Have you seen your child's test scores?

If not, it's time to ask

If your kids are like mine, April and May are testing season. I live in Virginia, where all kids in grades 3-8 sit for their reading and math SOL exams. (There are also tests in science in 5th and 8th grades and end-of-course tests in certain high school subjects.) The tests are computerized, meaning they can be scored instantly.

And I can now officially say that, except for a writing test one of my kids took, I have seen all of their scores.

Can you say the same about your kids? Based on recent trends, I’d bet not.

As I noted earlier this year over at EduProgress.org, states have actually gotten slower at releasing their test results. Collectively, they were faster in 2006 than they were in 2024. Legislators in a few states—notably Ohio and Virginia—have woken up to the fact that speed matters, but there are still far too many laggards.

Now, to be fair, I can only measure the official public release dates, and there are some states that release early scores to parents like me. But I suspect that’s far from standard practice.

Even in Virginia, I’m told that my experience as a parent in Fairfax County does not match those in other parts of the state. The state releases the scores to school districts (which we call “divisions” here in Virginia), but it’s up to those local leaders to actually make them available to parents.

What am I going to do differently now that I have the results? Well, I know the research says that test scores are highly predictive of a child’s future academic success, so I pay close attention to make sure that my kids are doing well and gaining ground from year to year. I’m not looking for specific sub-areas they might need to work on—the tests aren’t really designed to do that—but I do want to check to make sure my kids are doing grade-level math, can read with comprehension, and, for one kid in particular, if their science test scores match up with their interests in the subject.

Here in Fairfax, I was able to see my kids’ scores thanks to an online web portal where they also put information about class assignments, grades, and attendance. Most of the scores were posted within 24-48 hours after my kids took the test. Admittedly, I’m a bit of a Tiger Dad so I went looking for the scores once I heard they were up, but other parents deserve to have the same information about how their children are doing.