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Virginia Beach schools detail literacy screening results, interventions and assessment plans
Summary
Dr. Danielle Colucci and Acting Director Abigail Daughtry told the school board the division uses multiple assessments (SOL, VALS, NWEA MAP) to guide instruction; 8,160 students currently have division reading plans and targeted interventions include 2.5 hours/week for high-risk second graders.
Dr. Danielle Colucci, the division's chief academic officer, and Abigail Daughtry, acting director of student services, briefed the Virginia Beach City Public Schools board on the district's literacy-assessment system and how the data guide instruction.
The presenters framed a balanced assessment model that combines criterion-referenced Standards of Learning (SOL) tests, the Virginia Language and Literacy Screening System (VALS) for early screening and the norm-referenced NWEA MAP for national comparisons. Colucci said the division aligns instruction to the Virginia Literacy Act and science-based reading research and uses multiple data sources ‘‘to make sure we are not missing anything with our children's reading skills and their development.''
Daughtry walked the board through cohort and screening rules, saying the fall 2025 third-grade VALS cohort includes students who scored in the high band of risk in spring of second grade or who are new to Virginia. She said the division's third-grade SOL pass-rate trends mirror the state but average about 10 percentage points higher overall. "This robust assessment system provides multiple data points that comprise a body of evidence that can be used to analyze student literacy achievement," Daughtry said.
Officials described the statewide expansion of VALS to grades 4'8, which provides mastery-level score ranges (rather than K—3 band-of-risk outputs) to inform student reading plans and placement in interventions. Daughtry said, "To date, we have 8,160 students being supported by a reading plan." The board heard that in K—3 screened students in the high band of risk must have a student reading plan and that in grades 4'8 students who score in the basic or below-basic range on the spring reading SOL receive a plan.
An executive director explained the intervention model: for example, second-grade students in the high-risk category receive about 2.5 hours of targeted intervention per week (roughly 30 minutes per school day) using VLA-approved resources and division programs. "Those second graders that are high risk have to have 2.5 hours of intervention per week," the executive director said.
Board members asked how assessment burdens affect instruction. Miss Rogers raised concerns that VALS administration windows can total nine weeks and asked whether adding MAPs testing leads to over-testing. District staff replied both VALS and MAP are state-mandated or state-approved, the division monitors testing schedules, and they will continue to examine potential legislative changes and local adjustments.
Members also requested demographic and site-level breakdowns for the presented data; staff said school support teams have those reports and the division will provide requested demographic analyses.
The literacy update emphasized using multiple measures to identify needs and guide instruction; staff said they will continue school-level monitoring and provide additional demographic reporting as requested by the board.
