Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC failed a math SOL in ES. Do not count on FCPS to do anything! We didn't find out until Summer. The next year found out child was being placed in special ed pull out for math. Child had no documented issue and school did not test. We then decided to find her a tutor to evaluate and work to get back on grade level. Best thing we ever did!! Stayed with a tutor through ES. Child ended up taking calculus senior year! FCPS is a good school system, but you cannot count on it to help your child if there is no documented issue. Special ed pull out was not the way to go as there would be not accommodations at the next years SOL.

If you child failed by more than a few questions, they do not notify you until summer because the student does not qualify for a re-take. Yes, the special ed pull out for math was to remediate since the child failed by enough that they did not think it was just a fluke. What accommodations would you even want for the next SOL exactly? Special Ed kids don't get accomdations for SOLs other than the test can spread out for more days.

In your case, sounds like the school did exactly what they should have done-provide remediation and extra support. Good for you for hiring a tutor. Not everyone can afford that, but even those who can afford it sometimes won't. The SOL test let you know your child had struggles. If it were not for the test, you might not have hired help. Well done school and parent.

There is a lot of misinformation here. If your child fails with a score below 376, they can not retake. Only scores from 375-399 are eligible to retake after some remediation. Your child would never be “placed” in special education pull out without your permission, not to mention an IEP. Additionally, there are various accommodations for students with IEPs, which vary depending on the specific disability.

Typically students who fail are tracked to receive interventions the following year (not necessarily special education services). And also possibly additional test preparation help prior to the next year’s test. For example, looking at the questions before reading the passage, using proof paper in math, etc.

I don't see any misinformation and I taught. Often those getting remediation are indeed with the special ed students. it doesn't mean they suddenly get an IEP and are labeled special education, but remediation is for those who fail-both those in special ed and those in regular ed. Also, keep in mind a lot of special ed students pass and some get pass advanced so those kids aren't getting remediation.

375-399 basically just means the kid missed passing by roughly 1-3 questions.

There are few accommodations available for the SOL unless you are willing to have your kid do the ped and paper test and even with that there is not a laundry list-just a few options.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC failed a math SOL in ES. Do not count on FCPS to do anything! We didn't find out until Summer. The next year found out child was being placed in special ed pull out for math. Child had no documented issue and school did not test. We then decided to find her a tutor to evaluate and work to get back on grade level. Best thing we ever did!! Stayed with a tutor through ES. Child ended up taking calculus senior year! FCPS is a good school system, but you cannot count on it to help your child if there is no documented issue. Special ed pull out was not the way to go as there would be not accommodations at the next years SOL.

If you child failed by more than a few questions, they do not notify you until summer because the student does not qualify for a re-take. Yes, the special ed pull out for math was to remediate since the child failed by enough that they did not think it was just a fluke. What accommodations would you even want for the next SOL exactly? Special Ed kids don't get accomdations for SOLs other than the test can spread out for more days.

In your case, sounds like the school did exactly what they should have done-provide remediation and extra support. Good for you for hiring a tutor. Not everyone can afford that, but even those who can afford it sometimes won't. The SOL test let you know your child had struggles. If it were not for the test, you might not have hired help. Well done school and parent.

There is a lot of misinformation here. If your child fails with a score below 376, they can not retake. Only scores from 375-399 are eligible to retake after some remediation. Your child would never be “placed” in special education pull out without your permission, not to mention an IEP. Additionally, there are various accommodations for students with IEPs, which vary depending on the specific disability.

Typically students who fail are tracked to receive interventions the following year (not necessarily special education services). And also possibly additional test preparation help prior to the next year’s test. For example, looking at the questions before reading the passage, using proof paper in math, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone opted out their kids from SOLs? My child is not a good standardized test taker, he gets super nervous. He does well in his regular tests.

There is no point in doing this. Eventually there will be SOls that matter-one or 2 in middle and a handful in high school. The best way to decrease anxiety is to get practice taking these types of tests. If your kid fails in elementary, it just gets your kid extra help. Otherwise it does not matter.

Completely agreed. The worst thing you can do for an anxious child is to pull the child out of the test because the child loses the opportunity to build tolerance, especially in elementary school where the tests are so low-stakes for the child.

Standardized tests aren't going away; your child will have to take them time and time again. Instead of opting out, why would you not focus on trying to build your child's ability in this area? It sounds like lazy parenting. You should help your child with this rather than treat it as a deficit that you run away from and where you hide your head in the sand.

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone opted out their kids from SOLs? My child is not a good standardized test taker, he gets super nervous. He does well in his regular tests.

There is no point in doing this. Eventually there will be SOls that matter-one or 2 in middle and a handful in high school. The best way to decrease anxiety is to get practice taking these types of tests. If your kid fails in elementary, it just gets your kid extra help. Otherwise it does not matter.

Has anyone opted out their kids from SOLs? My child is not a good standardized test taker, he gets super nervous. He does well in his regular tests.

Our elementary school grouped all of the kids who had failed an SOL, grouped all of them in one class.

^^ **Wouldn't** bother

I would bother having your grade school child re-take it. Why? The score doesn't count toward anything. My child failed one SOL and got a perfect score on another. I didn't make her re-take the one she failed.

In the case where she performed perfectly, it didn't buy her anything -- not even an acknowledgement from the school. She said, "I did really well, and it's like they didn't even notice." Yep.

The SOLs benefit the school, not the kids.

My daughter was an awful test taker and a struggling student. She failed at least one SOL every year through 8th grade. She usually failed so bad that she was outside the retake zone. Her grades were fine (better than fine!). She is in HS now and passed two of her SOLs by a significant margin and had one more to do. Yes- she was “identified” along the way as someone that needed extra help. She got extra help at school and private tutoring.

Her test taking skills and study skills have improved tremendously. While standardized tests can be stressful- they can also help “bad” test takers before the tests are high stakes. They also give early objective feedback to parents.

So, my advice. Don’t sweat it. Let your kid be identified as needing some more help for next year. Help your kid with reading over the summer and keep reinforcing dc’s abilities if there is a future issue with failing.

As someone who works with elementary school kids, some kids do not pass the SOL because of testing issues rather than reading issues. For that reason, you cannot assume your child has an inadequate reading level just because they failed the test.

The reading SOLs can be hard for some kids to tolerate, to sustain the effort all the way through, and some kids just do not "get" testing skills (such as eliminating less likely answers in favor of more likely answers, when it is not a clear choice) so I would say that a score just below (or just above) passing does not always indicate what you think it does.

My kid may not pass this year (he got a 398 last year and did slightly worse on the retake) but his math skills are a known issue, and he’s been tested with exceedingly poor quantitative reasoning, has a tutor, and gets a pull out already. So if he doesn’t pass,again this year, I won’t have him retake it - he’s already been identified and is getting remediation. The only positives are to sniff out the kids where the problems aren’t known.

Anonymous wrote:My DC failed a math SOL in ES. Do not count on FCPS to do anything! We didn't find out until Summer. The next year found out child was being placed in special ed pull out for math. Child had no documented issue and school did not test. We then decided to find her a tutor to evaluate and work to get back on grade level. Best thing we ever did!! Stayed with a tutor through ES. Child ended up taking calculus senior year! FCPS is a good school system, but you cannot count on it to help your child if there is no documented issue. Special ed pull out was not the way to go as there would be not accommodations at the next years SOL.

If you child failed by more than a few questions, they do not notify you until summer because the student does not qualify for a re-take. Yes, the special ed pull out for math was to remediate since the child failed by enough that they did not think it was just a fluke. What accommodations would you even want for the next SOL exactly? Special Ed kids don't get accomdations for SOLs other than the test can spread out for more days.

In your case, sounds like the school did exactly what they should have done-provide remediation and extra support. Good for you for hiring a tutor. Not everyone can afford that, but even those who can afford it sometimes won't. The SOL test let you know your child had struggles. If it were not for the test, you might not have hired help. Well done school and parent.

My DC failed a math SOL in ES. Do not count on FCPS to do anything! We didn't find out until Summer. The next year found out child was being placed in special ed pull out for math. Child had no documented issue and school did not test. We then decided to find her a tutor to evaluate and work to get back on grade level. Best thing we ever did!! Stayed with a tutor through ES. Child ended up taking calculus senior year! FCPS is a good school system, but you cannot count on it to help your child if there is no documented issue. Special ed pull out was not the way to go as there would be not accommodations at the next years SOL.

One of my kid has some reading issues and has failed the reading in the past. Yes, your child will and should be "tracked." Of course. The masses can pass this test. It means your child likely needs extra help. She got the extra help and passed the following year, but just passed and once again put with those who need extra help. We agree with that decision because she still needs more help in that area than the average student.

^does not reflect, not affect. Autocorrect