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Schools

School Board Seeks Change to SOL Timing

Board sees greater flexibility if tests are taken earlier in year

Middle school students would be able to take required Virginia tests in reading and math earlier in the school year if the state approves a request from the Fairfax County School Board. Students who pass the tests would be able to spend the rest of the school year on other lessons, and the other students could get help before they take the tests again.

To make the change, the board asked the Virginia Board of Education for a waiver that allows teachers and principals to give the Standards of Learning tests when educators think the students are ready.

Middle school teachers now administer most SOL tests once in May. The eighth-grade writing test is administered in early March. If the state board approves the waiver, FCPS could test students in January if teachers believe they have mastered the material. Students also would have time to retake the SOLs if they did not receive a passing score.

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The county board decided unanimously July 14 to request the waiver.

In a statement, Fairfax School Board Chairman Jane Strauss touted the flexibility the waiver would offer. It would also make the process more transparent and learning more relevant beyond the test.

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Fairfax County joins four Virginia school systems — Albemarle, Henrico and Roanoke counties and the city of Virginia Beach — in submitting the waiver.

The five school systems will present their request today to the Virginia Board of Education School and Division Accountability Committee and the final decision will be determined at the next scheduled Board Meeting in September.

The impact of changing the timing and frequency of middle school SOL testing is uncertain. Some teachers argue that condensing a year's worth of learning into one semester would be difficult. Teachers devote significant time to SOL testing and all the logistics that it entails, so they have many questions about the details of any changes and how they would be implemented.

Before the vote, School Board members Patty Reed (Providence) and Martina Hone (At-Large) said teachers should have been included in the policy decisions earlier, as they are the people who would best understand the true impact of the changes proposed.  Having them at the table moving forward, they argued, was critical.

"I am troubled that the first conversations were not with our middle school teachers," Hone said.

Reed, noting she "reluctantly" supported applying for the waiver, spoke of her commitment to monitoring the possible implementation of the changes on how it would affect teacher workload. She stressed the importance of communicating with all the stakeholders, including the public.

"This will be a huge change with significant implications for many and we need to start communicating [about it]," she said.

Unions representing Fairfax teachers had a mixed reaction to the waiver.

The Fairfax County Federation of Teachers supports the waiver so long as the administration and teachers collaborate, according to the FCFT website.

But at the July 14 meeting, FCFT President Steve Greenburg told the School Board that middle school teachers should have been part of the discussion from the beginning.

FCPS Superintendent Jack Dale first raised the possibility of Fairfax County applying for the waiver in early April with his Superintendent’s Teacher Advisory Council group, Greenburg said.

Teachers presented concerns and questions then, but Dale did not meet with teachers until Hone and Reed requested he do so on June 23, Greenburg said.

"The fact that members of this School Board had to make that request concerns me," Greenburg said.

Michael Hairston, president of the Fairfax Education Association, said FEA was still polling members, so no official position has been taken.

Bretton Zinger, president of the Association of Fairfax Professional Educators, said in an email his organization extends "cautious, (quite cautious), support for the proposal."

One of their questions: "Who gets to decide if a student takes the test early? The cluster? Principals? Teachers? Students? If the proposal gets approved, would a middle school classroom have to administer it early?"

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