middle school science curriculum and differentiation

[Anonymous]

Our son attends a middle school in VA.

So far, their sequence was Science 6, Science 7 (with SOL), Earth Science (with SOL) in 8th grade for all. "Earth Science" is a HS course.

Now they'll do pathways with assessment (like in Math): one pathway will be Science 6 -> Science 7 -> Science 8 -> Earth Science in 9th, and
the more advanced one will be Adv Science 6 -> Adv Science 7 (w/ SOL) -> Earth Science (w/ SOL) in 8th.

My question is: are there separate Grade 7/8 SOLs? The VDoE site lists only an SOL for "Grade 6, Life and Physical Science".

Was my son's current science sequence already accelerated (for all) or did they just skip Science 8?
Could the reason for the new pathways be that too many kids flunked the science SOL in 7th because it covers 6+7+8th grade content?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our son attends a middle school in VA.

So far, their sequence was Science 6, Science 7 (with SOL), Earth Science (with SOL) in 8th grade for all. "Earth Science" is a HS course.

Now they'll do pathways with assessment (like in Math): one pathway will be Science 6 -> Science 7 -> Science 8 -> Earth Science in 9th, and
the more advanced one will be Adv Science 6 -> Adv Science 7 (w/ SOL) -> Earth Science (w/ SOL) in 8th.

My question is: are there separate Grade 7/8 SOLs? The VDoE site lists only an SOL for "Grade 6, Life and Physical Science".

Was my son's current science sequence already accelerated (for all) or did they just skip Science 8?
Could the reason for the new pathways be that too many kids flunked the science SOL in 7th because it covers 6+7+8th grade content?

OP here: I learned that indeed, my son was accelerated. They had thus far implemented an "accelerate everyone policy" and with the change are now coming to their senses, backpedal, and reintroduce the traditional tracked system. Perhaps this will be a lesson for English/Language Arts as well where the entire 6th grade is currently heterogeneously grouped and honors doesn't start until 7th. Rare to see such progress in the education realm. Of course, my son was already hurt by some of the kids who were in his science classes in 6th/7th (both figuratively and literally) - so it's too late for him, but at least future cohorts will get the benefit of a traditional tracked system.