Anonymous
Post 02/28/2024 09:01     Subject: Opting out of sols
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Special Ed does not equal "Low". Parents are not privy to the list of kids with IEPs. Kids are often grouped by needed interventions because Sped is always short staffed. So, the kids who are pulled out for Math or LA may be in the same class, and then those who have an aid in GenEd may be grouped together. Being in Sped has absolutely nothing to do with SOL scores and is due to a long-established IEP process.


Yes it does. Sped usually means learning difficulties such that a regular classroom teacher can’t manage without a specialist. Kids who qualify for IEPs usually are below grade level in some area. That’s considered low. Those kids are also at risk of failing the SOLs.


Do you have a child, or children in Special Education? It means getting an adapted curriculum, or the GenEd curriculum with supports. Have you ever heard of the term 2E (twice exceptional). There are gifted children who have conditions where they need support. It does NOT mean "low". Often, kids with IEPs will vary between below, average, and above grade level, depending on the subject and their own strengths and weaknesses.

To be honest, I may have very much been like the poster above had I not had my own SN child. It's been quite a journey to see him struggle, but overcome. And we, along, with teachers see how very intelligent he can be in some areas. It's outdated and insulting to write a whole group of kids off as "low".
Anonymous
Post 02/28/2024 07:53     Subject: Opting out of sols
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:No way they put all the low kids in one class. As a teacher who is livid at the amount of time spent on teaching to the test, and the way these testing companies are getting rich, I wish everyone would opt out.

If you keep the kid home, they will just have the kid take it another day in the several-week window.


This is a very effective technique for principals to get rid of teachers they don’t like for whatever reason without having to do any paperwork. Put all the kids who are struggling academically and/or have behavior issues together in one class and watch that teacher lose their sanity. They also like to have a few strong students in those classes to serve as “role models” to make it look more “reasonable.” This is easy enough because some kids with IEPs are fine academically, and some kids with behavior issues are also on or above grade level. So not every single kid in there will be low performing, but anyone can see that the class is intentionally set up to fail. These difficult classes are classes that regular subs know to refuse. They can only get the subs who don’t know anything to go in or they have to pull another teacher to sub. This technique always work the few times I’ve seen it. One teacher quit mid-year and the others barely survived until the end of the year to transfer or move on.

Parents have no idea what’s going on unless they actually work there themselves or their child ends up in a similar class and tells them something. Many kids don’t tell their parents anything and some parents don’t care at all or they don’t believe their kids. I have only seen 1 parent figure it out because her child was a strong student who complained to her. While she believed her kid she couldn’t do anything about it at the time. She moved him to a different school the year after.


In tune parents actually know. We know who the problem kids are and we know who the IEP kids are. For whatever reason they make one class with all the IEP kids and the problem kids. It’s awful to be stuck with that class.
Anonymous
Post 02/28/2024 02:26     Subject: Opting out of sols
Anonymous wrote:No way they put all the low kids in one class. As a teacher who is livid at the amount of time spent on teaching to the test, and the way these testing companies are getting rich, I wish everyone would opt out.

If you keep the kid home, they will just have the kid take it another day in the several-week window.


This is a very effective technique for principals to get rid of teachers they don’t like for whatever reason without having to do any paperwork. Put all the kids who are struggling academically and/or have behavior issues together in one class and watch that teacher lose their sanity. They also like to have a few strong students in those classes to serve as “role models” to make it look more “reasonable.” This is easy enough because some kids with IEPs are fine academically, and some kids with behavior issues are also on or above grade level. So not every single kid in there will be low performing, but anyone can see that the class is intentionally set up to fail. These difficult classes are classes that regular subs know to refuse. They can only get the subs who don’t know anything to go in or they have to pull another teacher to sub. This technique always work the few times I’ve seen it. One teacher quit mid-year and the others barely survived until the end of the year to transfer or move on.

Parents have no idea what’s going on unless they actually work there themselves or their child ends up in a similar class and tells them something. Many kids don’t tell their parents anything and some parents don’t care at all or they don’t believe their kids. I have only seen 1 parent figure it out because her child was a strong student who complained to her. While she believed her kid she couldn’t do anything about it at the time. She moved him to a different school the year after.
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2024 15:13     Subject: Opting out of sols
Anonymous wrote:It is excellent practice at taking a test. Why do you want to opt out?


This. My older kid is not a great tester, but we had him do them because in high school they matter. They stressed him out the first year or 2 of elementary, but then it just became a thing you do. By highschool he didn't worry much, but for the ones that required prep, he prepared and did great. It's like the SAT in some ways. His first PSAT was traumatic. He was stressed, wiped out, couldn't believe how long it was and never wanted to do it again. The second one he was a little stressed, but mostly perky and fine when it was over. (It helped it was a little shorter because it was online). He's not upset at the idea of taking an SAT whereas after his first PSAT he said he never wanted to do such a test again.
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2024 13:26     Subject: Opting out of sols
Anonymous wrote:Special Ed does not equal "Low". Parents are not privy to the list of kids with IEPs. Kids are often grouped by needed interventions because Sped is always short staffed. So, the kids who are pulled out for Math or LA may be in the same class, and then those who have an aid in GenEd may be grouped together. Being in Sped has absolutely nothing to do with SOL scores and is due to a long-established IEP process.


Yes it does. Sped usually means learning difficulties such that a regular classroom teacher can’t manage without a specialist. Kids who qualify for IEPs usually are below grade level in some area. That’s considered low. Those kids are also at risk of failing the SOLs.
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2024 12:53     Subject: Opting out of sols
Special Ed does not equal "Low". Parents are not privy to the list of kids with IEPs. Kids are often grouped by needed interventions because Sped is always short staffed. So, the kids who are pulled out for Math or LA may be in the same class, and then those who have an aid in GenEd may be grouped together. Being in Sped has absolutely nothing to do with SOL scores and is due to a long-established IEP process.
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2024 12:50     Subject: Opting out of sols
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:No way they put all the low kids in one class. As a teacher who is livid at the amount of time spent on teaching to the test, and the way these testing companies are getting rich, I wish everyone would opt out.

If you keep the kid home, they will just have the kid take it another day in the several-week window.


As soon as the school year start, they group them based on academics and switch classes for subjects. So yes, all the low kids (special Ed) are together for math, LA, and science.


This is simply not true. The special education students are grouped together simply because that's when they have access to the special education teacher. Not all special education students are "low" and not all of them fail their SOLs. So your assumptions are wildly inaccurate. I can only assume you're trolling.

Anonymous
Post 02/27/2024 12:36     Subject: Opting out of sols
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:No way they put all the low kids in one class. As a teacher who is livid at the amount of time spent on teaching to the test, and the way these testing companies are getting rich, I wish everyone would opt out.

If you keep the kid home, they will just have the kid take it another day in the several-week window.


As soon as the school year start, they group them based on academics and switch classes for subjects. So yes, all the low kids (special Ed) are together for math, LA, and science.


Our school only has classroom switches in 6th grade, to prepare the kids for MS. What school is doing this sooner?
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2024 11:40     Subject: Opting out of sols
Anonymous wrote:No way they put all the low kids in one class. As a teacher who is livid at the amount of time spent on teaching to the test, and the way these testing companies are getting rich, I wish everyone would opt out.

If you keep the kid home, they will just have the kid take it another day in the several-week window.


As soon as the school year start, they group them based on academics and switch classes for subjects. So yes, all the low kids (special Ed) are together for math, LA, and science.
Anonymous
Post 02/26/2024 16:02     Subject: Opting out of sols
No way they put all the low kids in one class. As a teacher who is livid at the amount of time spent on teaching to the test, and the way these testing companies are getting rich, I wish everyone would opt out.

If you keep the kid home, they will just have the kid take it another day in the several-week window.
Anonymous
Post 02/26/2024 12:28     Subject: Opting out of sols
Anonymous wrote:One year our elementary grouped all kids who had failed an SOL, the previous Spring, in class together in the Fall. They might put your kid in that class.

Of course school didn't admit that's what they did. But that's what they did.


Which SOL? Math? Reading? Writing? Not sure how you would get exactly the appropriate number of students into a classroom based on that metric, even if you wanted to.

I don't think this really happened. My admin would have rolled over dead before even entertaining that idea.
Anonymous
Post 02/26/2024 10:39     Subject: Opting out of sols
Anonymous wrote:One year our elementary grouped all kids who had failed an SOL, the previous Spring, in class together in the Fall. They might put your kid in that class.

Of course school didn't admit that's what they did. But that's what they did.


I would love to know how you know this. There are 2 other parents that have shared their kids SOL scores with me, they are good friends, and that is it. I can look at the SOL results for the school and see how many kids passed and failed but I have no clue who those kids are. The only one that is easy to figure out is the Advanced Math group because they are taking a higher level SOL. Not surprisingly, none of the kids failed that SOL so it wasn't a big deal.
Anonymous
Post 02/26/2024 08:48     Subject: Opting out of sols
Anonymous wrote:I never understand why -w/o exceptional situations- people opt out. The test taking is good practice and don't you want to see some barometer of where your kid is? The tests are not super onerous and I never made my kids study for them.


She’s afraid her kid will fail and be put in the loser class the next year as a result.
Anonymous
Post 02/25/2024 20:30     Subject: Opting out of sols
I never understand why -w/o exceptional situations- people opt out. The test taking is good practice and don't you want to see some barometer of where your kid is? The tests are not super onerous and I never made my kids study for them.
Anonymous
Post 02/25/2024 20:24     Subject: Opting out of sols
Anonymous wrote:One year our elementary grouped all kids who had failed an SOL, the previous Spring, in class together in the Fall. They might put your kid in that class.

Of course school didn't admit that's what they did. But that's what they did.


Ah so that’s OPs fear.