Your child’s main state test in Vermont is the Vermont Comprehensive Assessment Program, or VTCAP, and it comes with a genuine Vermont twist: the state built its own program with the vendor Cognia rather than buying an off-the-shelf test, and it keeps testing reading and math all the way through grade 9, not just grades 3 through 8. That homegrown design also carries a real caveat worth knowing. As recently reviewed, federal peer reviewers found that the general VTCAP only “partially meets” the technical requirements for a statewide assessment, meaning Vermont is still being asked to document more evidence about how the test is built and scored. That does not mean the scores are meaningless. It does mean VTCAP is a young program that is still proving itself.
What VTCAP Looks Like: Format and Item Types
VTCAP is taken online through the TestNav platform, and the ELA and math sections are adaptive, meaning the questions adjust to how your child is answering. Paper versions exist only for specific access needs like braille or large print. The test spreads across two or three sessions per subject, with total seat time running roughly two to three hours per subject depending on grade. Breaks are built in as a standard tool.
Accessibility supports come in three tiers: universal tools available to everyone, such as an on-screen calculator, highlighter, and scratch paper; designated supports an educator can turn on; and accommodations tied to an IEP or 504 plan. Text-to-speech is broadly available in math and science. For ELA, currently, text-to-speech is available both as an accommodation that can read passages and as a designated support that reads directions and items but not the reading passages themselves. If your child needs a human reader, that is rare, requires documentation, and happens in a secure one-on-one setting.
What VTCAP Is and Who Takes It
VTCAP replaced Smarter Balanced starting a few years ago and is now the general statewide test for English language arts, mathematics, and science. Every student in grades 3 through 9 takes the ELA and math sections each spring. Science is tested only in grades 5, 8, and 11. The ELA and math standards behind the test are the Common Core State Standards, and the science standards are the Next Generation Science Standards, so the content itself is not unusual. What is unusual is the grade coverage.
Two smaller groups take a different test. Students with the most significant cognitive disabilities may take the Multi-State Alternate Assessment, or MSAA, when their IEP team decides that is the right path. Multilingual learners take the WIDA ACCESS test for English language proficiency in addition to VTCAP math and science.
Why Vermont Tests Through Grade 9
Most states stop grade-level ELA and math testing after grade 8 and then test once more in high school around grade 11. Vermont does it differently. It moved its high school ELA and math testing down to grade 9, partly to lift the testing burden off junior year, and VTCAP kept that structure. Science stays at grade 11. So if you have a ninth grader, expect a state ELA and math test that many families in other states would not see until later. There are no separate end-of-course exams in the VTCAP materials, so grade 9 is the high school academic checkpoint for reading and math.
How VTCAP Is Scored
VTCAP reports four performance levels, named simply Level 1 through Level 4. Currently, Level 3 is the proficiency floor, the point at which the state considers a student on track for grade-level expectations, and Levels 3 and 4 both count as proficient in public reporting. The plain-language meaning runs from Level 1 as an emerging understanding, to Level 2 as partial, Level 3 as satisfactory, and Level 4 as thorough.
Behind those levels sits a scale score. Currently, VTCAP uses a scale that runs from 1500 to 2000 for every grade and subject, and the Level 3 cutoff sits at 1750 across the board. That consistency is handy: a 1750 means the same “on track” message whether your child is in third grade math or eighth grade reading. The report your child brings home, called the Individual Student Report, shows the scale score, the performance level, a margin of error, and reporting-category indicators labeled Above Standard, At or Near Standard, and Below Standard. ELA and math reports also include a Lexile or Quantile measure and up to three years of past results when they exist.
Can You Opt Out in Vermont?
This is the question Vermont parents ask most, and the honest answer is that Vermont has no formal opt-out. The Agency of Education does not support opting out, and the medical exemption process cannot be used as a workaround. What actually exists is “refusal,” which local school officials handle case by case. If you refuse, your child simply receives no score, and the state reports no direct consequence to the student, such as being held back.
There is a catch that affects the school, not your child. When a school’s participation rate falls below 95 percent, its average score can be weighted down in the accountability calculation, so schools have a real reason to encourage participation. If a low score worries you more than the test itself, know that VTCAP is not a promotion or retention test, and the state does not tie it to whether your child moves to the next grade.
What the Federal Peer Review Means for You
You may hear that federal reviewers gave VTCAP only a “partially meets” rating. Here is the practical translation. Peer review is a technical checkup, and the reviewers asked Vermont for more documentation on things like alignment studies, how items are developed, and accommodations evidence. It is an inside-baseball process, not a verdict that the test is broken. For you as a parent, it is a reason to read your child’s score as one useful data point rather than a final grade on your child. Pair it with report cards, classroom work, and teacher conversations, which is what the state itself recommends.