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Some students are very concerned about their SOL scores. Especially when they are made to take them in the middle of the year when they haven't completed the entire course yet. If better test scores are what you want than you need to prepare the students for what is to come while they are still in elementary school. The students that have been taking this test are new to these new standards and can't meet the school boards expectations. If you prepare the students in the first years of school with these tests then you will get the resulted test scores that you desire your children to have.

Dear Kelly:

It is impossible for any school division in Virginia to be giving SOL tests "in the middle of the year." If this is the case in your division, you should report this immediately to the Department of Education. I cannot imagine how this would be happening, as the tests are not mailed to the school divisions until it is time for them to be administered.

Tests are given between 3-5 weeks before the end of the school year.

On the topic of the SOLs being new: You have been given incorrect information. The SOLs were passed in 1995, meaning that school divisions have had three years to realign their curricula.

Thank you for taking the time to express your concerns.

Cheri Pierson Yecke
Deputy Secretary of Education

Dear Ms. Yecke,

Our school administered the English SOL writing test in March, eleven full weeks prior to the end of the year and only eight weeks after the beginning of the semester; we are on a block schedule school. This certainly meets my definition of "the middle of the year"; why doesn't it meet your definition of the same?

Ms Yecke,
I have AA English in my school. The SOL for writing was administered in March. While this is nearly the end of the year for my course only a small fraction of the students take this course and therefore take the test very near the beginning of their class, not the middle. Even the test that was adminsistered near the end of the course had already been given. Three weeks will not arrive until after Friday the fourteenth of May on our calendar. The tests began with at least six weeks and in some instances more to go. How can you call this the end when students are on block scheduling for at least 90% of classes?

This is Kelly,
You see Ms. Yecke its true that many of the schools have been taking the SOL's in the middle of the year. In my World History class we have just taken the test, and we were not familiar with some of the material on it because we havent gotten to that lesson yet. So if these SOL's are a must for our education we need to know what we are doing before they are given to us.
Also, if you look at it in another way it would be kind of a load on the students to take SOL's at the end of the school year too, because of end of the year exams. Our brains would be on over load and we wouldn't be able to perform well on our tests.

Dear Kelly,

There appears to be some confusion about what constitutes “the middle of the year.” Middle means halfway – thus, if schools are giving the SOL tests for a full year course in January, they are giving them in the middle of the year. But this is not happening, as schools must give the tests 3-5 weeks before the end of the school year. To call 3-5 weeks before the end of the school year “the middle of the year” is a gross exaggeration and an unfair characterization of the testing schedule. You can read about the SOL testing schedule at http://www.pen.k12.va.us/VDOE/NewHome/pressreleases/jan1499.html.

On the issue of being tested on information your class had not yet covered: All teachers have been given test blueprints that describe what is on the tests. These documents “serve as a guide to educators, parents and students in that they show (a) the SOLs covered by the test and which, if any, have been excluded; (b) which SOLs are assigned to each reporting category; (c) the number of test items in each reporting category and on the total test; (d) general information about how the test questions were constructed; and (e) the materials that students are allowed to use while taking the test.” This quote is from the introductory section in the test blueprints. They can be viewed at http://www.pen.k12.va.us/VDOE/Assessment/soltests/.

Some school divisions are allowing students who pass the SOL test in a particular course to skip their final exam in that course. Every division has the freedom to handle this differently.

Thank you for writing.

Cheri Pierson Yecke
Deputy Secretary of Education

Dear Susanne and Brandon:

Thank you for writing about the English test. This test is given in March so that it can be scored before the end of the school year.

The two English tests are different from the other end of course tests in that they are not tied to any one specific course, such as Algebra I or Chemistry. They are skills tests and do not assess content-specific material.

The criticism that the writing test is being given in the middle of the year is not really valid. Yes, it is given quite early (March), but it is not tied to finishing a specific course.

I have asked the Department of Education to provide more information to you. Thank you for writing to express your concerns.

Cheri Pierson Yecke
Deputy Secretary of Education

Dear Kelly:

I just realized that you might have been referring to the writing test in your letter of May 14. I read your letter in isolation from the messages from Brandon and Susanne, but now that I have read them all in context I am pretty confident that you may have been referring to the writing test.

Please read my response to Brandon and Susanne, and look for the upcoming response from DOE.

Again, thank you for writing, and I’m sorry if there was any confusion!

Cheri Pierson Yecke
Deputy Secretary of Education

Dear Ms.Yecke
Thank you for responding to these letters. I'm glad to see that someone will actually take time to read some of the comments given by the students in the state. This was an excelent idea to have this discussion forum,and I look forward to hearing some more from you on this matter.
Kelly