Do you care how your kid does on SOL’s?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I care about my 6th grade child’s math SOL. Students in advanced math in 6th grade need to pass advance the 7th grade math SOL in order to take Algebra I in 7th grade.

Advice for parents of elementary students. Your child needs to do well on the SOLs and iReady tests if you want them to get into the AAP program.

There are no SOLs in first or second grade, they have 0 influence in the AAP decision. The iReady's are reported now and used in evaluating a child's fit for the program.

SOLs can play a role in principal placing a child into LLIV or Advanced Math after third grade. The SOL only matters if your child is not committee placed in second grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a very high stress/high strung perfectionist elementary school child, so yes I absolutely downplay them.

At the end of the day they are a useful metric to make sure my kid is absorbing information as expected.

This, but mine is in middle now. I tell her constantly that "SOLs don't matter one bit for you--they only matter for the teachers and the school." She still doesn't believe me. I also said, "literally every other test and even quiz this entire year matters more than this stupid SOL." She finally did say, "I only need to pass. It doesn't matter if I pass advanced." And I said, "You don't even need to pass!!!" The truth is, I do care how she does and I do think it is one metric to assess what she is learning, but she stresses about enough things in her life so I do not need this to be one of them. So to answer the question, yes I care, but no, I do not tell my kid I care.

I have a HS kid, too, but he never gets stressed about tests of any kind.

She needs to pass her reading SOL if she's rising 7th or 8th grade. If she doesn't, she will be evaluated to have an official reading plan (Part of the Virginia Literacy Act), and she could lose an elective because she could be placed in a literacy support class.

Thanks. I wasn’t aware. She has actually scored over 550 on every reading SOL from 3rd through 6th so I don’t think that is going to happen but she can’t be reasoned with when she is stressed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well...if they fail something is definitely wrong, right? Why wouldn't you care?

DP but my child has failed math every year. She has test taking anxiety. We are working on it. She has a math tutor, so we do care.

[Anonymous]

When do SOL results come back? Both my kids already took one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When do SOL results come back? Both my kids already took one.

Elementary? You'll probably get them with the Progress Reports, unless your child didn't pass and is in the retake range.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a very high stress/high strung perfectionist elementary school child, so yes I absolutely downplay them.

At the end of the day they are a useful metric to make sure my kid is absorbing information as expected.

This, but mine is in middle now. I tell her constantly that "SOLs don't matter one bit for you--they only matter for the teachers and the school." She still doesn't believe me. I also said, "literally every other test and even quiz this entire year matters more than this stupid SOL." She finally did say, "I only need to pass. It doesn't matter if I pass advanced." And I said, "You don't even need to pass!!!" The truth is, I do care how she does and I do think it is one metric to assess what she is learning, but she stresses about enough things in her life so I do not need this to be one of them. So to answer the question, yes I care, but no, I do not tell my kid I care.

I have a HS kid, too, but he never gets stressed about tests of any kind.

Not entirely true any longer. Kids who fail the SOL and score too low on the Iready get intervention that includes a reading plan and perhaps a reading class instead of an elective.

[Anonymous]

No we skipped all of them except a few in high school needed for graduation. Not worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No we skipped all of them except a few in high school needed for graduation. Not worth it.

Its only once a year for 2 hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well...if they fail something is definitely wrong, right? Why wouldn't you care?

Some students really struggle with tests in general due to ASD, ADHD, anxiety, etc. It’s not always the content.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just by DCUM standards, I can’t blame teachers for stressing the importance of the tests: “Failing public schools”, “Good school vs bad school”, “Good teacher vs bad teacher”, “Our school’s rating dropped”, “Teachers should be held accountable for student progress”…

Exactly. These same people saying it "doesn't matter" are the ones spending $300k more for the "good schools" when they buy their house. If it doesn't matter, why aren't you thrilled to buy a more affordable house?

+1
They may also be looking at scores while fretting about redistricting to a “bad school”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:passing is around 50% ish...
so is not that hard, most kids end up passing just a few will fail.

Passing is 70%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No we skipped all of them except a few in high school needed for graduation. Not worth it.

Its only once a year for 2 hours.

This is naive. I was an ES teacher and we tested kids three times, because there were two practice tests, and each testing block was about 2 weeks long. It disrupted the schedule for everyone whether they were testing or not, so there was basically no instruction for a total of 6 weeks out of the year. All the specialists, like special ed and esol, were pulled to proctor the test, so that was also 6 weeks during which they didn't do anything but sit in a testing room.

[Anonymous]

DS class has been preparing for the SOL for the last month. He has grades in his grade book that are based on how he did on practice SOLs.

It is stupid. They spend weeks concentrating on the SOL and then they tell the kids not to stress over them. Except that their grades for a month in LA and Math have both been driven by SOL practice.

I just want them to get rid of these exams. They don't really test anything other than how many kids are meeting the bare minimum of learning needed. They become the sole focus of teaching for far too long a period of time. The kids who are struggling need more time spent on basics and less time teaching to a specific test so that they might have a chance to barely pass and improve the schools test score. we need to do more for the kids who are failing, to include holding them back. We do not help a kid by passing them on to the next grade level when they are failing their current grade level. All we do in continue the cycle of failure. The tutoring and small group interventions used to get kids to a passing grade are not doing the trick in helping the kids learn the material.

We have these tests and then we ignore the outcomes after stressing kids out over them for months on end. They are a waste of money and time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No we skipped all of them except a few in high school needed for graduation. Not worth it.

Its only once a year for 2 hours.

It’s way more than 2 hours, it’s several days per year. We also always skip and take the day off. Spend it at the movies or a museum. Have lunch out and go for ice cream or get candy at the movies. The kids love it. Stress free for everyone!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well...if they fail something is definitely wrong, right? Why wouldn't you care?

Some students really struggle with tests in general due to ASD, ADHD, anxiety, etc. It’s not always the content.

My kid is dyslexic among other things. He failed every year and no we didn't care about the SOLs.