reports,” Superintendent Burch said.

The WVGSA video reports include links to the new West Virginia Student Progress Explorer website complete with resources and suggested next steps for students and families to address any challenging areas identified in the results.

“We hope families take the opportunity to view the video reports and discuss the results with their students and their students’ teachers,” Superintendent Burch said. “The reports present the perfect opportunity to connect to children’s learning and to promote further conversations with educators.”

The WVDE encourages students and their families to provide feedback on the new video score reports to help make improvements on future reports. If families have questions about the video report, they may contact their child’s school.

To view a sample video, please visit https://wvde.us/assessment/learn-more-about-testing/ and click the WVGSA or SAT School Day tab.

For media inquiries, contact Christy Day, West Virginia Department of Education Office of Communications, at 304-558-2699 or Christy.Day@k12.wv.us.

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