My child is going to fail her SOLs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - it's ES. They have been practicing in school and sent a link to the practice test which we've worked on with her a few times.

Omg, you are making her take practice tests at home!? Thats just mean.
I would not do any of that. The tests are supposed to show if the school did a good job teaching the kids. Teaching the material at home masks problems at school. Under no circumstances would I let them retest her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What grade? ES it doesn't matter. HS does have some classes that you have to pass the SOL.

If your kid is in ES, I would look at practice questions and help her get comfortable with the format. She has to pass some eventually, use this as practice for taking this type of test.

Nope. This should be happening at school. Not at home. Signed FCPS teacher

I am not a big fan of letting my child fail when I can help them pass. I would rather take the time to teach my child test taking skills so that they learn how to take a test properly because at some point in time, they need to be able to pass standardized tests on a computer. Allowing my kid to develop test anxiety is not acceptable.

Kids feel terrible when they don't do well on the sols. Everybody knows because those kids get pulled out for additional "training".

I volunteered a lot in my kids classes in ES and the school - teachers and admins absolutely were the ones pushing the anxiety on the kids. The teachers were so stressed about the results that they had all the kids in knots. It infuriated me to see it. The principal, who was a nut, tried to tell the kids they wouldn't graduate and move to the next grade if they "failed". I agree with pp there is a lot of value in getting kids used to these type of tests so I would find a way to work on this with tutors or do it myself but I would make it clear to my kids that I don't take these tests seriously at all. My kids knew these were kind of a joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - it's ES. They have been practicing in school and sent a link to the practice test which we've worked on with her a few times.

Omg, you are making her take practice tests at home!? Thats just mean.
I would not do any of that. The tests are supposed to show if the school did a good job teaching the kids. Teaching the material at home masks problems at school. Under no circumstances would I let them retest her.

NP. There is nothing mean about doing a few practice tests. Any review of educational content has value so drop the hysterics. Yes, the sols are a joke but how you get that this is mean is crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What grade? ES it doesn't matter. HS does have some classes that you have to pass the SOL.

If your kid is in ES, I would look at practice questions and help her get comfortable with the format. She has to pass some eventually, use this as practice for taking this type of test.

Nope. This should be happening at school. Not at home. Signed FCPS teacher

I am not a big fan of letting my child fail when I can help them pass. I would rather take the time to teach my child test taking skills so that they learn how to take a test properly because at some point in time, they need to be able to pass standardized tests on a computer. Allowing my kid to develop test anxiety is not acceptable.

If your not familiar with the format, you may be teaching them incorrect strategies.

Like what strategies? It's basic foundational information. Any review is better than nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What grade? ES it doesn't matter. HS does have some classes that you have to pass the SOL.

If your kid is in ES, I would look at practice questions and help her get comfortable with the format. She has to pass some eventually, use this as practice for taking this type of test.

Nope. This should be happening at school. Not at home. Signed FCPS teacher

I am not a big fan of letting my child fail when I can help them pass. I would rather take the time to teach my child test taking skills so that they learn how to take a test properly because at some point in time, they need to be able to pass standardized tests on a computer. Allowing my kid to develop test anxiety is not acceptable.

If your not familiar with the format, you may be teaching them incorrect strategies.

Like what strategies? It's basic foundational information. Any review is better than nothing.

The review is happening at school, so they are getting it already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - it's ES. They have been practicing in school and sent a link to the practice test which we've worked on with her a few times.

Omg, you are making her take practice tests at home!? Thats just mean.
I would not do any of that. The tests are supposed to show if the school did a good job teaching the kids. Teaching the material at home masks problems at school. Under no circumstances would I let them retest her.

The teacher sent an email out to the entire class with a link to practice questions. It's not a full test. It's a handful of questions here and there.

[Anonymous]

I would just opt her out. Why are you putting her through it if you know it makes her feel bad? SOLs will probably be gone by the time she is on HS and they don’t matter in elementary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would just opt her out. Why are you putting her through it if you know it makes her feel bad? SOLs will probably be gone by the time she is on HS and they don’t matter in elementary.

They’re not going anywhere.

[Anonymous]

Opt out of them. They are unnecessary and causing you and your daughter distress. Focus on the learning. Tell the school/principal your daughter will not take them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would just opt her out. Why are you putting her through it if you know it makes her feel bad? SOLs will probably be gone by the time she is on HS and they don’t matter in elementary.

Why would they be gone?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What grade? ES it doesn't matter. HS does have some classes that you have to pass the SOL.

If your kid is in ES, I would look at practice questions and help her get comfortable with the format. She has to pass some eventually, use this as practice for taking this type of test.

Nope. This should be happening at school. Not at home. Signed FCPS teacher

I am not a big fan of letting my child fail when I can help them pass. I would rather take the time to teach my child test taking skills so that they learn how to take a test properly because at some point in time, they need to be able to pass standardized tests on a computer. Allowing my kid to develop test anxiety is not acceptable.

For my entire life, I took all my tests on paper until I took the GMAT. Somehow I managed to ace it. Computers are not hard. Computer science is hard (I majored it it) but using them is not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What grade? ES it doesn't matter. HS does have some classes that you have to pass the SOL.

If your kid is in ES, I would look at practice questions and help her get comfortable with the format. She has to pass some eventually, use this as practice for taking this type of test.

Nope. This should be happening at school. Not at home. Signed FCPS teacher

Thank you for saying this. (I am generally a fan of letting school handle school unless they ask otherwise, and threads here make me think I am either crazy or negligent.)

[Anonymous]

The SOLs for ES are supposed to show whether FCPS taught the basic, minimum information.

All this review, sending links for parents to "practice" at home with their kids, and whatnot is the school trying to CHEAT.

I would just opt her out and skip the hassle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The SOLs for ES are supposed to show whether FCPS taught the basic, minimum information.

All this review, sending links for parents to "practice" at home with their kids, and whatnot is the school trying to CHEAT.

I would just opt her out and skip the hassle.

Agree. There should be no practice allowed in school or at home. The SOLs should reflect how the school did at teaching the information, not how they did at cramming.

[Anonymous]

So, is the testing issue that she is struggling academically or that she hates tests/bad tester? Is she receiving services? If she is having academic trouble, I would not prep her, tell her to just do her best, and use those low scores to try and get her some additional support through the school. As a pp said, scores do not automatically lead to services, but they can help.

I'm not a big fan of extensive test prep in schools and the various hype activities (at my friend's child's school, younger kids were made to write inspirational notes to the kids taking the test-that's weird and too much pressure), however, for my own kid I'm happy to get some info from the test.