SOL opt-out

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/04/21/pearsons-history-of-testing-problems-a-list/

Read more about Pearson's history of testing problems. Pearson is the SOL vendor. Look up Virginia. Taxpayers pay millions for these tests. Time for parents to hold education leadership accountable.

So if FCPS administers them, you don't have an issue with them?

[Anonymous]

SOL test data has zero to do with my evaluation. How could it? My evaluation is due the end of May, my kids don't take the SOL until June.

and you have no idea how your students will do? The school has no idea how your students do?
I'll bet a good reputation precedes you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

SOL test data has zero to do with my evaluation. How could it? My evaluation is due the end of May, my kids don't take the SOL until June.

and you have no idea how your students will do? The school has no idea how your students do?
I'll bet a good reputation precedes you.

The point is that the SOL's are not included in her performance review.

[Anonymous]

The SOLs are not an accurate measure of what students know. The tests are not based on research to show improvement in education. The tests are secret. The only thing students, teachers and parents receive at the conclusion is a score. You will not get to see the original test or your kid's answers. It's a scam.

The best way to know how your kid is doing in school is talk to the teacher, look at grades, review the work and talk to your kid.

SOLs are highly flawed and contain material that is above grade level. They are designed to fail students, so that more students will have to take the expedited re-takes. Every time a kid takes a test, it is money for Pearson.

Do you know - what happens to your kid's data? Who owns it? For how long? What does Pearson do with the data?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The SOLs are not an accurate measure of what students know. The tests are not based on research to show improvement in education. The tests are secret. The only thing students, teachers and parents receive at the conclusion is a score. You will not get to see the original test or your kid's answers. It's a scam.

The best way to know how your kid is doing in school is talk to the teacher, look at grades, review the work and talk to your kid.

SOLs are highly flawed and contain material that is above grade level. They are designed to fail students, so that more students will have to take the expedited re-takes. Every time a kid takes a test, it is money for Pearson.

Do you know - what happens to your kid's data? Who owns it? For how long? What does Pearson do with the data?

FCPS only allowed retakes as of last year. I doubt it was based on Pearson's pressure to do so. People have been clamoring to have those tests measure something more than just the lowest level skills, so Pearson and the state complied. Blame the parents who fought for harder tests.

[Anonymous]

Just submitted my letter to my 3rd grader's school letting them know he'll not be taking the SOLs this year. God, it feels good!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just submitted my letter to my 3rd grader's school letting them know he'll not be taking the SOLs this year. God, it feels good!!

Whatever floats your boat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Opt out is not just about the tests. It's a kind of peaceful resistance that is meant to undermine the validity of test results, with the hope that once test results are so clearly invalid that they can't be used to judge teachers and schools, testing mandates will be relaxed and we can get rid of the test-prep heavy curriculum.

I was a teacher, and I'm not lying when I say that all we did all year was test prep. Sure, it's the curriculum. But if the curriculum says the student will identify the main idea, and we use all kinds of high quality texts to talk about and analyze main ideas, and they can't identify the main idea in a poorly written SOL passage with a confusingly stated question, then we don't pass. So all year we read test passages and answer test questions instead of the high quality activities that we should be doing. That's what education has turned into. And we pressure kids into working harder and doing more sooner, until they are nearly at their breaking points, because that's what we have to do to pass.

Opting out is a way of ending this insanity. No one is listening to teachers, so it's up to parents to put an end to it by simply not participating.

That's why you should opt out. Not because Larla doesn't want to take a test.

Also, for the poster who said it's only 3 tests, not so. There are three SOL tests, plus a whole bunch of other tests, plus two practice SOL tests during the other parts of the year (so that's 9 tests total, just for SOL's). If you're in ESOL there are yet more tests, and there are reading tests and writing tests and other math tests, and it never ends. And specialists aren't available to teach for the entire last two months of the year in my school because we are pulled to proctor tests. The library and computer lab are closed for testing for over a month. And the list goes on.

+1 it IS an actual movement

[Anonymous]

Again you are lumping in many more tests besides just the SOL's and now bringing in computer testing as an issue as well. This isn't just one issue and SOL opt out will not solve it. And all the tests you mentioned are not all computer based tests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just submitted my letter to my 3rd grader's school letting them know he'll not be taking the SOLs this year. God, it feels good!!

Would you mind sharing what the reaction from the school was?

[Anonymous]

8:51 here

Will do, as soon as I hear back. So far, radio silence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:8:51 here

Will do, as soon as I hear back. So far, radio silence.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

8:51 here

Zero push back. Principal was understanding and said she'd make sure he could read quietly or do other work while the other kids are doing the test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:8:51 here

Zero push back. Principal was understanding and said she'd make sure he could read quietly or do other work while the other kids are doing the test.

That's pretty much what I would expect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:8:51 here

Zero push back. Principal was understanding and said she'd make sure he could read quietly or do other work while the other kids are doing the test.

That's pretty much what I would expect.

What will your child be doing while the other kids are sitting through god-awful test prep for hours on end?