The committee would have been directed to conduct a consequential validity analysis and make recommendations as to the need for any additional assessment mechanisms. HB 2847 would have established the SOL Assessment Advisory Commission as a legislative agency of the Commonwealth, with four legislators and ten citizens as members. The Commission would have been directed to make recommendations for the ongoing implementation of the SOA as well as the use and application of statewide and divisionwide student assessments. HJ 570 would have requested the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission to examine the implementation of the SOL assessments, looking specifically at the legal sufficiency of the SOL assessment testing process and the effect of SOL testing on classroom instruction. Assessments SB 1424 would have prohibited the administration of SOL assessments for any subject area under review or revision by the Board of Education.
Current law requires reviews of each subject area at least once every seven years.
Instruction via the Internet HB 1841 would have required the establishment of a comprehensive program of instruction in the four core SOL disciplines to be provided via the Internet for students enrolled in or eligible for enrollment in the public schools. Although the bill was tabled in the House Education Committee, the committee chairman intends to establish a special subcommittee to explore such a program of instruction before the next legislative session. Multiple Criteria for School Accreditation HB 2163 would have required that the criteria for the accreditation of all schools include the results of the SOL assessments, improvement in SOL assessment scores, and attendance rates. Differing additional criteria would have been required for elementary, middle, and high schools, and the SOA provision that alternative education schools be evaluated pursuant to standards appropriate to such schools would have been codified. The results of SOL assessments would have accounted for no more than three-quarters of a school's accreditation rating.