Why I think we shouldn’t have S.O.L.s

With the end of the year almost around the corner, many H-B students in both middle and high school have to take the Standards of Learning exams (otherwise known as S.O.L.).

For me, spending 2-3 hours on a test given to us by the state doesn’t seem like the best way to show students’ understanding of the concept.  The idea itself seems daunting and with the pressure from teachers and parents to perform well, especially for those who aren’t good test takers.

The S.O.Ls are supposed to serve as a benchmark for teachers rather than students, so why do we, the students, have to take a 40-50 question multiple choice test or an integrated reading and writing exam in 5th and 8th? Not to mention, to earn verified credit in a class you have to either complete the multiple choice section or pass project based assessments (PBAs) over the course of a school year.

SOLs are meant to show that we understand what has been taught to us through the year, but why aren’t there different ways to prove what we know? The PBAs are set questions that have no “correct” answer, but instead  a 1-4 dual graded scale on the demonstration of content knowledge.

Why are the state’s standards taking away from educational time to teach people how to take a test to prepare for one? There is no multiple choice test for which a human cannot increase their odds of doing well. So, why do we have these tests that teachers spend several weeks over the end of the year preparing us for, when that time could have been spent teaching us more?

People can demonstrate understanding and concept knowledge in more than one way. One person may excel at answering multiple choice questions while another makes a poster and demonstrates such ideas visually.

If S.O.L.s reflect the teacher’s performance, and they can demonstrate the context sent from the state, then why is it put on the student? One year a set of students could have issues with how the teacher is teaching and it can reflect negatively on both the student and the teacher, even as an outlier in the data.

Knowledge can be demonstrated through a variety of ways. Why do they test the teacher’s ability through the students and not the teacher themselves?