Ms. Shaw's Favorite Websites teaching and learning Virginia K3 History and Social Science standards of learningResources for all of the K-3 (sols) including lesson ideas and links to http://www2.hopewell.k12.va.us/techsol/favweb.htm
Extractions: Ms. Shaw's Favorite Websites Virginia SOL Related Search Engines Teacher's Treasures Science ... Instructional Technology/ Tutorials Virginia SOL Related Virginia Standards of Learning currently in effect for Virginia Public Schools . This includes all subject areas and grade levels. Enhanced Scope and Sequence Includes: Units organized by topics from the original scope and sequence, essential knowledge and skills from the Standards of Learning Curriculum Framework, related Standards of Learning, and these are great review questions to use with your students to prepare for the SOL tests. Spring 2000 Tests Spring 2001 Tests Spring 2002 Tests Spring 2003 Tests This includes all grade levels and subject areas except History and Social Science. Spring 2003 History and Social Science Tests Ten released items for each of the history tests are available here.
Virtual Guide To Teaching Civil War SOLs Guide to teaching Virginia s Civil War (sols). This web site is divided into threemajor Fourth grade standards of learning. Civil War and Postwar Eras http://www.freelancestar.com/CivilWar/Teaching/Education/TeacherIndex
Extractions: Each topic above includes several subtopics. By clicking on a subtopic, you will find further detailed information, primary source photos, and documents. This section is factually intensive. All background information has been carefully researched, and is largely based on the Virginia Standards of Learning. The Activities section is also divided into several topics including: Within each of the five topics there are corresponding activities. The activities can be found by clicking on the activity title within the section or by selecting the activities in the gray menu. Activities range from multiple-choice questions to writing news articles to coloring a map of the United States blue or gray. The Help section is divided into two categories: To easily navigate the web site, the teacher or student can use these two powerful tools. The key word index consists of words, taken directly from the SOLs, making it a useful guide for teachers when planning lessons. It will also be helpful to students doing research, so they can quickly find their topic.
American Association Of School Administrators - The School The issue of teaching to these tests has become a major concern to Much ofthe criticism against Virginia s standards of learning tests has to do with http://www.aasa.org/publications/sa/2000_12/domenech.htm
PolyFamilies:Polyamory For The Practical Virginia has already proven this with the standards of learning tests. Teacher must now teach to these (sols) and drill their students to be able to http://www.polyfamilies.com/homeschoolrant.html
Extractions: Featuring Spice! The PolyFamily Web Comic I sometimes go off. I wrote it in the winter of 2001: I homeschool. Well, sort of. I have a pre-schooler and a kindergartener. The kindergartener knows how to read. I wish I could take credit for it as a sign of my educational brilliance, but frankly, I cannot. You see, I got some videotapes on the alphabet, played Boggle Jr. with him a little bit and he started sounding out letters by himself. From there it was a quick step to curling up with Thomas the Tank Engine books. Lately, he's been reading them to his sister. I had intended to do the flash card thing for math with my son. That fell by the wayside as well. Our next door neighbor has a dog that has lost a leg. One of my husbands, who was concerned about the apparent lack of math drills, decided to use the dog's lack of a full set of legs as a way to play with addition and subtraction. Wouldn't you know it, Baby Thor (my son) and The Bird (my daughter) were able to handle this with ease. Around the dinner table last night, one of my husbands, my wife and my children were talking about our day as usual. To give some background: The Bird is three and while she can sing the ABC song (usually) she is just starting into the phonetic significance of the letters. She started calling out words and asking Baby Thor what letter each word started with.
Richmond.com - Feature Story: 'The Stress-O-Ls ' For and their teachers, the psychological effects of the (sols) were clear The tests The $25 million the state s allotted for the standards of learning http://www.richmond.com/news/output.aspx?Article_ID=773844&Vertical_ID=2&tier=1&
Food For Thought Question 1 The SOL (standards of learning) tests are an accurate Question 6Students results on the (sols) are a good measure of teacher effectiveness. http://www.co-opliving.com/coopliving/issues/2000/June/food.htm
Extractions: Professor, George Mason University Each semester my educational research class, composed of graduate students, conducts studies on important educational issues as part of their course requirements. This semester the student project centered on parental views of the Standards of Learning (SOL). An optical scan survey instrument was designed containing 19 questions. The results of the most pertinent questions in the survey are discussed here. A population sample of 373 parents completed the survey. The responses from Northern Virginia parents provided both quantitative and qualitative data, which were statistically analyzed by the class. The following is an abstract report of the findings. Graph: Question 1 The graph also illustrates that females and males negatively responded to this question with female responses being significantly more negative than males. Data from other demographic factors not illustrated on the graph showed that Caucasians and non-Caucasians also negatively responded to this question, but Caucasian responses were significantly more negative. Those parents with a college education were significantly more negative than non-degreed parents when responding to question 1. Question 2: The SOL tests measure the most important information that every student should know.
IDEAS - MIRROR NEWS: SPRING 2000 Here in Virginia, standards of learning (SOL) tests are now required and the We saw a need to look at how the State was doing with regard to (sols) and http://www.idic15.org/virginia.html
Extractions: SPRING 2000 NEWSLETTERS HOME VIRGINIA CONSIDERS SPECIAL ED PROPOSAL BROUGHT BY IDEAS MOM AND FRIENDS Patti Rubel, parent of a son, Adam, who has idic15, recently sent us this update on her activities with the Virginia State legislature. Congratulations Patti! We made a proposal to our state delegate to have a study done that would look at this issue. We wanted the State to agree to modified testing for kids who follow a modified curriculum (this would include quite a few kids in special ed). That way, they wouldn't have to opt out. They would take tests based on the curriculum they're studying. The teachers would be accountable and the parents would have something to measure their children's progress by. We would also like to see another kind of diploma added to the system to go along with the "Modified SOLs". We hope this would help a great many kids in Special Ed go on to higher learning institutions. Right now an IEP Diploma won't get them anywhere. GO TO NEXT PAGE
Charlottesville City Schools | Science Department Teachers have access to a variety of resources when teaching the science curriculum . VA standards of learning ((sols)). The science standards of learning http://www.ccs.k12.va.us/departments/science.html
Extractions: In the Charlottesville City School students learn scientific content through active involvement in hands-on, problem-solving activities. They use a variety of science processes to explore the world around them. Students learn scientific methodology through the systematic use of inquiry skills such as observing; classifying and sequencing; communicating; measuring; predicting; hypothesizing; inferring; defining; controlling and manipulating variables in experimentation; and interpreting, analyzing, and evaluating data. They are encouraged to associate science with aspects of everyday living.
Extractions: University of California, Davis PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH's approach to education policy has earned him cautious plaudits from otherwise hostile critics, who see much to admire in the implementation of standards for education. However useful such standards prove for testing students' technical skills like arithmetic and reading, they create problems for less-standardized processes like thinking about history. Some states, including Virginia, have already instituted "Standards of Learning" (SOLs) to lend coherence to history teaching throughout the state. But the Virginia SOLs' treatment of the Cold War provides ample warning about the perils of such state standardization. The Cuban Missile Crisis ended peaceably as much because of John Kennedy's famous luck (so reliable till it suddenly ran out) as because of good policy or good leadership. The President didn't know that Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev had delegated responsibility for nuclear weapons in Cuba to the same trigger-happy Russian commander who had shot down an American U-2 at the height of the crisis. The Russian field commander in Cuba could at any time, at the slightest American provocation, have fired off a tactical nuclear missile, which would surely have set off American retaliation. The world had been closer to nuclear incineration than Kennedy knew.
Beyond SOLs Beyond (sols). standards of learning represented the first step in holding public Many of the components notably state standards, tests and curriculum http://www.baconsrebellion.com/Issues04/09-07/Braunlich.htm
Extractions: Beyond SOLs Standards of Learning represented the first step in holding public schools accountable. The next step is "value added assessment" that tracks performance of individual students and teachers. F or three years, Governor Mark Warner has disappointed his liberal supporters and confounded conservative adversaries with his strong support of the state Standards of Learning, while advocating for more public charter schools both creations of his Republican predecessors. But while Virginia has much to be proud of in its demand for educational excellence, the time has come for the Commonwealth to lead the way in taking the next steps toward educational accountability. Nothing better exemplifies this necessity than the recent teachers union report claiming that public charter school students perform worse than students in traditional public schools.
Extractions: Introduction Immediately upon becoming the president of Harvard in 1933, James Bryant Conant established a scholarship program for underprivileged students from underrepresented backgrounds (but with very high intelligence) to attend his University, and he commissioned his staff to find a tool by which intelligence could be measured. The Harvard team quickly landed upon contemporarily-fashionable I.Q. testing as a source for measuring intelligence, adopting Princeton professor Carl Brighamís tool for assessing the intelligence of World War I army recruits: the Scholastic Aptitude Testóour friend, the SAT. However, Brigham opposed the wide-scale academic use of the SAT, warning: If the unhappy day ever comes when teachers point their students toward these newer examinations . . . then we may look for the inevitable distortion of education in terms of tests. (qtd. in Lehmann 55) Poof!: Itís the year 2000, and forty-eight states administer standardized tests to public school students to measure scholastic achievement, nearly half of the states publicly rate schools along the results of those standardized tests, and over a third have in place provisions by which they can close, reconstitute, deny accreditation, or otherwise sanction schools whose students do not meet minimum performance standards on the tests (McGinn 48-9). I teach in such a state.
Testimony Of Ms. Jane Massey-Wilson teaching the standards and refining the curriculum is a work in progress. On the first round of standards of learning tests, West Point students scored http://edworkforce.house.gov/hearings/106th/ecyf/esea6999/massey-wilson.htm
Extractions: June 1999 Mr. Castle, Members of the Committee Thank you for inviting me to speak on "Academic Accountability." It is a topic near and dear to my heart, and I appreciate the work you are doing to improve academic accountability in our schools. I come to you today in support of high academic standards, high expectations, and accountability in public schools. Our students deserve no less. American businesses deserve no less. Our children are our most valuable resource for the future. We want to make certain that our students are competitive in the state, the nation, the world. We keep hearing from the business world that students are not prepared in the basics and that businesses are spending large amounts of money teaching recent high school graduates to read and write. We keep hearing from businesses that we need to teach the core academics, and they will train employees in specifics of the job. We must make certain that our students are well educated and have a competitive edge. I support the Virginia K-12 Education Reform to raise student achievement.
Extractions: Main If you are a Blue Monkey reader than I am going to assume that you intelligent enough to know your issues, and when it comes to education there is no hotter issue that No Child Left Behind. If you know nothing about this please stop now, consult any major news source, and come back once you have learned the key points. Virginia, I am pleased to say, seems to be ahead of most other states in meeting federal mandates. We currently test K-12 in the four core areas: Math, English, Science, and History. This creates a plethora of problems that Id like to address, including how school teachers and administrators are dealing with the new law, how the law is affecting our students and our budget, and my proposal for leaving no child behind. This brings me to the next point, if this legislation is designed to help our students learn then why has our drop out rates increased? In our school if a students does not pass a certain number of SOL tests then they are denied their diploma the get frustrated and drop out wait didnt we just leave that student behind? Not to mention that this has become some sort of sick numbers game within many school districts. Fortunately my high school hasnt sunk this low yet, but in other VA schools there are reports of administrators blocking under achievers from taking the test for the purpose of raising the test scores oh my it looks like we just left yet another group of students behind! To support a standard that you know is unachievable and then to play with lives of children just to eek out the numbers for the politicians is more immoral, in my opinion, than allowing homosexuals to have a legal union!
Extractions: The purpose of this article is to explore the multifaceted and complex issue of standardized assessment and educational accountability and present results of an informal survey designed to explore the opinions of graduate students in a practitioner-based teacher preparation program regarding standards of learning and teacher training. The issues of appropriateness of SOL tests for at-risk learners and teacher feelings of efficacy following training were addressed in this survey. We feel the results yield useful information that will assist classroom teachers, teacher educators, and policy makers in their development of more effective training programs. In response to current teacher shortages, many schools are being forced to place unprepared individuals in classrooms on provisional licenses. Some alternative paths to teacher licensure may be appropriate to meet these challenges, however, not at the expense of professional standards and integrity. Many quick-fix strategies such as the practice of utilizing teachers in subjects areas in which they are not certified do not serve the best interests of students or teachers (Finding Good Teachers, 1999). Consequences of the imposition of these quick-fix strategies include high burnout rate and poor classroom discipline (Berliner, 2000). Most authorities agree there is a need to find a better solution to the teacher shortage than simply filling classrooms with people who are not properly trained to teach.
Curriculum These new standards of learning set clear and concise expectations for what teachers Grade 3 Otis Lennon (Ability Test) State (sols) Grade 4 Stanford 9 http://www.henrico.k12.va.us/ES/ArthurAshe/curriculum.html
Extractions: You are here: Fairfax County Public Schools Standards of Accreditation and Standards of Learning Standards of Accreditation and Standards of Learning Virginia Board of Education Standards Standards of Learning Standards of Accreditation Fairfax County Public Schools Standards of Learning ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Newport News Public Schools - SOL & Testing standards of learning (SOL) Testing major element of this reform promotinghigh academic standards is known as The standards of learning, or (sols). http://sbo.nn.k12.va.us/sol/
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Test Usage Information Links and critics of the Virginia standards of learning tests, thinking the Canadian Teachers Federation Standardized Testing and High Stakes Decisions http://home.rica.net/airedale/test_usage_information_links.htm
Mrs. Wilborne's SOL Testing Site curriculum is based completely on the Virginia standards of learning ((sols)) . NEW Test Items Release Spring 2001 SOL Test NEW (sols) Approved by State http://web.dps.k12.va.us/ParkAve/testsite.htm
Extractions: Resource Guide For Social Studies Start Your Own Homonyms List and Learn Homonym - One of two or more words spelled and pronounced alike but different in meaning Homophone - One of two or more words pronounced alike but different in meaning or spelling Homograph - One of two or more words spelled alike but different in meaning or pronunciation Our third grade curriculum is based completely on the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOLs). The SOLs are the curriculum. Please make yourself familiar with them and work to master each. In the spring, all third grade students will be tested on K-3 Standards of Learning. All fifth grade students will be tested on 4-5 SOLs.
The Standards Of Learning (SOL) Reform: Standardized achievement tests have been with us for generations, If absoluteperformance standards are desired, committees of teachers could be http://www.epi.elps.vt.edu/cross2.htm
Extractions: Virginia Tech Note to the reader Mr. Mark Christie, a member of the Virginia Board of Education, wrote an article for the fall 1999 issue of Virginia Issues and Answers ("Standards of Learning: Why Virginias education reform is working," volume 6, number 2) in response to an earlier article of mine ("Are Virginias public schools failing? Assessing the assessments," volume 6, number 1) that was critical of the Standards of Learning (SOL) assessments. Rather than address my criticisms of the SOL tests, Mr. Christie contends that what is more important about the SOL tests is not whether they are multiple-choice or some other format, whether they have more items or fewer, but the fact that they count , they have real, not sham, consequences [Emphasis in the original]. I cannot help but wonder if Mr. Christie, a lawyer, would embrace such a cavalier attitude about the Virginia Bar Examination or medical tests that also have real, not sham, consequences. Contrary to Mr. Christies assertion, the more important the decisions to be made from tests, the more important it is to have confidence in the tests. Make no mistake about it, the SOL tests are being used to make important decisions about public schools and the children they serve, but the reliability and validity evidence cannot support the intended uses of the SOL test scores.
