My daughter's journey

3/17/2014

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!

13 Comments

Deb Ernst

4/19/2015 04:59:36 pm

I am considering opting out my fourth grader in Hanover Public Schools at his IEP meeting next week. I think I am the only one. I am a retired test coordinator for a public school and math coach. I saw what schools and the state does with children and to teachers. It's all about this damn test!! One time one moment to remember everything! With 60 questions and 10 don't count. I am worried how they will treat him at school.

Sandra Bailey

6/7/2016 06:45:40 am

I
I am a concerned parent of a six grader who always comes several points away from passing her core class sols test each year. I always opt her out of retakes to advance her score. I found out this semester by doing this it puts her in a sol prep class for the whole year, which she does great in but takes up her schedule time for electives like chorus, orchestra, and drama. I don't like it at all. It seems our kids are being blackmailed or tricked by fear and misinformation. I don't like it and feel helpless as to what I can do as a stay at home mom and sunday school teacher to help my kids and others.

Jenny Sutton

5/12/2017 09:24:10 am

I am so sorry this has happened to your daughter. It is against the law. Sol's are not to be used to make her course selections. I would get a lawyer. Look at the law. I wish i had the link but it is not to be used for a grade or for things like your daughter has endured.

I am so sorry for your daughter's experiemce. Itbreaks my heart.

Nadine Tychnowitz

11/28/2016 06:38:52 pm

We just moved to Virginia this summer and shortly before school started I learned about the word SOL. Matter of fact, during the schools orientation, that was mostly all the principal talked about. At this time I had no idea what SOL meant, but I went home and told my husband "Whatever this SOL is, it looks like this is all the school cares about". Sadly that comment was very true!

We have 2 children, one in 3rd grade, one in 5th. The both always LOVED school and were always good students.

The first week of school my son came home crying every night, Sunday night he tried to throw up, hoping to stay home. At this time we were clueless about what was going on with him. I make this story short, but things have gotten worse and worse. He is now in therapy for anxieties and much more and HATES school. It is a daily struggle with lots of homework, tests, quizzes, grades,... and everything is ONLY targeted towards the SOL. They keep testing the same things over and over again and all it is what the SOL will be testing.

While our son now struggles mentally our daughter struggles with grades. Lots of D's and F's and sadly the grades do not reflect her abilities at all. While she knows a subject at home, so comes home with an F, while she is failing math one week, it is language arts the other. It is not the knowledge that is failing here, it is simply a 3rd grader who is overwhelmed by multiple tests/quizzes/grades/... a week.

I just started researching, still wondering if it is the school or the SOL's test (and with that teaching to test, rather than teaching to learn) that make this school experience so horrible for our kids, but something is definitely going wrong here!! We plan to opt out and are glad to have found this page!

Anonymity required

5/12/2017 10:17:31 am

Unfortunately, you can opt them out of the week of tests, but you cannot opt them out of sol drill drill drill, nor can you spare them the months of boredom, the utter lack of fresh learning in the last part of the year, and number of inner sparks of curiosity and brilliance these tests have snuffed out, not to mention destroying our children’s desire to learn, no matter what their abilities.

In high school, it will matter more, but i do not believe grades should be emphasized in elementary and middle school.

But what do we tell our children, whose teachers are pressuring and lying to them daily, pressuring them About how they must do well on a test that measures nothing of relevance to your child?

If the children are stressed over doing well on a test that measures the effectiveness of a teacher teaching to a test, then obviously someone is lying to the children.

Where are the teachers and administrators with integrity? Where are the people with the power to stop the abuse of our children?

They are absent, and i do not know who else can fix this without hurting his or her own child. Opting out does not have any particular negative effects on our children, but the first letter in this thread had a school punishing an opt-out child with a year of remediation she did not need, denying her the ability to take electives because suddenly her schedule was full--with a class she neither wanted nor needed. Clearly they will do whatever they want to our children to keep us from opting them out. (Unless the child is predicted to not score well, when one if the letters in this thread reported that she was pressured to opt-out because her child would decrease the school's score. Thus is the beginning of something very, very ugly. Where will it go? Will they segregate bright, average, and struggling children (who often catch up, given the right situation)? I can't go on--

But it is important to stress that by law a child's grade on the sol is independent of anything about your child. The test does not (by law) matter to your child.

So we can reduce our own children’s anxiety, but we can't save them from the hours of boredom, nor can we get back the time wasted going over and over and over things bright and average children alike will simply stop caring about. Nor can the children trust their teachers to have their back.

Let us first communicate to our children that the sol's are not tests of your child's abilities; they are nothing more than a measure of your teacher's ability to teach to a test.

Later we can assure them that these tests have been shown in study after study to be both irrelevant and damaging.

Later still we can tell the children that the sol's are a measure of (the failure of) the integrity of the schools, the school system, and the people who do or do not allow the administration of these tests to continue.

The SOL's are the defining example of the concept of "conflict of interest." I am horrified by the complete lack of integrity in the law, in our schools, in the people who administrate them, and in our school systems.

I am appalled that such an egregious example of child abuse to better one's own situation has been allowed to stand for five minutes.

Let our children go.

Anonymous

5/12/2017 10:22:29 am

Anon reauired link

5/12/2017 11:00:22 am

Read this article. Anout the ways schools are punishing children for their parents' choices.

Re: the sit and stare policy of punishing children, even disabled and adhd children
By making them sit at ghe wall and stare.

Note: all gifted children who take the test are reauired to sit and stare for the rest if the day when they finish early in virginia beach.

Any person who would do such a thing to a child is guilty if child abuse and no longer entitled to ne called a human being.

Anon

5/12/2017 11:01:52 am

Sit and stare link: Sorry i thought the link would go through if i put it in "website" above. Here it is:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/03/14/why-schools-are-forcing-some-kids-to-sit-and-stare-for-hours/?utm_term=.5073e6cf051f

Dana Harris

5/21/2017 03:55:31 pm

I found this website at the end of school last year. At the beginning of this school year I started to read up on the state requirements for the SOLs and what are my parental rights as last year was such a ball of stress that I, myself started to feel anxious about them in SEPTEMBER! Last year my 3rd grade daughter started waking up in the middle of the night to pace around my kitchen island in a panic. Then came the upset tummy, diarrhea, and nail chewing. When I explained over and over again to my daughter that the SOL is a test measuring the teacher/school's ability to teach children memorization, it fell upon deaf ears. For every statement I made to explain it to her, she had a reply which counteracted my statement - coming directly from her teacher! When asked why my daughter was told she would "fail" and wouldn't move on to 4th grade if she didn't pass the SOL, her teacher told me because it is material taught and tested on during the school year, if she didn't know the material at the time of SOLs, she probably didn't know it at the time of testing during the regular school year tests therefore would fail the grade. Why would these young children be told that when by the time they reached SOLs, they would already have passed or failed the material and I surely would have been notified or figured it out on my own before then. Her teacher told me that is what they are supposed to tell the children if challenged. This is in Virginia Beach. How can we get more parents on board to bring awareness to the blackmailing and deception? My neighbor's son was placed in an inclusion class albeit he is gifted. When she scheduled a meeting to have her son moved she was told, "If he stays where he is he gets an automatic 25 points on his SOL". I wasn't there to verify this but going on the way the children are being "prepped" for SOLs I wouldn't be surprised if that is exactly what happened. Gone are the children's true field days as they need more time for SOL reviews but yet this year they had a pep rally for SOLs. My 1st grader had to sit for 7 hours until he got any physical activity because it was more convenient for SOL prep scheduling for the higher grades. His PE was the last class of the day for him. If they had time that is when they got recess as well. I told my daughter this year to mark B for all her answers. We are not opting out (to avoid a backlash) but if these tests are not part of their grades why should it make a difference? I have written to the state board of education yet have received no reply. At this point, I'm thinking the only other place to go with this issue is the media. Suggestions anyone?

Anono-mom

5/21/2017 04:33:03 pm

You have to find a way to tell your kids that the teachers are not being told the truth. (If you want the teachers to still be goid giys in your childs eyes). You can show your kids the law where it says what the test can and cant be used for. Tell them it has nothing to do with your child--and they should do as well as they care to do as long as they can stand it and then stop. i really worry about the kids who believe the teachers whose salaries depend very much on how well their kids do on the sol!

5/21/2017 04:25:38 pm

We have to look at the law (it is against the law to use the test for giving the children grades or for retention purposes), however the teachers amd administration are happy to lie to both parents and students about it.

Find the law about the sol here or on a homeschooling page. What they have threatened is illegal. I think it is extremely important that you find a way to get this atuff in writing-- "Could you please send me a copy of your policy in opting out" or maybe " the possible repurcussion my child might face?"

If you can get it written down with a signature and then that is evidemce that is powerful. And we can get busy. They are breaking the law by threatening to hurt oour children.

I heard my daughter's 5th grade principal tell me every lie in the book and my daughter's teacher
called (who really cared about my daughter) the middle school to see if there woukd be any repurcussions, and the middle school guidance flat out lied-- said my gifted child would be put in remedial classes, etc., and not allowed to take electives (both of these actions are against the law).

Since it was second hand and not on paper, i was unable to write the letter that shoukd have been written to the virinia pilot as well as the va beach superintendent. Try to get it in writing?

I was ready to opt out my daughter this year but she is so afraid of retaliation she is going to take them anyway. I support her decision but will continue to work on getting rid of this unethical test which seems to destroy the integrity of our schools amd the people who work in them.

This site is excellent, with references showing studies about how damaging these tests are to our children and also they turn out to give nothing but inaccurate results.

Please try to get these threats on paper. if our own kids can't risk retaliation, then i am even more inspired to work to fix this. We need evidence of the illegal threats.

I was also told by two teachers that zero new material is introduced after mid-march. Those poor kids.

Anyway i'm sorry this is happening to your children. We can work to change it though.

Mick

2/5/2019 06:45:38 am

So, I have opted my child out of sols in school and now I'm getting notices from her teachers that they want to test her because she is having attention problems ect.. ect. I have had a lot of issues with the school. The first year was pretty rough because we moved from a different state and I held her back one year because she struggled so much. After that , she was fine, was getting a's and b's then suddenly 3rd grade comes along and her grades went down. (3rd grade is when sols began) In kindergarden I had her evaluated by a child psychologist who found nothing wrong with her. In 4th grade did get her tested again because the teacher was saying she had a short attention span but at the same time I felt that the teachers were ignoring me when I would tell them that other kids were bothering her. She is very different at school than at home. She went through summer school after 4th grade and is now in 5th grade. I never got complaints from her summer school teacher but now her current teacher again is saying she supposedly isn't following directions, but my child has expressed to me that the class is noisy and hat she gets annoyed by a boy in class which I did bring up to the teacher. One of her other teachers seems very cut throat, doesn't do make up homework for zeros and doesn't give her copies of worksheets she's lost. I also recently read that if a child is diagnosed with ADHD that their test scores don't count? Just seeking advise and wondering if it is true. I honestly do not feel that there is anything wrong with my kid yet I feel like the teachers just don't want to work with her for whatever reason. Wondering what I shoud do. When the school tested her last year in 4th grade they found nothing wrong with her. They said her attention span was normal nothing ect ect, felt that her relationship with the teacher hindered her learning as well.

Kevin Marcum

4/23/2019 02:50:38 pm

They told my son today if he didn't pass the English and reading sol that he would not graduate. Then sent a letter home to me to sign that I needed to understand the importance of it because the school needs to look good. The teacher's don't teach the kids right. I see young people running a cash register that can't add and subtract if the register messes up. But schools want to bully and threaten to try and make their schools look better instead of making their teacher's teach better. Their needs to be legal action available against a school. This is also why so many children get bullied at school. If it's not other kids bulling kids,then it's teacher's doing it.

My daughter's journey

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