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Curriculum standards vex local teachers

By Yujia Song

Kelly Wilmore gave no instruction when the seventh graders came to his Civics and Economics class. They simply sat down and took notes of things written on the white board: “Voters evaluate information presented in political campaigns to make reasoned choices among candidates. …”

Some students highlighted key words, while others copied everything even though it was all in their Standards of Learning booklets.

“It helps you learn [by writing],” a girl explained.

Reading each sentence on the board was the next step in the routine, followed by discussions of important concepts. Wilmore, a teacher at Maury River Middle School, was confident in his way of approaching the subject, “This is how I got a 100 percent passing rate on the last SOL test.”

“Before SOL, you could teach dinosaurs at every grade level if you like dinosaurs, but now there’s a set curriculum you have to follow so that everyone teaches the same thing.”

- Rebecca Hill, sixth grade science teacher

A decade after Virginia’s adoption of SOL accountability program, teachers are embracing the standards but not the tests, although they manage to cope with the latter. But preparing for the tests, which begin March 7, tends to grabs teachers' attention. The pressure to raise test scores is more intense for some teachers at a school like Maury River Middle School, which has not been fully accredited for the past two years.

The pass rates on tests directly determine the accreditation of schools, explained Cindy Crance, director of instruction for Rockbridge County Schools. And many outsiders look upon test scores as the main indicators of student achievement, she added. When a school fails to be fully accredited, it is required to undergo a school academic review process designed by the state, among other improvement procedures. “A school can lose some autonomy” when it has to distribute its resources as the state sees fit for improvement, said Crance.

In Virginia, the Standards of Learning are requirements that public school students have to meet in subjects ranging from English to physical education. Only subjects in the four core areas -- English, mathematics, science, and history or social science - are tested at selected grade levels.

Third, fifth, and eighth graders have to take tests in all the core subjects. Starting this year, sixth and seventh graders will take tests in math and English in addition to the test in social studies. Tests are gradually introduced to other grades over the years.

Despite the pressure to prepare all students to pass the tests, teachers at MRMS agreed the standards ensured their accountability.

“Before SOL, you could teach dinosaurs at every grade level if you like dinosaurs,” said Rebecca Hill, a sixth grade science teacher. “But now there’s a set curriculum you have to follow so that everyone teaches the same thing.”

But some teachers say the SOL tests threaten to limit what they can teach.

Betty Anderson, a seventh grade math teacher, said she used to teach the sum of angles in a triangle, but stopped doing so this year. “I couldn’t find it in the SOL guides,” she said. She also has to give up some of the hands-on projects that help students grasp math concepts because “there is just no time.”

Seventh grade English teacher Josh Boblett, who began teaching in the fall, said he feels a similar constraint in utilizing class time.

“Sometimes when I’m teaching something I think is useful for English or even for their life, I wonder, am I wasting the 15 minutes [on something that is not tested],” Boblett said.

Although the teachers agree that the SOL are basic standards, they say they still have trouble bringing their students up to the bare minimum. Wilmore said one reason might be that Maury River has a larger percentage of students from lower socio-economic backgrounds than schools in more wealthy districts. He said these students usually need more help to pass the tests.

According to data from the Virginia Department of Education, 35.7 percent of students at Maury River Middle School are on free or reduced-price lunch program, compared with 19.3 percent from Lylburn Downing Middle School of the City of Lexington. The state average is 33 percent.

Students can receive extra help with subjects like reading, writing and math after school, said Carol Phemister, a guidance counselor at the middle school. During school hours, some students leave exploratory classes (non-core classes such as art and physical education) to attend remediation sessions, she said.

For all students taking SOL tests, teachers also have the added burden of reviewing past materials.

“The tests are spiral,” said the sixth grade math teacher. As knowledge is built up from lower grade levels, a student who performed poorly in a previous grade would struggle to stay on the present grade level, she said.

But students seem ready for teachers’ getting tough with them.

“Our English teacher piles work all over us,” said Jessica Hartbarger, a sixth grader. “But she knows we are capable of doing what we do.”