SOL screwup

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I'm sorry--it's definitely frustrating when reality doesn't match expectations.

This is a really good lesson though. Middle school expects kids to take more responsibility for themselves than elementary school does, and next year in high school it will be 10x more on your son to figure things out. He doesn't have to have all the answers, but at 14 years old he should have the skill set to ask questions when he's confused or doesn't understand what to do. This could have all been solved if he had just asked his Spanish teacher where he should be for the SOL instead of waiting for someone to notice he was missing, track him down, take him to the testing room, etc.

You say it's not fair that they expected him to know where to go, but...somehow all the other kids knew. What's different there? If half the kids were missing, I'd say you have a case, but if he was one of just a few who got confused, I'd really work on his self advocacy or 9th grade is going to be a big struggle.

I don't think it's too much to think that first period teachers teaching a mixed-grade class might ask if anyone's supposed to be taking an SOL. Those teachers surely know SOL testing is going on.

Then you don’t have a kid in high school. Right now there are AP, IB and SOLs going on. No, I don’t ask if anyone should be in a test. I will mention it if it’s in the attendance program but usually it’s not. The kids need to go to their testing location on the day of testing. 9th grade is only a year away. He had another chance to take it or OP can opt him out. No one cares about middle school SOLs unless this was for a high school course.

Actually, I DO have a kid in high school. However, in our high school, if the student doesn't have an SOL or AP exam, they don't go to the school that day. There are no IB exams in our school since we don't have IB. First week of June is all asynchronous distance learning while SOLs take place in the building. Second of all, high school is different from middle school. Our middle schoolers still go in on their hybrid days whether they are taking an SOL or not. And, high schoolers should definitely be more responsible than most middle schoolers. I say "most" because SOME middle schoolers are quite responsible.