The abbreviation SOL stands for, Standards of Learning. The Standards of Learning is a test that was devised in the spring of 1998 to provide information on the progress of students toward meeting achievement levels. To me as a citizen of Virginia, and as a student, I think this test is a burden on most students in all grade levels, and should be eliminated. Because first, the number of tests being administered to student each year is outrageous, second, the penalties a student has to face for failing are too harsh, and third, it puts the school in jeopardy of losing its accreditation which is a no win situation. Virginia’s Standards of Learning has come under much criticism over the past couple of years, and I for one think it deserves to be criticized. Each year student in every school district across America have to take two or more test such as, the (LPT) Literacy Passport Test, the Stanford-9 exam or the (SOL) Standards of Learning, depending on the grade level. …show more content…
The president Kirk T. Schroder of the Virginia Board of Education, answer this question by saying, “First of all, these tests are untimed, so no student is under arbitrary time pressure in taking the test. Secondly, we allow a student repeated opportunities to take a failed test over, if he or she needs the test to graduate”. This is a good idea, but I think regardless of the time span, the student could simply not know most of the answers. This could be due to the amount of time the teacher spend going over this lesson, the student failing to pay attention in class, or in some cases the teacher maybe didn’t have the proper material to go over the lesson. So I think regardless of time, this test should still be
...wledge which can be detrimental to the students who have surpassed these standards. The test does not encourage students to increase their knowledge, but only to meet requirements. Teachers should be able to tell if a student is ready to pass on to the next grade level without a standardized test based solely on each student’s grades, work, and intelligence as revealed in the classroom.
This is precisely the problem. Standardized tests are old and outdated, and the harm they cause to America’s education system by far outweighs the benefits. These tests were intended to monitor and offer ways to improve how public schools function, but instead they have impaired the natural learning ability of students and imposed upon the judgment of experienced educators. Although a means to evaluate the progress of public schools is necessary, it is also necessary to develop more modern and effective ways of doing so. Standardized testing mandated by the federal and state governments has a negative effect on the education of America’s youth.
First of all, what is SOL testing? SOL (Standards of Learning) Tests are prescribed tests in the state of Virginia that must be taken in order for students to attain credits required to graduate. SOL's are the minimum curriculum requirements for student achievement, so they say. This test is designed to test knowledge in subjects such as history, math, science, english and computer science. SOL's are required tests in the state of Virginia in order for a student to graduate.
Even with material being taught incessantly, standardized tests can not accurately measure a student’s ability. The tests are “single-target—meaning that every student, no matter what level of achievement or ability, course selection, or cu...
I couldn’t agree more with their stances. Although I do not like SOL tests, and I am about to graduate, I think improving the tests and making them more easier to pass is a great idea. Yes, I agree that the teachers are underpaid and they go through so much on a daily basis to teach children the material.
A Harvard educator named Howard Gardner wrote this essay arguing his side of abolishing timed tested overall. He bases his claim off of the fact that SAT scores come along with their time accomplished and are being viewed by universities. He felt it was unfair for people with the need for time to be below people that finished on time. The didactic and subjective tone in Howard Garden’s article ‘Test for Aptitude, not for Speed’ exemplifies the inadequate strategies that were used to convey Howards bias and rational argument. The structure and strategy used in his article are clearly not the most effective for his target audience. As a result, Howard Gardner ineffectively uses personal evidence, organization, and tone to reach his intended audience (Gardner 795).
These flawed tests are not truly able of measuring students how well students will perform in college as they are supposedly used to predict. A single test that students have to wake up for at six, seven in the morning on a Saturday and travel to some random location to take a difficult test should not impact the student's chance of getting into college, let alone predict how well they will
Some students simply do not test well, others try their hardest and still cannot reach the impracticable standards set for them. The individuals who create these tests do not understand the pressures of being a student, or the struggle to answer thirty-five questions in a compressed time period. One test cannot accurately measure the intelligence of a student.
Standardized tests, such as the SAT and the SOL, have been implemented for many years now for individuals in grade school to take. The SOL’s, or Standards of Learning tests, are Virginia’s version of standardized tests that students are required to take in order to pass a class, evaluating their knowledge on a specific subject. SOL’s are mandatory for students to take as soon as they reach third grade. Additionally, the SAT is a test taken in the final years of high school that colleges look at when comparing students for post-secondary school. People concerned with student’s education can come to the common consensus that education is important and there should be some way to compare a student’s achievements to one another. However, the process
Test day, a day of struggle for American students constantly throughout their academic career. Whether the test be the SAT or an annual state exam, students usually do not seem mentally prepared for the massive task at hand. A test like the SAT could possibly determine the immediate futures of these individuals. However, are these complex assessments successfully examining the academics of the student body? Students should not be evaluated using standardized testing because they do not effectively measure a student’s complete academic capability. These tests limit the amount of true knowledge an individual can express in one sitting.
Pressure is being exerted on students to pass, and teachers to enable their students to pass the standardized tests being presented to them. This takes much classroom time that could be spent instructing students on what might be more valuable information, and instead study for the test by what some consider rote memorization (Silva). Experiments have been done seeing how much different teaching approaches were before and after the implementation of standardized testing (Desimone). These experiments demonstrated how vastly the difference between teaching to the test and teaching what the instructor believes is the most valuable knowledge and the best way to present this knowledge. If there is a disconnect between what America’s teachers believe is best to know, and what is on the examinations, then one of the two is flawed, and it is not likely to be what the teachers are teaching.
tests were primarily employed as measures of student achievement that could be reported to parents, and as a means of noting state and district trends (Moon 2) . Teachers paid little attention to these tests, which in turn had little impact on curriculum. However, in the continuing quest for better schools and high achieving students, testing has become a central focus of policy and practice. Standardized tests are tests that attempt to present unbiased material under the same, predetermined conditions and with consistent scoring and interpretation so that students have equal opportunities to give correct answers and receive an accurate assessment. The idea is that these similarities allow the highest degree of certainty in comparing result...
Standardized testing in the United States is not always a common practice. In the Mid-1800s, Horace Mann, an education reformist, developed a test to administer to a group of students. Its purpose was to determine how students were performing at their current level and whether they were capable of proceeding to a higher level of education, although the student’s success on the test had no negative repercussions. These tests were a necessity at that time because the idea of public education was still being molded and these tests were the only means by which student progress could be measured. Within 35 years of the first recorded examination in 1845, testing became the factor which determined whether students were able to be promoted to the next grade.
Although standardized testing is commonly used in most schools and educational intuitions nowadays, it does not measure a student’s intelligence. As such, standardized testing should be revoked because, not only is it an unreliable way of measuring a student’s performance, it also pressures educators and creates a grade conscious mindset. Schools should focus more on the development of students, rather than ranking them based on the grades they receive on a test. Not only are standardized tests an undependable way of grading, but also, it does not promote life skills the student will need when growing
Instead, it is stifling the individual talents and abilities of too many students and killing their motivation to learn” (16). Growing up, I have always enjoyed learning. In my sophomore year of high school, many subjects have weakened my motivation to learn. For example, AP World History was great until the exam came into place. It was enjoyable learning about history all over the world, but then we had to spend many weeks preparing for the standardized test. It was terrible because we were cramming everything we learned to perform well on the test and to pass the requirement for AP credit. It was a mess because we had to rush through all of the multiple choice questions. Overall, I do not like what standardized testing has done to the education