SOL is 10% of final grade for 7 to 12th graders from 2026-2027

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is this bad? After reviewing past tests, the content of SOLs frankly seems like the bare minimum that kids should have learned. What is the difference between this and finals? My kids are in elementary school and don’t have final exams so it makes sense that SOLs would serve this purpose.

Teacher is a dinosaur who is still teaching the biology standards from when they started teaching 27 years ago, so a significant portion of today's standards are skipped.

Teacher goes out on emergency medical leave in January. School is unable to find a long term sub for 2nd semester, so it's pieced together daily subs who don't know any of the math that is taught.

Grade is worth 10% no matter the course. There is 1 test for biology, 1 for algebra 2, etc. The child in algebra 2 honors will get the same 10% credit for mastering the very basics as an on level kid as a self contained kid. They are in different courses. Historically they have had different final exams, covering the extensions taught or including the supports used in class. Now, everyone will have the same 50 questions regardless of course content.

I could go on. There are a million reasons why this is dumb.

Maybe demand or provide an actual education for your child so they can meet state standards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This 10% SOL requirement can bring the final grade down from A to B and from C to D. Even Reid is against this.
Kids from top public high schools in VA are as it is having a difficult time to get selected for top universities compared to other states where high schools are not that good and don’t offer many APs.

Absolutely, this is really unfair to the kids. They already have class final exams and AP tests and now to have to worry about an SOL tanking their grade?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This 10% SOL requirement can bring the final grade down from A to B and from C to D. Even Reid is against this.
Kids from top public high schools in VA are as it is having a difficult time to get selected for top universities compared to other states where high schools are not that good and don’t offer many APs.

Absolutely, this is really unfair to the kids. They already have class final exams and AP tests and now to have to worry about an SOL tanking their grade?

There's no time limit on those tests, Kids would be getting much higher scores on the SOL if it counted for something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is this bad? After reviewing past tests, the content of SOLs frankly seems like the bare minimum that kids should have learned. What is the difference between this and finals? My kids are in elementary school and don’t have final exams so it makes sense that SOLs would serve this purpose.

Teacher is a dinosaur who is still teaching the biology standards from when they started teaching 27 years ago, so a significant portion of today's standards are skipped.

Teacher goes out on emergency medical leave in January. School is unable to find a long term sub for 2nd semester, so it's pieced together daily subs who don't know any of the math that is taught.

Grade is worth 10% no matter the course. There is 1 test for biology, 1 for algebra 2, etc. The child in algebra 2 honors will get the same 10% credit for mastering the very basics as an on level kid as a self contained kid. They are in different courses. Historically they have had different final exams, covering the extensions taught or including the supports used in class. Now, everyone will have the same 50 questions regardless of course content.

I could go on. There are a million reasons why this is dumb.

Maybe demand or provide an actual education for your child so they can meet state standards.

My own child never scored below a 550 on a single SOL his entire school career. He has one left, he’ll probably do fine on it too. He’s been fortunate to have great teachers.

I’m worried about all of our students. As a teacher, I’ve seen what goes on in some of my colleagues’ classrooms and it’s not solid instruction. This is a stupid policy that penalizes kids stuck with a teacher who cannot/does not teach the standards well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is this bad? After reviewing past tests, the content of SOLs frankly seems like the bare minimum that kids should have learned. What is the difference between this and finals? My kids are in elementary school and don’t have final exams so it makes sense that SOLs would serve this purpose.

Teacher is a dinosaur who is still teaching the biology standards from when they started teaching 27 years ago, so a significant portion of today's standards are skipped.

Teacher goes out on emergency medical leave in January. School is unable to find a long term sub for 2nd semester, so it's pieced together daily subs who don't know any of the math that is taught.

Grade is worth 10% no matter the course. There is 1 test for biology, 1 for algebra 2, etc. The child in algebra 2 honors will get the same 10% credit for mastering the very basics as an on level kid as a self contained kid. They are in different courses. Historically they have had different final exams, covering the extensions taught or including the supports used in class. Now, everyone will have the same 50 questions regardless of course content.

I could go on. There are a million reasons why this is dumb.

Maybe demand or provide an actual education for your child so they can meet state standards.

My own child never scored below a 550 on a single SOL his entire school career. He has one left, he’ll probably do fine on it too. He’s been fortunate to have great teachers.

I’m worried about all of our students. As a teacher, I’ve seen what goes on in some of my colleagues’ classrooms and it’s not solid instruction. This is a stupid policy that penalizes kids stuck with a teacher who cannot/does not teach the standards well.

Most do not get anywhere near 550 so interested to know what the grading scale is going to be when move to “out of 100” scale. 550/600 is pass advanced but A- on FCPS grading scale at 91.7%

[Anonymous]

550/600 is pass advanced but A- on FCPS grading scale at 91.7%- if 550 is A-, this is going to tank the final grade of many kids. My DC never scored above 515 in math and LA.

[Anonymous]

So on the flip side...maybe this will help NOVA too kids stand out? Bc if they do well on the SOL and other parts of the state don't...it will shed light on the grade inflated schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is this bad? After reviewing past tests, the content of SOLs frankly seems like the bare minimum that kids should have learned. What is the difference between this and finals? My kids are in elementary school and don’t have final exams so it makes sense that SOLs would serve this purpose.

Some kids aren't great standardized test takers. My daughter does great in honors math, she never gets below a 90% on tests, she has no problem with her homework. She just barely passes the math SOL every year. She just doesn't do well on computer based tests. She has the same issue with performance matters tests, thankfully those don't count for grades in her middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So on the flip side...maybe this will help NOVA too kids stand out? Bc if they do well on the SOL and other parts of the state don't...it will shed light on the grade inflated schools.

Stand out where?? High school transcripts are about getting your kid into college, not about proving NOVA is more agressively competitive than rural parts of Virginia. That's proven in many other data sets (AP tests, national merit scholars, etc. Have you seen the US News VA school rankings??) This policy is only set to motivate kids to put in more effort on SOLs so that the district honchos can claim victory. Adding incentive on this test has nothing to do with educating kids better and it has nothing to do with benefiting out kids. As my high schooler preps for his 5 AP tests in the next two weeks and then finals after that, I'm really happy he's not taking time from what matters for college apps to boost egos for FCPS leadership. Honestly, one decision after another shows that the public schools really don't care about the kids at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is this bad? After reviewing past tests, the content of SOLs frankly seems like the bare minimum that kids should have learned. What is the difference between this and finals? My kids are in elementary school and don’t have final exams so it makes sense that SOLs would serve this purpose.

Some kids aren't great standardized test takers. My daughter does great in honors math, she never gets below a 90% on tests, she has no problem with her homework. She just barely passes the math SOL every year. She just doesn't do well on computer based tests. She has the same issue with performance matters tests, thankfully those don't count for grades in her middle school.

I'm not saying that that SOLs are a good idea but one reason your daughter may not be doing well on the SOLs is because nobody cares about the results.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is this bad? After reviewing past tests, the content of SOLs frankly seems like the bare minimum that kids should have learned. What is the difference between this and finals? My kids are in elementary school and don’t have final exams so it makes sense that SOLs would serve this purpose.

Teacher is a dinosaur who is still teaching the biology standards from when they started teaching 27 years ago, so a significant portion of today's standards are skipped.

Teacher goes out on emergency medical leave in January. School is unable to find a long term sub for 2nd semester, so it's pieced together daily subs who don't know any of the math that is taught.

Grade is worth 10% no matter the course. There is 1 test for biology, 1 for algebra 2, etc. The child in algebra 2 honors will get the same 10% credit for mastering the very basics as an on level kid as a self contained kid. They are in different courses. Historically they have had different final exams, covering the extensions taught or including the supports used in class. Now, everyone will have the same 50 questions regardless of course content.

I could go on. There are a million reasons why this is dumb.

Maybe demand or provide an actual education for your child so they can meet state standards.

My own child never scored below a 550 on a single SOL his entire school career. He has one left, he’ll probably do fine on it too. He’s been fortunate to have great teachers.

I’m worried about all of our students. As a teacher, I’ve seen what goes on in some of my colleagues’ classrooms and it’s not solid instruction. This is a stupid policy that penalizes kids stuck with a teacher who cannot/does not teach the standards well.

My kid has had some pretty bad teachers. He still gets advanced pass because the standards are very low.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This 10% SOL requirement can bring the final grade down from A to B and from C to D. Even Reid is against this.
Kids from top public high schools in VA are as it is having a difficult time to get selected for top universities compared to other states where high schools are not that good and don’t offer many APs.

Depending on the scaling, this might help your kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So on the flip side...maybe this will help NOVA too kids stand out? Bc if they do well on the SOL and other parts of the state don't...it will shed light on the grade inflated schools.

Stand out where?? High school transcripts are about getting your kid into college, not about proving NOVA is more agressively competitive than rural parts of Virginia. That's proven in many other data sets (AP tests, national merit scholars, etc. Have you seen the US News VA school rankings??) This policy is only set to motivate kids to put in more effort on SOLs so that the district honchos can claim victory. Adding incentive on this test has nothing to do with educating kids better and it has nothing to do with benefiting out kids. As my high schooler preps for his 5 AP tests in the next two weeks and then finals after that, I'm really happy he's not taking time from what matters for college apps to boost egos for FCPS leadership. Honestly, one decision after another shows that the public schools really don't care about the kids at all.

Almost everything they do is for appearances sake. The whole TJ admissions thing was driven by appearances.

[Anonymous]

This should be an easy point gain for kids in AAP, they should all be able to pass the SOL Advanced. Exceptions being kids with learning issues and the like who struggle with this type of test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This should be an easy point gain for kids in AAP, they should all be able to pass the SOL Advanced. Exceptions being kids with learning issues and the like who struggle with this type of test.

But pass advanced might equal an A- which might lower the childs grade. We need more details on how the scoring will translate to grading. I doubt it will benefit most children receiving As. It may benefit a child who doesn't put much effort in but tests well, so maybe they had a C and the SOL will raise to a B.