Hi,

 

I saw the article about RVA Opt Out on my WWBT news app, and your group is of great interest to me! We live in Prince George County, and my two children have only attended Prince George public schools. My daughter has graduated, but she was in third grade back when SOL testing started in Virginia. Now my son is in fifth grade, and we are still on the merry-go-round. Here are just a couple of ways that SOL testing has negatively affected my family and families we know here in Prince George:

 

1)    For four years, the school system tried very hard to remove my son from general education because they did not want him in the SOL pool when he started third grade. There are students I know who are segregated in self-contained classrooms because their parents have been duped into believing it is best for their children’s education (when really it is best for the school’s SOL scores).

2)    We know families who stopped signing their children up for sports because of the pressures of school and too much homework. I’m talking about elementary school children and recreation sports, not travel leagues that demand higher levels of commitment! My husband has coached for the county recreation department for 15 years, and we have had the opportunity to hear many parents’ concerns about school encroachment into family life.

 

The idea of opting out of SOL testing is appealing, but my son’s school spends the entire fourth quarter reviewing and drilling for the SOL tests. The students must complete many practice SOL tests (both on paper and on the computer) and many of those are GRADED. So, while the actual SOL tests don’t affect the students’ grades or promotion, their fourth quarter grades arelargely based on how they fare on all of the practice leading up to the SOL tests. Students can’t really escape all of the pressure by opting out of the SOL tests, but it is a good place to start to get the Virginia DOE’s attention. By the way, his school does the same thing with benchmark testing: the actual benchmark grades don’t get entered into the grading system, but the grades for the cumulative review packets do!

 

Thanks for your time and I will be keeping up with your progress,

Linda Simpson

Last year I watched my daughter cry almost every evening. She wasn't suffering from any illness, family trauma or loss. She was crying over the inundation of worksheets and massive pressure that she was receiving from her third grade teacher. She was told over and over that her performance on the SOL was important to keep the school open and keep her teacher employed. My daughter became less and less engaged in her work, more and more anxious each day and had almost completely lost her love of learning.

I had to do something. So I started to research. I had been working with the school system myself for over a decade and was very aware of the detrimental affects of standardized testing on public education as whole. But this was the first time that I saw the emotional and physical affects. As a mother, I had to keep my daughter's spirit up while trying to get through the mountains of useless and irrelevant work that she was given. It is hard to be honest to a nine year old about the unfairness of the system, while at the same time, having her complete the work given to her. I felt put in the middle. I wanted to teach my daughter the value of perseverance, getting through things that aren't immediately gratifying and developing endurance and work ethic BUT the repetitiveness, lack of creativity and drilling of information was just unacceptable practice. I began to have more conversations with her about what was happening in the classroom and was appalled at how "teaching to the test" had truly become the norm. 

Though I had read many scholarly articles about how standardization was taking over our schools, I now had my daughter's beautiful heart as the catalyst to DO something about it. I began really digging into the intricacies of the laws, seeing what other districts were doing, connecting with other concerned parents and got poised to make the best decision ever. 

I confirmed with the principal at her school and the administration of the RPS district and learned that YES, in fact, I could opt my daughter out of these terrible tests. And so I did. I also tried to get other parents to join in this act of civil disobedience. I had many parents cheering me all the way, but in the end, my daughter was the only one at her school that was opted out. 


She moved onto the fourth grade without issue. She has been involved in programs that requested SOL scores that after a short explanation gladly allowed her to be a part of the program. 


This year, there seems to be more and more interest in joining the Opt Out movement, and hence, here is my contribution.


It is my wish to open the dialogue, to let parents understand what THEY can DO and to also allow schools to protect themselves in the wake of our decisions to take back our schools! Please share your story. Let's get motivated. Let's get moving. RVA - if there is any place that can do this, WE CAN DO THIS! Let's take back OUR SCHOOLS! Let's get SMILES back into the classrooms!