Why do some parents dislike the SOLs so very much?

[Anonymous]

Just out of curiosity. I grew up in 4 countries, 2 in South America, 2 in Europe. We always had finals, since first grade (my mom told me in a conversation we had yesterday.) So at the end of the year, the teachers gave out a study guide and they didn't even review too much in school, we had to study at home. Then we took the tests for actual grades, and it showed how prepared we were for the following year, or in some cases it showed that some kids needed summer school or additional enrichment so they wouldn't fall behind the following year. The SOLs in elementary school don't even count for a grade, so why are parents so against them? Do they feel it is too stressful for their children? Why is a comprehensive end of year review so bad? Thanks for the responses.

[Anonymous]

Former teacher here.

I get the impression that not all parents are upset about the tests themselves as much as they are upset about the amount of prep being done to get ready for the tests.
And, I also think that some teachers and schools go WAAAYYYY overboard on the prep.
Much more appropriate to prep little bits along the way from the start of the school year instead of spending months (yes, months) getting kids ready for this series of tests.
And, if done right, kids don’t even know it is test preparation. Just authentically assessing students.
It is a waste of instructional time and doing so much prep in March, April, and May tends to stress kids.

[Anonymous]

They occur about a month before the school year ends, then there is a lot of wasted time for those last few weeks.

I would have less of an objection if they all occured the second from last week of school.

[Anonymous]

New to the public school system but not at all keen on SOLs or other government-mandated testing. Unfortunately the test prep is focused less on kids truly learning and mastering material and more on their ability to spit back the most basic information into bubble sheets. Schools' funding is tied to results, often teachers' performance is evaluated against these results. They aren't really designed to determine if a child is ready to move forward to the next grade, that's not their purpose.

Curriculum should be designed to challenge our students to prepare them for the 21st Century. Instead, curriculum is designed to make sure students know which little bubbles to fill in correctly.

[Anonymous]

Just out of curiosity. I grew up in 4 countries, 2 in South America, 2 in Europe. We always had finals, since first grade (my mom told me in a conversation we had yesterday.) So at the end of the year, the teachers gave out a study guide and they didn't even review too much in school, we had to study at home. Then we took the tests for actual grades, and it showed how prepared we were for the following year, or in some cases it showed that some kids needed summer school or additional enrichment so they wouldn't fall behind the following year. The SOLs in elementary school don't even count for a grade, so why are parents so against them? Do they feel it is too stressful for their children? Why is a comprehensive end of year review so bad? Thanks for the responses.

Were these public schools? I'm guessing they were not. If they were, the structure in South America and Europe is very different from here. In South America, even now, students who do not go to school are not "forced"to go via truancy officers, etc. You already have the higher SES students in the schools and their parents, like yours, are much better educated. Also, there is no summer school here anymore (no money for it). You are comparing apples and oranges when talking about South America and Europe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Former teacher here.

I get the impression that not all parents are upset about the tests themselves as much as they are upset about the amount of prep being done to get ready for the tests.
And, I also think that some teachers and schools go WAAAYYYY overboard on the prep.
Much more appropriate to prep little bits along the way from the start of the school year instead of spending months (yes, months) getting kids ready for this series of tests.
And, if done right, kids don’t even know it is test preparation. Just authentically assessing students.
It is a waste of instructional time and doing so much prep in March, April, and May tends to stress kids.

+1000. Way too much wasted class time. Wasted time to review. Wasted time to take the tests. Now they are pushing to retest kids who barely fail. And I hate that in ES my kids teachers basically stop teaching for the year after they are over (movie day, field trips, field day, planting the "teaching garden", etc). At that point they should just let the kids out to enjoy summer, because this is another lost 3 weeks. All in all, the years the kids take 4 SOLs, they lose at least 5-6 weeks of instructional time. Over the course of 3-8th grade, that's an extra year of school. Also, it feels like the tests don't benefit the kids much-- they are mostly used to rank schools and evaluate teachers. And I don't like my ES age kids taking high stakes tests (at least in their teachers' eyes). Sure-- that's a part of school at some point. But IMO, not necessary before MS and HS. And teachers shouldn't need a standardized test to tell the that a child is struggling & needs extra help. That should show up & be addressed long before SOLs.

BTW: VA does significantly more testing that required by NCLB.

[Anonymous]

How do you all feel about VA getting rid of the writing test in 5th grade. Now there isn't a writing test till 8th grade? Your child won't have an actual writing test for 9 years of schooling.

[Anonymous]

Because they represent the faceless bureaucracy that runs the public school system. All about results, nothing about individual attention or real learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Former teacher here.

I get the impression that not all parents are upset about the tests themselves as much as they are upset about the amount of prep being done to get ready for the tests.
And, I also think that some teachers and schools go WAAAYYYY overboard on the prep.
Much more appropriate to prep little bits along the way from the start of the school year instead of spending months (yes, months) getting kids ready for this series of tests.
And, if done right, kids don’t even know it is test preparation. Just authentically assessing students.
It is a waste of instructional time and doing so much prep in March, April, and May tends to stress kids.

+1000. Way too much wasted class time. Wasted time to review. Wasted time to take the tests. Now they are pushing to retest kids who barely fail. And I hate that in ES my kids teachers basically stop teaching for the year after they are over (movie day, field trips, field day, planting the "teaching garden", etc). At that point they should just let the kids out to enjoy summer, because this is another lost 3 weeks. All in all, the years the kids take 4 SOLs, they lose at least 5-6 weeks of instructional time. Over the course of 3-8th grade, that's an extra year of school. Also, it feels like the tests don't benefit the kids much-- they are mostly used to rank schools and evaluate teachers. And I don't like my ES age kids taking high stakes tests (at least in their teachers' eyes). Sure-- that's a part of school at some point. But IMO, not necessary before MS and HS. And teachers shouldn't need a standardized test to tell the that a child is struggling & needs extra help. That should show up & be addressed long before SOLs.

BTW: VA does significantly more testing that required by NCLB.

This is OP, so the curriculum is over after the SOLs? If so, that seems silly. What are they going to do for the rest of the year? My son is in the AAP program and they really rushed through certain things. They could have added some extra days to the lessons and taken the SOLs the last week of school. I completely agree with that concern. About the prep, they did it for a week prior to each test. That seemed ok with me. Specially not having to do it at home. My son just wants to get home and play so I can only imagine how painful it would have been to do the prep at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Former teacher here.

I get the impression that not all parents are upset about the tests themselves as much as they are upset about the amount of prep being done to get ready for the tests.
And, I also think that some teachers and schools go WAAAYYYY overboard on the prep.
Much more appropriate to prep little bits along the way from the start of the school year instead of spending months (yes, months) getting kids ready for this series of tests.
And, if done right, kids don’t even know it is test preparation. Just authentically assessing students.
It is a waste of instructional time and doing so much prep in March, April, and May tends to stress kids.

+1000. Way too much wasted class time. Wasted time to review. Wasted time to take the tests. Now they are pushing to retest kids who barely fail. And I hate that in ES my kids teachers basically stop teaching for the year after they are over (movie day, field trips, field day, planting the "teaching garden", etc). At that point they should just let the kids out to enjoy summer, because this is another lost 3 weeks. All in all, the years the kids take 4 SOLs, they lose at least 5-6 weeks of instructional time. Over the course of 3-8th grade, that's an extra year of school. Also, it feels like the tests don't benefit the kids much-- they are mostly used to rank schools and evaluate teachers. And I don't like my ES age kids taking high stakes tests (at least in their teachers' eyes). Sure-- that's a part of school at some point. But IMO, not necessary before MS and HS. And teachers shouldn't need a standardized test to tell the that a child is struggling & needs extra help. That should show up & be addressed long before SOLs.

BTW: VA does significantly more testing that required by NCLB.

This is OP, so the curriculum is over after the SOLs? If so, that seems silly. What are they going to do for the rest of the year? My son is in the AAP program and they really rushed through certain things. They could have added some extra days to the lessons and taken the SOLs the last week of school. I completely agree with that concern. About the prep, they did it for a week prior to each test. That seemed ok with me. Specially not having to do it at home. My son just wants to get home and play so I can only imagine how painful it would have been to do the prep at home.

My kids are both AAP (5&7), and yes, their ES curriculum was over and it was "Fun time" at school after SOLs (this is our first year in MS, so we'll see). If teachers are not going to teach new material after SOLs, they should be out of school in the pretty weather and having fun with neighborhood friends at the pool. And they both regularly work through SOL packets, and take practice SOLs, which they have to go over with a parent. I'm an English major, and found the 5th grade reading SOL confusing, BTW, with trick questions and several "right" answers. This year DD, 5th grade, has started to exhibit SOL test anxiety(upset stomach, difficulty sleeping before SOLs) because she is afraid she will fail and be dropped from AAP (no, they can't do that, and we keep telling her this. And we are getting her help with performance anxiety before this gets worse). But, that's why I hate SOLs. Especially, since, after all that, they have no impact on grades, placement, etc for ES kids.

[Anonymous]

Because this generation of parents like none before thinks it knows more about education than educators.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just out of curiosity. I grew up in 4 countries, 2 in South America, 2 in Europe. We always had finals, since first grade (my mom told me in a conversation we had yesterday.) So at the end of the year, the teachers gave out a study guide and they didn't even review too much in school, we had to study at home. Then we took the tests for actual grades, and it showed how prepared we were for the following year, or in some cases it showed that some kids needed summer school or additional enrichment so they wouldn't fall behind the following year. The SOLs in elementary school don't even count for a grade, so why are parents so against them? Do they feel it is too stressful for their children? Why is a comprehensive end of year review so bad? Thanks for the responses.

Yup. Exactly. I think the tests preform a very useful service. But it should be testing on the material learned, not teaching to the test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Former teacher here.

I get the impression that not all parents are upset about the tests themselves as much as they are upset about the amount of prep being done to get ready for the tests.
And, I also think that some teachers and schools go WAAAYYYY overboard on the prep.
Much more appropriate to prep little bits along the way from the start of the school year instead of spending months (yes, months) getting kids ready for this series of tests.
And, if done right, kids don’t even know it is test preparation. Just authentically assessing students.
It is a waste of instructional time and doing so much prep in March, April, and May tends to stress kids.

+1000. Way too much wasted class time. Wasted time to review. Wasted time to take the tests. Now they are pushing to retest kids who barely fail. And I hate that in ES my kids teachers basically stop teaching for the year after they are over (movie day, field trips, field day, planting the "teaching garden", etc). At that point they should just let the kids out to enjoy summer, because this is another lost 3 weeks. All in all, the years the kids take 4 SOLs, they lose at least 5-6 weeks of instructional time. Over the course of 3-8th grade, that's an extra year of school. Also, it feels like the tests don't benefit the kids much-- they are mostly used to rank schools and evaluate teachers. And I don't like my ES age kids taking high stakes tests (at least in their teachers' eyes). Sure-- that's a part of school at some point. But IMO, not necessary before MS and HS. And teachers shouldn't need a standardized test to tell the that a child is struggling & needs extra help. That should show up & be addressed long before SOLs.

BTW: VA does significantly more testing that required by NCLB.

This is OP, so the curriculum is over after the SOLs? If so, that seems silly. What are they going to do for the rest of the year? My son is in the AAP program and they really rushed through certain things. They could have added some extra days to the lessons and taken the SOLs the last week of school. I completely agree with that concern. About the prep, they did it for a week prior to each test. That seemed ok with me. Specially not having to do it at home. My son just wants to get home and play so I can only imagine how painful it would have been to do the prep at home.

Curriculum is not over in any class we've had. The last week or so is pretty loose, but it was when I was a kid too. I don't think what little dead time there is is a function of the tests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They occur about a month before the school year ends, then there is a lot of wasted time for those last few weeks.

I would have less of an objection if they all occured the second from last week of school.

I actually like the timing since my kids' teachers have used that month after SOL to get to units on topics not emphasized by the SOLs, like science in 4th grade.

I think the SOLs are a good thing as done in our school -- there doesn't seem to be excessive time on "test prep." The kids are asked to do some review at home which is appropriate. It's not everything but is a valuable data point to see how your kid/school/district is doing. When my DS was going into 6th he had a bad day on the day of the math placement test and was not placed in higher level math for 6th, despite very high math SOLs and being ID'd as gifted in math for several years in ES. Having that score history helped make the case that they should overlook the bad placement test and he's handled Math 7 fine as I expected.

[Anonymous]

SOLs aren't a "final exam" on the course the kid did that year, in that classroom, with that teacher. They often encompass several years at once (for instance, my kid will take the eighth grade science SOL soon; it covers science from sixth, seventh and eighth grades). And it's not a final for the year in all subjects, since kids do not take an SOL in every subject every year. (Thank heaven.)

OP, I have a middle schooler in an AAP center and the SOLs just mean more stress at a time of year when she already has final projects in some classes, the last unit tests on curriculum, and this year, two high-school-level final exams in two HS credit classes she's taking. I can only imagine the added stress and wasted study time for SOLs in high school when kids have finals in almost every class at around the same time as SOLs. Kids must pass SOLs in order to get credit for many HS classes -- even if the students have a final in that class, and even if they pass the class and the final exam, they still have to pass the SOL. Another test, one that's going to be less rigorous than any decent final exam, but the time has to be spent on it anyway.

Yes, the SOL should be a piece of cake if the kid knows enough pass the course final. The SOLs are going to be easier than the course final and SOLs could be looked on as something of a practice run for the course final. But the time spent on SOLs seems ridiculous when kids are going to take in final in what they were actually taught in that classroom, that year. I would love to be rid of them for HS at least, but Virginia insists on them and uses them to judge teachers and schools.