SOL Score calculation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The language arts test is adaptive but only to a point. I’ve seen scores in which kids only miss 3 questions and not pass advanced and I’ve seen kids miss 4-5 questions and pass advanced. Some kids are given almost all “easy” questions, despite having very few errors (this actually lowers their overall score), while other students get several “medium” questions with more errors. Math is more adaptive than reading.

This is fascinating information - assuming you are a teacher who has this all in front of you regularly. Might explain the variance in my own kids' scores from year to year. Same kid, similar level of acheivement and teaching in class, pass advance versus merely passing always baffled me. Not that it's a big deal because it's not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Here we go, there's some information in the middle of this article on the cut scores: https://virginiamercury.com/2023/03/29/virginia-explained-the-debate-over-student-expectations/

Thanks this article shows some light . I wish they had a detailed report on SOL results just like this report stating cut score calc .

There is a detailed report that you receive for the SOL tests.

What that article hints at but does not say is that the SOL tests change, with the test difficulty and the cut score changing every few years, getting easier and harder.

It does say that buried towards the end, in the board's perspective section. It talks about how you can't judge the cut score without knowing how the test itself changes and has a table showing the cut scores back to when the SOLs first started. They change every 7 years (confirmed that now via the article), but on a staggered schedule between math and LA. Article does not cover high school SOLs.

FWIW, we are currently in a harder cycle with the SOLs - the pandemic and learning loss are additional factors on top of that.

This is what DD says. The old SOL questions available through SOLPass for instance, are stupidly easy, and not at all helpful for preparing for the actual SOL they're administerered.

DD says that the math SOL (Geometry) does not appear to be adaptive, because there were 5 different question banks, and depending on which one you got, the questions were pretty much the same. Further, that it seemed like the question bank changes with ever 3 kids (by last name). So for instance, she and her friend with the same last name got the same test. The IRW SOL was adaptive.

[Anonymous]

my kid got max points for the sol growth assessments this year but a 468 on the 7 th grade english
is this a low score?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:my kid got max points for the sol growth assessments this year but a 468 on the 7 th grade english
is this a low score?

They passed but did not pass advanced.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The language arts test is adaptive but only to a point. I’ve seen scores in which kids only miss 3 questions and not pass advanced and I’ve seen kids miss 4-5 questions and pass advanced. Some kids are given almost all “easy” questions, despite having very few errors (this actually lowers their overall score), while other students get several “medium” questions with more errors. Math is more adaptive than reading.

So I'm curious, how does it work - if almost all "easy" questions then the scores are low ?