Standards of Learning or (SOL) is a program of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It sets forth learning and achievement expectations for grades K-12 in Virginia's Public Schools. The standards represent what teachers, school administrators, parents, and business and community leaders believe schools should teach and students should learn.
Establishing Standards
In June 1995, the Virginia Board of Education approved Standards of Learning in four core content areas - mathematics, science, English, and history and the social sciences. In September 1997, the Board of Education established new Standards for Accrediting Public Schools in Virginia (SOA) that link statewide accountability tests to the SOL and hold students, schools, and school divisions accountable for results.
Results Over 10 Years
In 1998, the first year of SOL testing, only 2 percent of the commonwealth’s public schools met the standard for full accreditation. The percentage of schools meeting the state’s accreditation standards increased to 6.5 percent in 1999, 22 percent in 2000, 40 percent in 2001, 64 percent in 2002, 78 percent in 2003, and 84 percent in 2004.
In October 2005, the State reported that students in 1,685, or 92 percent, of the commonwealth’s 1,834 schools receiving accreditation ratings for 2005-2006, met or exceeded state achievement objectives on Standards of Learning (SOL) tests and other statewide assessments in the four core academic areas.
Criticism
The SOL program, and its emphasis on testing, have come under intense criticism by both teachers and parents. Teachers complain that they are now in a situation of "teaching to the test" and are unable to answer questions not related to test matter.
Scoring
A student must get 66% (400) or higher on their SOL(s) to be able to pass. Passing with 83% (500) is passing Advanced/Proficient. Getting a perfect score you need a 600 (100%)
Controversy
The initial creation of the SOLs caused extensive debate around both the validity of the tests and the administration of the process. Debate was made more heated by the Department of Education and the Secretary of Education refusing to reveal information about tests or how the tests were created. The Department of Education was concerned that releasing actual tests would encourage "teaching to the test" and parents and educators were concerned the tests would be poorly done and not test what the designers thought they were testing. Add to that the issue of how the social studies section was a departure from how the state had previously been teaching the subject, and you had all the makings of a political dustup.
Helping students
The Commonwealth acknowledges that some children have no chance to pass the standardized tests. These children are typically (though not necessarily) placed in Special Education classes for a variety of reasons. When the school realizes this, the school may give a child an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) and many of them obligate the teacher (either the general education teacher or the Special Education teacher) to create a VGLA (Virginia Grade Level Alternative). The VGLA contains the day-by-day evidence that the child has learned the subject matter as specified in a VGLA Teacher Checklist for Collection of Evidence (COE) for a specific subject.
The VGLA is presented to State Reviewers for review. The student's work must be accurately documented by the preparer of the document. (Failure to correctly prepare the document is grounds for failure of the VGLA, and consequently, the student.)
The VGLA is a cause for concern for teachers involved because of the sheer amount of work that a teacher must put into creating the document so that a single student will pass. It quite literally takes many days to put together the document precisely correctly, and the failure to do so is drastic.
The school's administration typically wants VGLAs done so a Pass may be recorded for each student.
There are other Alternative forms of substitutes for the SOL tests. These include:
Virginia Alternate Assessment Program (VAAP)
Virginia Substitute Evaluation Program (VSEP)