Reply to SOL opt-out

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Is there any actual tie to your assessment with the actual SOL? Do these growth assessments reflect your teaching to the SOL standards and how much the student can work to these standards?[/quote]

Since the tests mimic the SOL, they are effective measures of student learning and my teaching--to a point. Multiple choice questions and even TEI questions (such as "click on all the correct answers") limits the way I can assess my students' understanding of the actual material.  I would prefer to also have my students (and my teaching) measured with assessments that reflect higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy. I think a comprehensive assessment would include written responses, at the very least. I feel like 60% of my teaching is depth and breadth of content, and 40% is teaching students how to navigate through test questions in preparation for our many assessments. I'd prefer that the ratio be 80/20 or even 90/10.

I may feel this more acutely than teachers of other content areas because I teach reading. I think it would be a better assessment of my students to also ask them to write an analysis of what they read--the theme, or character development--than to choose an answer from a list. The multiple choice format is an assessment of student learning and we use it because it is the fastest and cheapest way to gather data (no need to design to rubrics or pay scorers to read student work). But is it the most effective?[/quote]

We're in Fairfax and my understanding of the ecart tests are that teachers can create their own tests which can include written responses. I'm not sure what grade you teach, but at the elementary level, FCPS children are tested with the DRA which is a comprehension test that includes oral and written analysis.[/quote]

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