*This report was replaced it its entirety by the Virginia Parent Data Portal Work Group on February 8, 2024.

In its 2023 term, the Virginia General Assembly enacted Senate Bill 1329 and House Bill 1629, which commissioned a Work Group “established for the purpose of advising the Board of Education on the criteria for and process of procuring the goods and services necessary to implement the Virginia Parent Data Portal." This report summarizes the activities, findings, and recommendations of the Work Group.

The Work Group met four times between August and October 2023. In each meeting the group discussed the following:

• In the first meeting, Secretary Guidera and Superintendent Coons framed purpose and objectives of the Work Group. Superintendent Coons then led the Work Group through a discussion on what features they most value in a parent portal.

• In the second meeting, Secretary Aimee Guidera brought two leading experts Brennan Parton from the Data Quality Campaign and Christine Pitts from the Center of Reinventing Public Education.

• In the third meeting, Ethan Young presented research about two implementation options for the Work Group’s consideration. The Work Group broke out into smaller discussion groups to consider these options and to discuss additional “must haves" for inclusion in the finished product.

• In the final meeting, the Work Group reviewed an initial draft of the recommendations highlighted in this report and offered comments and feedback. Representatives from the Sectary of Education’s office and the Virginia Department of Education, as well as Katie Ryan, and Ethan Young, responded to and answered the Work Group’s questions.

After meeting over a period of three months, conducting surveys, and evaluating additional nationwide research, the Work Group concludes and recommends that:

• The Virginia Parent Data Portal (“the Portal") would support parents to better understand and engage with educators about the specific academic needs of students by providing them with uniform access to their children’s assessment data;

• Local school divisions are best equipped to utilize existing technology to administer the Portal directly to parents;

• The Virginia Department of Education should partner with local school divisions to provide uniform access to state-supported assessment data through a “tunnel" of existing division-level student information systems (SIS);

• The Virginia Department of Education should negotiate with state-supported assessment vendors to provide high-quality contextual information that ensures parents understand their children’s scores on each assessment; and,

• The Virginia Department of Education should procure high-quality professional development programs to promote a Commonwealth-wide emphasis on data-driven instruction and parental engagement.