SOLs...

[mm70]

Somebody remind me again why we have these things???

Everybody gets so stressed over these things. Teachers are stressed because they want to show they are teaching what they should. Kids are stressed because there is so much emphasis put on them...extra class time is used to review for them....late night sports events going on...

Are they really a good gauge for assessing what kids are learning???

[imported_elp6n]

They are not a good gauge.
Anymore teachers spend the entire year teaching kids how to pass an SOL, but not necessarily teaching the material, as they used to be able to do in years past. They do it because their evaluation and jobs depend on it and the school depends on it, and they pass that pressure on to the students.

I spoke with one recently retired teacher about this, and she said SOL teaching was a huge factor in helping her decide when to retire - when it got to the point that she could no longer actually teach as she had for decades, she knew it was time for her to move on. (And she was a fantastic teacher - if she was your teacher you never forgot her.)

No one can go above and beyond in teaching, can't do anything extra, because if it's not on the SOL they can't "waste" their time on it. Teachers hands are tied.

[smarty]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: elp6n</div><div class="ubbcode-body">They are not a good gauge.
Anymore teachers spend the entire year teaching kids how to pass an SOL, but not necessarily teaching the material, as they used to be able to do in years past. They do it because their evaluation and jobs depend on it and the school depends on it, and they pass that pressure on to the students. </div></div>

this is so true... for my math SOL's I learned how to put it in the calculator and get an answer or you learn how to put each of the 4 choices in the problem to see which one is correct... and then I got to college and you don't have abcd answers to pick from and have to show your work and you're clueless and behind. it's a challenge. My college professors get really frustrated b/c this is stuff college level kids should know how to do and most don't, so then the professor has go back and actually teach you simple math b/c most people don't know how to anything w/o a calculator thanks to SOLs

[mm70]

Well, that's how I feel about them. It seems to take the fun out of learning. Teachers have told me how much more work the kids are having to do. This time of year, kids are distracted. They just want summer to be here. One of my kids teachers was telling me how they didn't have near as much time for hands on, fun activities and educational field trips anymore. Those kinds of things break the monotony and make it so much more enjoyable.

I mean, they pretty much study what is supposed to be on the test over and over. How is that a good test of whether they can use what was taught?...

Ah, I guess there is not much sense in me griping over it....they are still gonna keep doing it...guess I just needed to vent about it.

[imported_Counts]

I am not going to sit here and say the SOLs are a great thing becouse they are not however I will say that there needs to #1 be some way to measure the worth of a teacher/school and #2 there has to be some way to prevent teachers/schools from passing kids just to get them out of there class/grade.


IMHO if the SOLs were more random (make it impossable to teach to the test) and do away with the multipal choose questions (In math that is beond stupid) I think it could be workable

[Biggin]

the SOLs are too standardized, i agree with counts

its the only way to gauge how well schools are doing

the tests should be RANDOM questions that come from a certain circiculum

[sup-rbeast]

All they accomplish with SOLs is enabling a student to regurgitate facts. They need to just go back to the way things were done before the SOLs, and give students a well rounded education. The problem is that our government compares our overall test averages with those of countries that do not educate ALL of their school age children. They just keep the best students for secondary education..the others are sent to learn a trade or to labor. It's no wonder we don't place at the top of the food chain with numbers skewed as they are. IMO you have to teach students to think and enable them to use their education in daily tasks...not know who the first governor of Jamestown was. For example, I went to a fast food drive through not too long ago and a young girl was at the window. My total came to a lil over six dollars...and their registers were down. I handed the girl a 10 and she said she'd be right back cuz her calculator wasn't working..and she needed to find another one. I told her what my change was supposed to be and she gave me the money....but the expression on her face was "How did you know that?"...lol. It's crazy how the SOLs have dumbed down kids graduating today.