VVAAS, in conjunction with the Virginia Department of Education, provides a graphing tool called scatterplots, which enables comparison among divisions on a variety of metrics, such as growth, achievement, and demographics. Demographic information is designated from the Pearson SOL testing data submitted in the spring of each year for the next VVAAS reporting year.

Division-level VVAAS Growth shows an average of how students showed growth on a specific SOL. This information is critical in creating actionable plans to support educators and students.

• VVAAS Achievement measures a student's performance at one single point in time (SOL score).
• VVAAS Growth measures a student's growth across time, i.e., across years. This allows educators to see trends in testing history.
• VVAAS Achievement compares student performance to a standard (set score).
• VVAAS Growth compares student performance in relation to their own prior testing performance.
• VVAAS Growth is typically not related to a student's demographics.

By measuring students' academic achievement and growth, divisions will have a more comprehensive picture of their own effectiveness in raising student achievement.

Growth is a statistical analysis used to measure the academic growth rates of groups of students from year to year. Conceptually and as a simple explanation, a growth "score" is calculated in the following manner:

• Growth = current achievement/current results compared to all prior achievement/prior results; with achievement being measured by a quality assessment such as the Standards of Learning (SOL) tests.
• VVAAS predictive models for growth assessment yield results that mitigate measurement error and students who have missing data in their assessment history.
• The methodology used by VVAAS has been published since 1997, and has been peer-reviewed nationally.

For more information on tested students and other business rules, see the Statistical Models and Business Rules

document.