Anonymous
Post 05/13/2026 11:25     Subject: grade 7 SOL english 495
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The English instruction is poor in MS. What has your student really learned in 7th or 8th grade English. They only read 1 book the whole year. There are no vocabulary or grammar lessons. There is an essay or speech each quarter, but it’s very scaffolded with little leeway. No working on analogies, etc. There is little to no feedback on writing. Very poor instruction on how to improve writing. No comments. No working 1-1. No writing and the re-writing. Just a turn-in. Time management is even poor. That’s all problematic in MS.


My kids 8th grade class has been doing vocabulary and grammar all year long. They have been working on root words, prefixes, suffixes and the like. They get comments on their esays, they give feedback to each other on their essays and then revise them. I am not sure what school you are at but our experience at Carson has been very different then what you are describing.

His class read two books in 7th grade.


LOL. I love how PP notes these things like they're impressive. Two books is such a bare minimum for 7th grade, and you didn't even name the books. The books our kids read in FCPS middle school were exceedingly easy... they could finish it in a few hours. And do you honestly think peer review is of any value whatsoever?? It's an absurd practice.


+1 peer review is stupid and a joke. Johnny who is a worse writer than my child is critiquing my child’s essay? Gtfo!
Anonymous
Post 05/13/2026 11:14     Subject: grade 7 SOL english 495
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Was is your point, OP? My child has a 100% in English and got a 430 on her reading SOL. She is dyslexic, reading is challenging, but she's super smart and a hard worker. We don't measure our children's worth in SOL scores.


I am the OP.
My point is there is disconnection between SOL score and class score.


Maybe your kid just didn't do a good job on the SOL.
Anonymous
Post 05/13/2026 09:55     Subject: grade 7 SOL english 495
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The English instruction is poor in MS. What has your student really learned in 7th or 8th grade English. They only read 1 book the whole year. There are no vocabulary or grammar lessons. There is an essay or speech each quarter, but it’s very scaffolded with little leeway. No working on analogies, etc. There is little to no feedback on writing. Very poor instruction on how to improve writing. No comments. No working 1-1. No writing and the re-writing. Just a turn-in. Time management is even poor. That’s all problematic in MS.


My kids 8th grade class has been doing vocabulary and grammar all year long. They have been working on root words, prefixes, suffixes and the like. They get comments on their esays, they give feedback to each other on their essays and then revise them. I am not sure what school you are at but our experience at Carson has been very different then what you are describing.

His class read two books in 7th grade.


LOL. I love how PP notes these things like they're impressive. Two books is such a bare minimum for 7th grade, and you didn't even name the books. The books our kids read in FCPS middle school were exceedingly easy... they could finish it in a few hours. And do you honestly think peer review is of any value whatsoever?? It's an absurd practice.
Anonymous
Post 05/13/2026 08:09     Subject: grade 7 SOL english 495
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My child barely passed this year with a 434. Every year it’s gotten worse and worse. Yet she has a solid A in English. Her LA teacher last year wasn’t good. I don’t think they do enough reading period. They need to practice reading passages and answering questions.


They also need to do far more reading at home. Some of my daughter's friends brag about the fact that they only read one or two books per year. These girls are all in honors English and they don't read for pleasure? That is shocking to me.

Even my own kids read far less than I think they should, but each of my teens finish at least 20 books per year. I would love to seem them read closer to 40-50 books each year, but at least they are reading things that interest them.



They read at home but without academic scaffolding it doesn’t actually stretch them. They aren’t doing passages and questions about theme or author’s purpose like the SOL. Also a lot of kids choose to read crap which doesn’t help with the SOL in any way (ie graphic novels).
Anonymous
Post 05/13/2026 08:07     Subject: grade 7 SOL english 495
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Everyone saying their kids got lower scores, are your kids in honors or not?


Mine is in AAP at Carson, 521. I think last year he had a 560something. So he might have gotten one more question wrong or the same number of correct answers but one that was weighted more. Honestly, the SOL means little to nothing. It is good practice for when he takes the SAT in a few years, that is about it.


No it’s not. It’s not anything like an SAT test.
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2026 18:43     Subject: grade 7 SOL english 495
Anonymous wrote:My child barely passed this year with a 434. Every year it’s gotten worse and worse. Yet she has a solid A in English. Her LA teacher last year wasn’t good. I don’t think they do enough reading period. They need to practice reading passages and answering questions.


They also need to do far more reading at home. Some of my daughter's friends brag about the fact that they only read one or two books per year. These girls are all in honors English and they don't read for pleasure? That is shocking to me.

Even my own kids read far less than I think they should, but each of my teens finish at least 20 books per year. I would love to seem them read closer to 40-50 books each year, but at least they are reading things that interest them.

Anonymous
Post 05/12/2026 18:08     Subject: grade 7 SOL english 495
It could be great inflation that everyone keeps talking about. Some people are just not good test takers that could be another reason and there’s some people that might need accommodations for these tests that they’re not getting. Could be a whole bunch of different reasons why the scores don’t correlate to this grade in class.
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2026 18:00     Subject: grade 7 SOL english 495
Anonymous wrote:Everyone saying their kids got lower scores, are your kids in honors or not?


Yes, honors. Barely passed with a 435
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2026 17:57     Subject: grade 7 SOL english 495
I don't think the SOL is a very accurate representation of a child's abilities. I wouldn't worry about it this year, OP.

I really do want to know how things will be implemented next year - my child has dyslexia and processing issues and does very poorly on standardized tests. I wonder if having some sort of learning disability will exempt him from having the SOL be a portion of his grade.
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2026 10:04     Subject: grade 7 SOL english 495
Anonymous wrote:Everyone saying their kids got lower scores, are your kids in honors or not?


Mine is in AAP at Carson, 521. I think last year he had a 560something. So he might have gotten one more question wrong or the same number of correct answers but one that was weighted more. Honestly, the SOL means little to nothing. It is good practice for when he takes the SAT in a few years, that is about it.
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2026 08:21     Subject: grade 7 SOL english 495
Everyone saying their kids got lower scores, are your kids in honors or not?
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2026 08:14     Subject: grade 7 SOL english 495
My child barely passed this year with a 434. Every year it’s gotten worse and worse. Yet she has a solid A in English. Her LA teacher last year wasn’t good. I don’t think they do enough reading period. They need to practice reading passages and answering questions.
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2026 08:11     Subject: grade 7 SOL english 495
Anonymous wrote:The English instruction is poor in MS. What has your student really learned in 7th or 8th grade English. They only read 1 book the whole year. There are no vocabulary or grammar lessons. There is an essay or speech each quarter, but it’s very scaffolded with little leeway. No working on analogies, etc. There is little to no feedback on writing. Very poor instruction on how to improve writing. No comments. No working 1-1. No writing and the re-writing. Just a turn-in. Time management is even poor. That’s all problematic in MS.


My 7th grader learned enough to score 586, so this is apparently not universal. 🙄

(FWIW, I don’t think standardized testing necessarily reflects anything, but the generalization here is dumb.)
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2026 08:04     Subject: grade 7 SOL english 495
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Was is your point, OP? My child has a 100% in English and got a 430 on her reading SOL. She is dyslexic, reading is challenging, but she's super smart and a hard worker. We don't measure our children's worth in SOL scores.


The state will force you to value it next year! That 430 will soon be a failing score as they raise the minimum passing scores, and then 10% of her year long grade will be a failing score.


We don’t know yet exactly how schools plan to take the SOL scores and turn them into a grade for the gradebook. Stop making stuff up.


+1
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2026 00:43     Subject: grade 7 SOL english 495
Anonymous wrote:The English instruction is poor in MS. What has your student really learned in 7th or 8th grade English. They only read 1 book the whole year. There are no vocabulary or grammar lessons. There is an essay or speech each quarter, but it’s very scaffolded with little leeway. No working on analogies, etc. There is little to no feedback on writing. Very poor instruction on how to improve writing. No comments. No working 1-1. No writing and the re-writing. Just a turn-in. Time management is even poor. That’s all problematic in MS.
This! Been a problem for the past 9 years.