APS: SOL Failure Notification

[Anonymous]

As a teacher, I’ve found this frustration too. We are only allowed to contact parents if the child fails but is within the retake range. FCPS and ACPS send the scores home on the last day of school along with the report cards. APS insists on waiting until the official score come out (at least in elementary). I would not want to get that news at the end of summer—especially if it’s an unexpected fail.

[Anonymous]

I agree with OP that it’s infuriating that they don’t report scores sooner. The breakdown of which questions were missed is available right away (before the end of school, it not sooner). I know my kid failed reading, and the teacher wouldn’t tell me which sections specifically that had failed so that the tutor we hired for over the summer could use that information to inform their planning.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I think the policy in elementary is that they only notify parents right away if the child almost passes, so they can do a retake. I agree that it’s a poor policy, though.

Ok, so do most elementary schools actually do that or do they nevertheless notify families upon failure? Did anyone’s classroom teacher/principal reach out to them? Or is everyone like us and just uncovered it on Parentvue?

I am pretty surrounded most elementary schools inform parents of your kid is just under the pass rate because the school wants to give them an opportunity to retake the test so the overall pass rate for the school winds up higher.

They don't inform if they don't think you can retake and pass. That is because ES sees the SOL (rightly or wrongly) as largely a reflection of teaching vs the students abilities.

Despite the fact that it is used as math placement.

It’s one data point.

A kid isn’t going to go from not passing to a score of 550+

Actually, I have seen this happen. I was shocked when I found out one of my strongest readers hadn’t passed the previous year’s reading SOL and retakes weren’t offered that year. I didn’t provide intervention and I doubt her parents did either. That year, she had a high pass advanced score. Sometimes, kids really do have a bad day.

[Anonymous]

OP: I didn't read the thread so forgive me if this is redundant. Call for a "Child Study" Meeting immediately as soon as school starts. Say you suspect a learning disability given the SOL score. Also, go over to the special needs thread. THey will be very helpful. I'm not saying your child has a learning disability but this is how your get your child they education they need.

[Anonymous]

^^ actually, you can ask now. Assistant principal is usually the person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, I’ve found this frustration too. We are only allowed to contact parents if the child fails but is within the retake range. FCPS and ACPS send the scores home on the last day of school along with the report cards. APS insists on waiting until the official score come out (at least in elementary). I would not want to get that news at the end of summer—especially if it’s an unexpected fail.

What is the rationale for waiting until the official score comes out? Do scores change or is it to provide perspective on how other students in VA scored?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The SOL is just one of many assessments that kids take. How well did the kid do on everything else during the school year? Was the failing score in line with other results? Was your kid already receiving interventions?

Completely unaware that this was a potential scenario. Not receiving interventions. Would have acted (and am acting) immediately to figure out what is going on.

If it’s inconsistent with the rest of the testing then maybe your kid just had a bad day and doesn’t need interventions. See how well they test in BOY assessments.

Which subject was it?

We have an entire team working on this question from doctors to educational specialists to former teachers. But all of them resoundingly tell me: the delay is harmful.

So this thread is about, not my child, but is this something APS actually does everywhere or did my school just drop the ball on my child? I cannot believe it is true across the schools.

No I think this is standard timing. If the child just barely fails (can't remember the cutoff, maybe 25 points?) they will tell you in the spring and office a retake. Otherwise you find out in late summer.

Happened to us a few years back after the pandemic year and I was none too happy to find out so late. This was for a secondary student in a math class so it did impact course selection.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Does APS have any policy requiring that schools notify families of SOL failures? I understand that teachers learn about results almost instantly in June. Our school did not notify us of child’s failure. We did look online when scores were posted and uncovered the failures. No one from the school contacted us. We lost weeks over the summer were we could have tried to understand what happened and to make a plan or even to start remediation. It’s very concerning to me that APS put so much emphasis on these tests and then did absolutely nothing about it for our child.

What grade level?

OP here. Elementary. Why does it matter though?

Also, we had zero notice that this was a likely scenario.

For older grades it’s a bigger deal - it’s required to get credit for some classes.

I cannot imagine it not being a big deal to any family. I am beyond mad.

Understand that you’re mad, but the point being it seriously affects whether or not a kid will receive high school credit and whether or not they can take the next class. For elementary yes, it’s a setback, but it doesn’t impact their next school year from a course perspective. You have time on your side while high school students don’t.

I mean, you don’t think an elementary school parent is entitled to know whether their child can complete on grade level learning when the school system knows s/he cannot? How do you think it impacts an elementary school family to lose an entire summer without summer school / tutoring /whatever to come into a grade the next year already behind and having done nothing to catch up over the summer? I can’t figure out why you think an argument is to be made that it’s more or less important for certain kids in APS based on their age. That is just not a good reason not to communicate with families.

Agree. The whole delayed release is preposterous. I think they just delay until they are ready to go on vacation in August. They are not thinking about students. Fairfax releases results in June, but APS is really special and does it almost in August, go figure

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The SOL is just one of many assessments that kids take. How well did the kid do on everything else during the school year? Was the failing score in line with other results? Was your kid already receiving interventions?

Completely unaware that this was a potential scenario. Not receiving interventions. Would have acted (and am acting) immediately to figure out what is going on.

If it’s inconsistent with the rest of the testing then maybe your kid just had a bad day and doesn’t need interventions. See how well they test in BOY assessments.

Which subject was it?

We have an entire team working on this question from doctors to educational specialists to former teachers. But all of them resoundingly tell me: the delay is harmful.

So this thread is about, not my child, but is this something APS actually does everywhere or did my school just drop the ball on my child? I cannot believe it is true across the schools.

Good job! They didn't want to be bothered in summer by your team. That's how it looks on the outside. They should get their act together. And to the poster saying the delay is worse in high school, with the existing policy the schools seem to be pushing kids towards bigger failure, something that might have cumilative effect by middle/high school. Selfish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My middle schooler passed but not well, and I was furious at the delay too. There’s no reason not to tell me. For my child to move on in math where said child was placed, I would want to know where that child stood on the SOL. It’s not even clear which SOL was administered.

For elementary, they also withdrew access to online apps on august 1. So even if you wanted to use Lexia or the tools provided for summer support, you were cut off one day after learning the SOL scores. It’s appalling.

I would write with you. Everyone should.

Yeah, that policy is stupid too. Morons

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I appreciate all of the focus on whether my child had a bad day or the specific score or the specific test. But, as their parent, I’m getting the advice of professionals over anonymous posting on DCUM—which don’t get me wrong can be helpful as a starting point, particularly in terms of questions to ask.

Rather, I want the focus to be on APS’ actions here. There is a huge emphasis on the SOLs over other tests, as everyone knows. Kids are prepped for them in a different way; the school emphasizes them in a different way. And yet when kids can’t achieve at a basic level on them—no one notifies the families? That is insane to me. Does this really happen across the board? I was assuming, perhaps incorrectly, that more competent schools within APS would notify the families. Is that a mistake?

Which professionals?

Presumably they have better measures of a student’s abilities than the SOL. Certainly they do for math and language arts. From the student’s perspective, SOLs are no more meaningful than any other assessment.

[Anonymous]

If you don’t know your kid is struggling in a particular area until the SOL, you’re doing it wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with OP that it’s infuriating that they don’t report scores sooner. The breakdown of which questions were missed is available right away (before the end of school, it not sooner). I know my kid failed reading, and the teacher wouldn’t tell me which sections specifically that had failed so that the tutor we hired for over the summer could use that information to inform their planning.

Now isn't that thoughtful?

[Anonymous]

Seems like it would be helpful to know immediately so the student could do summer school. Additionally, right now there is the VDOE grant the family could have used for tutoring.

The fact APS has a policy to wait till the last allowable minute unlike FCPS is the concerning theme of this thread IMO. Why hide this from parents?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you don’t know your kid is struggling in a particular area until the SOL, you’re doing it wrong.

No the school is doing it wrong.