Teachers helping kids on SOL tests

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let it go - all these tests mean so little in real life!!!!

My thought as well. Some people just need sonething to be outraged about. And I'll never understand this new culture of "Let's get someone fired".

In the grand scheme of things, no one wins or loses a thing because of the SOL. It's not attached to money, promotion, or hell even a grade. Sheeze!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let it go - all these tests mean so little in real life!!!!

My thought as well. Some people just need sonething to be outraged about. And I'll never understand this new culture of "Let's get someone fired".

In the grand scheme of things, no one wins or loses a thing because of the SOL. It's not attached to money, promotion, or hell even a grade. Sheeze!

Do you work for FCPS or another county?

Do you not have a professional code of ethics?

Teachers who cheat on SOLs are teaching students it's ok to cheat.

If the tests don't matter, why would teachers be cheating on them? They do matter.

For some parents, failing SOL scores mean the difference between getting their child help or letting their child slip through the cracks. If teachers inflate the scores, there is deception and falsifying of a student's academic Achievement or capability. It's happening all over Fairfax County. It's a numbers game and principals and regions need to look good and show they've reached their annual goals. These numbers are posted on the fcps website. Each school posts stats. It's easy to see which school inflates their numbers.

Don't you want to trust what teachers and schools report your child is achieving? One could argue all tests mean little in real life. If they ok with reporting inflated sol scores you should be skeptical of all grades reported by fcps.

OP was not out to get anyone fired. That was not the point of the original post.

Rethink your ethics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let it go - all these tests mean so little in real life!!!!

My thought as well. Some people just need sonething to be outraged about. And I'll never understand this new culture of "Let's get someone fired".

In the grand scheme of things, no one wins or loses a thing because of the SOL. It's not attached to money, promotion, or hell even a grade. Sheeze!

My problem with it, if true, is that pp's child knows it's cheating and this teacher is basically teaching kids that cheating is ok. I'm not one to try to get someone fired, but if a teacher did this, it's a very poor example to set.

[Anonymous]

FCPS teacher here and I agree with the previous two posts.

All we can say is something like, "Read it carefully and do your best".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let it go - all these tests mean so little in real life!!!!

My thought as well. Some people just need sonething to be outraged about. And I'll never understand this new culture of "Let's get someone fired".

In the grand scheme of things, no one wins or loses a thing because of the SOL. It's not attached to money, promotion, or hell even a grade. Sheeze!

Do you work for FCPS or another county?

Do you not have a professional code of ethics?

Teachers who cheat on SOLs are teaching students it's ok to cheat.

If the tests don't matter, why would teachers be cheating on them? They do matter.

For some parents, failing SOL scores mean the difference between getting their child help or letting their child slip through the cracks. If teachers inflate the scores, there is deception and falsifying of a student's academic Achievement or capability. It's happening all over Fairfax County. It's a numbers game and principals and regions need to look good and show they've reached their annual goals. These numbers are posted on the fcps website. Each school posts stats. It's easy to see which school inflates their numbers.

Don't you want to trust what teachers and schools report your child is achieving? One could argue all tests mean little in real life. If they ok with reporting inflated sol scores you should be skeptical of all grades reported by fcps.

OP was not out to get anyone fired. That was not the point of the original post.

Rethink your ethics.

It shouldn't be the SOL that is the make or break for a student considering it's at the end of the year and it has very little value long term education value.

[Anonymous]

It's just so absurd. There's a fourth grader at my school. She has an IQ of 69 and is intellectually disabled. She is an English language learner, but her level is too high to take the "portfolio" version of the SOL. Her IQ is just a couple of points too high to take the alternative assessment for low-functioning students. She had to sit and take the grade level SOL. And even though this student has made progress in many areas, our school has another failure recorded for each test she took.
There have been other alternative tests for special education students in the past. But it seems like each year the state removes them because too many kids start passing them. They're set up to fail.
It's bordering on criminal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let it go - all these tests mean so little in real life!!!!

My thought as well. Some people just need sonething to be outraged about. And I'll never understand this new culture of "Let's get someone fired".

In the grand scheme of things, no one wins or loses a thing because of the SOL. It's not attached to money, promotion, or hell even a grade. Sheeze!

Do you work for FCPS or another county?

Do you not have a professional code of ethics?

Teachers who cheat on SOLs are teaching students it's ok to cheat.

If the tests don't matter, why would teachers be cheating on them? They do matter.

For some parents, failing SOL scores mean the difference between getting their child help or letting their child slip through the cracks. If teachers inflate the scores, there is deception and falsifying of a student's academic Achievement or capability. It's happening all over Fairfax County. It's a numbers game and principals and regions need to look good and show they've reached their annual goals. These numbers are posted on the fcps website. Each school posts stats. It's easy to see which school inflates their numbers.

Don't you want to trust what teachers and schools report your child is achieving? One could argue all tests mean little in real life. If they ok with reporting inflated sol scores you should be skeptical of all grades reported by fcps.

OP was not out to get anyone fired. That was not the point of the original post.

Rethink your ethics.

Ah, the ethics argument in defense of the "hair's on fire" hysteria some want to create and justify.

No parent worth her salt would be putting any real weight on SOL as far as it relates to hwe child's ability.

I'd argue there's nothing unethical about prompting a child to go back and reconsider an answer. In the end, it is the child figuring out the correct response.

And no one's sure this wasn't just a practice test anyone. Most SOLs are pro tired by someone other than the classroom teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let it go - all these tests mean so little in real life!!!!

My thought as well. Some people just need sonething to be outraged about. And I'll never understand this new culture of "Let's get someone fired".

In the grand scheme of things, no one wins or loses a thing because of the SOL. It's not attached to money, promotion, or hell even a grade. Sheeze!

Do you work for FCPS or another county?

Do you not have a professional code of ethics?

Teachers who cheat on SOLs are teaching students it's ok to cheat.

If the tests don't matter, why would teachers be cheating on them? They do matter.

For some parents, failing SOL scores mean the difference between getting their child help or letting their child slip through the cracks. If teachers inflate the scores, there is deception and falsifying of a student's academic Achievement or capability. It's happening all over Fairfax County. It's a numbers game and principals and regions need to look good and show they've reached their annual goals. These numbers are posted on the fcps website. Each school posts stats. It's easy to see which school inflates their numbers.

Don't you want to trust what teachers and schools report your child is achieving? One could argue all tests mean little in real life. If they ok with reporting inflated sol scores you should be skeptical of all grades reported by fcps.

OP was not out to get anyone fired. That was not the point of the original post.

Rethink your ethics.

Ah, the ethics argument in defense of the "hair's on fire" hysteria some want to create and justify.

No parent worth her salt would be putting any real weight on SOL as far as it relates to hwe child's ability.

I'd argue there's nothing unethical about prompting a child to go back and reconsider an answer. In the end, it is the child figuring out the correct response.

And no one's sure this wasn't just a practice test anyone. Most SOLs are pro tired by someone other than the classroom teacher.

*proctored* by someone other than the classroom teacher.

And what parent would discount a child's entire school year worth of work and grades....in favor of one standardized test as a way of deciding whether or not to get the child help? Who does that????

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let it go - all these tests mean so little in real life!!!!

My thought as well. Some people just need sonething to be outraged about. And I'll never understand this new culture of "Let's get someone fired".

In the grand scheme of things, no one wins or loses a thing because of the SOL. It's not attached to money, promotion, or hell even a grade. Sheeze!

Do you work for FCPS or another county?

Do you not have a professional code of ethics?

Teachers who cheat on SOLs are teaching students it's ok to cheat.

If the tests don't matter, why would teachers be cheating on them? They do matter.

For some parents, failing SOL scores mean the difference between getting their child help or letting their child slip through the cracks. If teachers inflate the scores, there is deception and falsifying of a student's academic Achievement or capability. It's happening all over Fairfax County. It's a numbers game and principals and regions need to look good and show they've reached their annual goals. These numbers are posted on the fcps website. Each school posts stats. It's easy to see which school inflates their numbers.

Don't you want to trust what teachers and schools report your child is achieving? One could argue all tests mean little in real life. If they ok with reporting inflated sol scores you should be skeptical of all grades reported by fcps.

OP was not out to get anyone fired. That was not the point of the original post.

Rethink your ethics.

Ah, the ethics argument in defense of the "hair's on fire" hysteria some want to create and justify.

No parent worth her salt would be putting any real weight on SOL as far as it relates to hwe child's ability.

I'd argue there's nothing unethical about prompting a child to go back and reconsider an answer. In the end, it is the child figuring out the correct response.

And no one's sure this wasn't just a practice test anyone. Most SOLs are pro tired by someone other than the classroom teacher.

*proctored* by someone other than the classroom teacher.

And what parent would discount a child's entire school year worth of work and grades....in favor of one standardized test as a way of deciding whether or not to get the child help? Who does that????

Other than small group testing, all I've ever experienced is the classroom teacher proctoring the tests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let it go - all these tests mean so little in real life!!!!

My thought as well. Some people just need sonething to be outraged about. And I'll never understand this new culture of "Let's get someone fired".

In the grand scheme of things, no one wins or loses a thing because of the SOL. It's not attached to money, promotion, or hell even a grade. Sheeze!

Do you work for FCPS or another county?

Do you not have a professional code of ethics?

Teachers who cheat on SOLs are teaching students it's ok to cheat.

If the tests don't matter, why would teachers be cheating on them? They do matter.

For some parents, failing SOL scores mean the difference between getting their child help or letting their child slip through the cracks. If teachers inflate the scores, there is deception and falsifying of a student's academic Achievement or capability. It's happening all over Fairfax County. It's a numbers game and principals and regions need to look good and show they've reached their annual goals. These numbers are posted on the fcps website. Each school posts stats. It's easy to see which school inflates their numbers.

Don't you want to trust what teachers and schools report your child is achieving? One could argue all tests mean little in real life. If they ok with reporting inflated sol scores you should be skeptical of all grades reported by fcps.

OP was not out to get anyone fired. That was not the point of the original post.

Rethink your ethics.

Ah, the ethics argument in defense of the "hair's on fire" hysteria some want to create and justify.

No parent worth her salt would be putting any real weight on SOL as far as it relates to hwe child's ability.

I'd argue there's nothing unethical about prompting a child to go back and reconsider an answer. In the end, it is the child figuring out the correct response.

And no one's sure this wasn't just a practice test anyone. Most SOLs are pro tired by someone other than the classroom teacher.

*proctored* by someone other than the classroom teacher.

And what parent would discount a child's entire school year worth of work and grades....in favor of one standardized test as a way of deciding whether or not to get the child help? Who does that????

You are assuming and make poor arguments supporting your stance. No one said they disregarded other grades and performance and relied only on sol scores. In our school there are many cases of children failing class work and not meeting reading benchmarks, yet the school gives the kid 3s and 4s on report cards. These kids are struggling but the school refuses to test them for learning disabilities. Sol scores may provide a parent additional support that their child needs testing for learning disabilities.

And there IS something unethical about not administering a standardized test verbatim to the instructions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD described something similar to the OP's post to me yesterday. She said the teacher would check each kid's answer and prompted them to change if necessary before letting them hit "continue and next". I thought that was kind of weird. She said this is how she knows she only has one wrong answer, but the classmate next to her has many as the teacher kept prompting him to change.

The final page on the test just shows which questions kids have answered/skipped/marked for review. The teacher was probably telling students to go back and finish ones they had "marked for review" or skipped, before submitting the exam. While this is still not allowed, it's hardly telling the kids their answers are wrong.

I have a hard time believe the teacher sat with each child and read all 50 questions and student answers and prompted changes before having them submit. Even if I wanted to, I don't think I would have had time to do that--it would have added 20 minutes for each kid, and I had 60 of them in the room I was proctoring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD described something similar to the OP's post to me yesterday. She said the teacher would check each kid's answer and prompted them to change if necessary before letting them hit "continue and next". I thought that was kind of weird. She said this is how she knows she only has one wrong answer, but the classmate next to her has many as the teacher kept prompting him to change.

The final page on the test just shows which questions kids have answered/skipped/marked for review. The teacher was probably telling students to go back and finish ones they had "marked for review" or skipped, before submitting the exam. While this is still not allowed, it's hardly telling the kids their answers are wrong.

I have a hard time believe the teacher sat with each child and read all 50 questions and student answers and prompted changes before having them submit. Even if I wanted to, I don't think I would have had time to do that--it would have added 20 minutes for each kid, and I had 60 of them in the room I was proctoring.

Exactly. For most of the Grades 3-5 tests, there were 8-9 versions of the test in each room. So it's not like teachers know all the answers to all of the questions. It's just absurd. I can't even begin to fathom that something like this could possibly have occurred. Kids get confused and don't understand what they're seeing.

BTW, for the 3rd grade test, the script allows teachers to prompt the students to remind them if they have left questions unanswered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let it go - all these tests mean so little in real life!!!!

My thought as well. Some people just need sonething to be outraged about. And I'll never understand this new culture of "Let's get someone fired".



If the tests don't matter, why would teachers be cheating on them? They do matter.

For some parents, failing SOL scores mean the difference between getting their child help or letting their child slip through the cracks. If teachers inflate the scores, there is deception and falsifying of a student's academic Achievement or capability. It's happening all over Fairfax County. It's a numbers game and principals and regions need to look good and show they've reached their annual goals. These numbers are posted on the fcps website. Each school posts stats. It's easy to see which school inflates their numbers.

Don't you want to trust what teachers and schools report your child is achieving? One could argue all tests mean little in real life. If they ok with reporting inflated sol scores you should be skeptical of all grades reported by fcps.


Rethink your ethics.

SOL tests have NOTHING to do with services your child receives in fcps. We don't even know the scores they get! They aren't released until late summer, and in some schools principals don't even share them with teachers. The problem is not the teachers, it's giving them an impossible job and then threatening them with punishment if they fail. The problem is the tests. The tests are unfair. Teachers can't control what's on them, don't know what will be on them, often they are poorly worded and contain mistakes, and so on. They can also be mis-scored by the testing company that is pocketing all our tax dollars, and again there is no accountability there or check and balance system. You want to put teachers at the mercy of high profit testing companies and closed door policies that shut them out of any ability to make sure the tests are quality products and fairly scored, and then you accuse teachers of being unethical??

Look elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD described something similar to the OP's post to me yesterday. She said the teacher would check each kid's answer and prompted them to change if necessary before letting them hit "continue and next". I thought that was kind of weird. She said this is how she knows she only has one wrong answer, but the classmate next to her has many as the teacher kept prompting him to change.

The final page on the test just shows which questions kids have answered/skipped/marked for review. The teacher was probably telling students to go back and finish ones they had "marked for review" or skipped, before submitting the exam. While this is still not allowed, it's hardly telling the kids their answers are wrong.

I have a hard time believe the teacher sat with each child and read all 50 questions and student answers and prompted changes before having them submit. Even if I wanted to, I don't think I would have had time to do that--it would have added 20 minutes for each kid, and I had 60 of them in the room I was proctoring.

Exactly. For most of the Grades 3-5 tests, there were 8-9 versions of the test in each room. So it's not like teachers know all the answers to all of the questions. It's just absurd. I can't even begin to fathom that something like this could possibly have occurred. Kids get confused and don't understand what they're seeing.

BTW, for the 3rd grade test, the script allows teachers to prompt the students to remind them if they have left questions unanswered.

Agreed - I used to administer those tests. There were a million things she could have been doing. Kids are not reliable reporters of test procedures. She might have meant to erase a stray mark better, or perhaps he got off track and filled in bubbles one off and didn't erase completely, or perhaps he forgot to bubble in some of the long, detailed information they have to bubble aside from the actual test questions. I would ignore anything my child said like that - it's just not reliable enough to try and get a teacher fired. And there is really no incentive for teachers to cheat in fcps - you don't get extra money or lose your job as a consequence of test scores. OP needs to mind her own business.

[Anonymous]

This does happen with some IEP kids. Remember some are dyslexic and some have very serious handicaps. One poor IEP kid in my daughter's class had to take the SOL 8 times before he passed.