Reply to New SOL Cut Offs

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]SOL test data site: https://p1pe.doe.virginia.gov/apex_captcha/home.do?apexTypeId=306

Algebra 1 SOL Score example for FCPS, from last year only:

20.11% passed advance, 68.64 passed proficient, and 11.26% failed. The average score was 456.

Algebra 1 SOL Score example for the state, from last year only:

12.11% passed advanced, 72.96 passed proficient, 14.93 failed. The average SOL score was a 443.

Whatever the bar is, the number of kids passing advanced is not massive. I would expect stronger scores in NOVA because there are more educated parents with advanced degrees that are very focused on education. [/quote]

I don't know how its done for Algebra 1, but at least for elementary, the cut scores for pass advanced is missing only 1-3 questions and to pass at all is missing half (around 20-25). The scoring is definitely not how you would normally expect, where each question is worth the same amount of points. [/quote]

I understand that the scoring is not similar to a regular test. One poster commented that the SOL scores were inflated with too many kids passing advanced. The reality is that not that many kids pass advanced. And a good percentage of kids are failing the SOL. The average SOL score, at least in Algebra 1, seems to be the new pass proficient bar.

Honestly, this feels to me like someone trying to manufacture a huge educational crisis in order to push for vouchers. I am not sure if private schools have to take the SOL, I don't think that they do, so we don't have a way to compare private and public outcomes in order to determine if the schools that would get vouchers would do a better job then the public schools. The expensive privates will opt out of accepting vouchers, they won't want whatever government strings are attached and they have plenty of people wanting to attend without needing vouchers. The schools accepting vouchers might not be producing better results than public schools. There are private school kids who opt into public schools for HS and the kids find that they are behind in math and science.

If we are serious about improving public education, then we need more reading and math specialists at all the ES to help kids develop strong foundational skills. We need smaller class sizes in the ES or an aide in all of the classes to be able to work with all the kids in our 30 person classes. We need classes that group kids by ability so that teachers don't have to prepare 5 lesson plans to reach the kids at 5 different levels in one class. Fund that and you will see SOL scores rise and kids doing better in school. [/quote]

All very good points. Having physical books would also reduce load on teachers. The whole process of teachers coming up with worksheets and printouts seems insane to me.

I do think we need a little bit of accountability from schools and having say 10% of students in charter schools/vouchers/etc with failing public schools administration turned into these charters, etc might provide that kind of accountability.

[/quote]

The people who use vouchers are not the kids in the schools that are struggling, ie the Title 1 schools. [b]The parents who will use vouchers are the UMC parents who thought private school was a reach to far but can afford it more easily with vouchers. Money will leave the public schools and make the situation worse while the best students are moved to mid-tier private schools. [/b]Those kids will be fine at said schools, just like they were fine in FCPS. [/quote]

exactly 
[/quote]

And I don’t have the citation as I read it long ago, but I remember reading that in areas with vouchers, tuition ended up increasing so it was all a wash. Only if it’s set up for low income families will it actually even reach them in any way. Otherwise, it’s just the same people who already use private schools. [/quote]

+100[/quote]

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