Benchmark, almost one year done. How are people feeling about it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 6th grader said what they learned in benchmark didn’t help on SOL.

I'm surprised that your child has taken the SOL already, ours are not for another two weeks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 6th grader said what they learned in benchmark didn’t help on SOL.

I don’t think your sixth grader is trained to accurately make that comparison.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree, it's so much better than anything that has been taught in FCPS elementaries in the past 10 years. I am so glad we finally have a curriculum instead of cobbling things together from previous years and TpT.

Maybe lazy teachers like it because they don’t have to get creative. The lessons are canned and ready for them. The good LA teachers don’t like it. They want real novels. I’m sure the AAP teachers hate Benchmark.

You're not a teacher. This has been a really hard year for teachers, and we are working really hard with our teams and our leadership to ensure that we can adapt it to better suit our kids needs next year. It's been a long time since kids read novels as part of the curriculum - we've had book clubs, sure, but the curriculum has not centered around books like Charlotte's Web, etc., when we were kids in YEARS.

Our teachers still read Charlotte's Web and other chapter books. I don't know that they do anything to expand on them, but I still like that they read them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 6th grader said what they learned in benchmark didn’t help on SOL.

+1 mine said the same thing. They didn’t feel prepared for the reading SOL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 6th grader said what they learned in benchmark didn’t help on SOL.

I'm surprised that your child has taken the SOL already, ours are not for another two weeks.

Yup. Last week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 6th grader said what they learned in benchmark didn’t help on SOL.

I don’t think your sixth grader is trained to accurately make that comparison.

Probably not. Just putting it out there since one of the questions was whether benchmark aligns to Virginia SOL tests.

It does not align well to kindergarten LA state test and that’s something that needs to change next year.

[Anonymous]

I thought the whole point was that we don’t want teachers to teach to the test, we want our children to learn how to read, ans to understand and critically analyze what they read. I don’t care if my kids pass advanced the SOL or not, I just want them to be able to read and write and my current 4th grader is probably a year ahead of where his sister was at this age. That’s a win in my book, even if the curriculum is boring and tedious at times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 6th grader said what they learned in benchmark didn’t help on SOL.

I'm surprised that your child has taken the SOL already, ours are not for another two weeks.

Yup. Last week.

DP
Our ES finished yesterday. The only test left is the 5th grade science.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 6th grader said what they learned in benchmark didn’t help on SOL.

I'm surprised that your child has taken the SOL already, ours are not for another two weeks.

Most elementary schools schedule the reading SOL first as you can’t really study for it. They prefer to put math and science later. I think the testing window begins May 1.

[Anonymous]

Our ES starts the SOL’s right away on May 1st - reading first, then the 5th grade science and then math. That way they have plenty of time for makeups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree, it's so much better than anything that has been taught in FCPS elementaries in the past 10 years. I am so glad we finally have a curriculum instead of cobbling things together from previous years and TpT.

Maybe lazy teachers like it because they don’t have to get creative. The lessons are canned and ready for them. The good LA teachers don’t like it. They want real novels. I’m sure the AAP teachers hate Benchmark.

Are you a current FCPS teacher? You must not be becuase then you’d know we have spent hours on planning for this “canned curriculum “ and preparing to teach it.

+1 from an AAP teacher. We’ve had to spend an inordinate amount of time prepping the boring canned curriculum. It’s not “ready to go.” You couldn’t leave it for a sub as is, or he/she would be lost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 6th grader said what they learned in benchmark didn’t help on SOL.

+1 mine said the same thing. They didn’t feel prepared for the reading SOL.

Teacher here… interesting cause our scores were really good!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 6th grader said what they learned in benchmark didn’t help on SOL.

I'm surprised that your child has taken the SOL already, ours are not for another two weeks.

Our school did reading SOLs last week.

[Anonymous]

Did y’all ask your kids in previous years if they felt prepped for the SOL? I’m guessing no.

[Anonymous]

My kid said the SOL was easier than benchmark.