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Norfolk schools present early-literacy screener results, board told third-grade SOL target not met
Summary
Division staff briefed the school board on use of the VALS screener, teacher training and required reading plans under the Virginia Literacy Act, and reported the division fell short of its 67% third-grade SOL target, reaching 59% last year.
Krista McGarity, a division staff member, told the Norfolk School Board that the division is using the VALS screener to track early-literacy risk bands for kindergarten through second grade and to inform intervention and professional development.
The presentation focused on how VALS categorizes students into low-, moderate- and high-risk bands and how the division is using those bands to target instruction and interventions. "The VALS is a screener," McGarity said, adding that its content changes by administration and that the subtests separate decoding and language-based skills.
Division senior coordinator Lisa Nash detailed steps the system is taking under the Virginia Literacy Act for students placed in the high-risk band. "As required by the Virginia Literacy Act, that high risk band are required to have individualized student" plans, Nash said, describing plans that list students' instructional indicators, interventions, implementation frequency, responsible staff and family communication.
Nut graf: The briefing gave the board a snapshot of early-reading strengths and gaps: staff reported stronger fall-to-fall starts for many first- and second-graders, growing enrollment among English learners, and volatility in the moderate-risk group. Officials said those findings informed benchmarks, training and next steps but emphasized the division has not met its three-year targets for third-grade SOL pass rates.
Board members asked for clarification about long-range targets and current results. McGarity said the division’s 2024–25 target for third-grade SOL passage was 67 percent and that last year 59 percent of third graders passed the SOL reading assessment. The division’s long-term goal, she said in response to a board question, remains 75 percent.
Staff emphasized several operational changes tied to the data: tighter alignment between assessment reports and reading plans; ongoing, divisionwide professional development for K–2 teachers to analyze VALS subtests and use small-group instruction to support students in the moderate-risk band; and monitoring master schedules so tier‑1 instruction does not get replaced by intervention blocks.
Nash and McGarity also reported notable group-level findings: enrollment of students identified as English learners increased substantially (staff cited a rise from about 600 to roughly 1,600 students in the group they are monitoring), and students with disabilities typically require more time to acquire literacy skills. Nash said the moderate-risk band fluctuates because many students sit near the band thresholds.
The board and staff discussed next steps rather than taking formal action: staff said they will continue longitudinal monitoring, disaggregate results by student group, refine interventions for encoding and phoneme‑segmenting deficits, and work with principals on intervention implementation and progress monitoring.
On curriculum concerns raised from the public, Nash said the division uses “science of reading–aligned curriculum” and explicitly denied use of the three-cueing system: "we do not do the 3 queuing system," she said.
Ending: Division staff framed the VALS data as an early-warning tool that will guide training and targeted interventions in K–2; they asked the board for continued time to collect longitudinal patterns and to support scheduling and staffing adjustments that keep tier‑1 instruction intact while delivering interventions.
