Students acing SOL tests

[WMZEMKA@aol.com]

I took the pictures out to make this easier to open.  Perfect scores  in our 
division rate you a limo trip to a fancy restaurant.  
Mickey
 
  By AMY JETER, The Virginian-Pilot 
© June 3,  2007 

Last spring, 50 third-graders took the history  Standards of Learning exam at 
Norfolk's Dreamkeepers Academy at J.J. Roberts  Elementary School.  acing
More than half of them received a 600, the highest  score possible. 
Miles away in Chesapeake, the same thing happened at  Southeastern Elementary 
School: 56 percent of the third-graders aced the test.  And across the state, 
1 in 5 students did.  
Perfect scores were far less common in other subjects,  such as math and 
English. In science, fewer than 6 percent of students taking  the tests in the 
state earned the highest score. 
Educators said students' success in history showed how  well Virginia's 
standards are being taught and learned. Others wondered whether  the tests are too 
easy. 
"The obvious question," said Steve Dunbar, an education  professor at the 
University of Iowa, "is, Are kids in third grade in Virginia  really better in 
social studies than anything else?" 
When the Standards of Learning exams were designed in  the late 1990s, little 
thought was given to how many students should be acing  them.  
In the traditional bell curve - what statisticians call  a "normal 
distribution" of scores - most students would be in the middle of the  range. About 2.5 
percent would receive the highest mark. 
But Virginia's standardized tests are not graded on a  curve. They're 
supposed to gauge how well students know the Standards of  Learning, and the hope is 
that as many students as possible are proficient.  
"The more kids who are getting the perfect score, the  better," said Doris 
Redfield, an education consultant who headed the Virginia  Department of 
Education's assessment and reporting division in the late 1990s.  

Saijvon Steward, a student  at Dreamkeepers Academy, prepares for the SOLs. 
Principal Doreatha White  has teachers focus on concepts on the tests that can 
trip up students.   
Before the SOLs are given, a scale is set that links  each possible number of 
correct answers to a score. The scale changes slightly  each year when test 
questions change. 
A 600 means the student missed either zero, one or two  questions, depending 
on the test. On the elementary science tests last year,  students needed to be 
perfect. On the history tests, they could miss one or two.  
While 600s sound impressive, principals, administrators  and state officials 
are most concerned with pass rates - the percentage of  students scoring 400 
or above. Pass rates are important in determining whether a  school is 
accredited by the state and whether it meets academic goals under the  federal No 
Child Left Behind law.  
The Virginia Department of Education doesn't routinely  report the actual 
scores received on the SOL tests. At the request of The  Virginian-Pilot, 
officials released the number of 600s on all SOL tests in  2005-06 and the scores of 
all tests taken by third- and fifth-graders in South  Hampton Roads. 
Usually when a series of tests is developed, the  scoring patterns tend to be 
the same from subject to subject, said the  University of Iowa's Dunbar. 
The number of Virginia students who passed history and  science was similar, 
with the rates each at about 90 percent for third-graders  and at about 85 
percent for fifth-graders.  
But the difference in the number of perfect scores was  much more pronounced. 
So was the variation in students scoring "pass/advanced" -  a 500 or above. 
In third grade, 57 percent earned that score on history compared  with 40 
percent for science; in fifth grade, it was 45 percent for history and  23 percent 
for science.  
There are two disadvantages when lots of students earn  the highest score on 
a test. Teachers can't determine the finer details of what  students haven't 
learned, and there's no room left to improve. 
"If you're getting kids who are close to the ceiling or  hitting the ceiling, 
they have nowhere to go," said Bruce Bracken, an education  professor at The 
College of William and Mary.  
Students haven't always sailed through the SOL history  exams. 
In the early years, scores were so low in several grade  levels that in 2001 
the Virginia Board of Education took the unusual step of  lowering the number 
of questions that students needed to answer correctly to  pass some of the 
tests. That included the fifth-grade exam.  
"The one thing we've always heard is the history tests  are too hard," said 
Charles Pyle, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of  Education.  
The tests were based on standards from 1995, which  required elementary 
students to know the basics of economics, geography, civics  and history. Before, 
they had started out learning about family and community,  then eased into 
state, national and world history. 
Teachers felt that the SOL tests covered too much  ground in one year and 
that the standards were unclear.  
When the state's history and social science standards  came up for a 
seven-year review in 2001, committees consisting mostly of  teachers recommended a 
rewrite of the curriculum. Among their suggestions: pare  back the information 
covered.  

Richard Davis, a  third-grader at Southeastern Elementary school in 
Chesapeake, was ready  with the answer during an SOL review.  
By 2003-04, the entire test had been changed to meet  those new standards.  
Historically, scores have dropped in the first year or  so of new or revised 
tests. 
But that year, the percentage of perfect scores in  third-grade history 
jumped to 16 percent from 2.6 percent. For fifth-graders,  the number increased to 
9 percent from 2.4 percent.  
State officials say that doesn't mean the tests are too  easy. 
"There were some legitimate concerns that had to be  addressed about the 
teachability of the standards," Pyle said. "Our history and  social studies 
teachers are finding that the 2001 standards are teachable.  They're rigorous, but 
they're teachable."  
The new tests feature more clear-cut questions and more  illustrations, some 
teachers said. The answer options for the multiple-choice  tests often include 
at least one that seems implausible.  
Patty Costis, a teacher at Dreamkeepers, approved of  the changes. 
"The tests were meant to be broad strokes of the  general knowledge instead 
of just these individual details," Costis said. "Not,  'Do you remember a 
little, minute detail of first grade, second quarter?'  " 
Educators said the large number of high scores last  year could be due to the 
age of the test.  
"Once the test has been out for a while, you have years  and years to perfect 
what you do - with the instruction, with the strategies,  just equipping the 
students with the knowledge," said Patricia S. Williams,  principal of 
Westhaven Elementary in Portsmouth.  
At Dreamkeepers, Principal Doreatha White has score  improvement down to a 
science. She identifies which concept tripped up her  students the most in each 
subject area and has her teachers include lessons on  that concept every week. 
 
In history, this year's concept is geography. Maps of  the world in glitter, 
paint and colored pencil line the hallways, and students  inside the 
classrooms constantly drill the names of oceans and  continents. 
"We don't wait until January to start test  preparation," White said. "We 
start in September." 
In nine years, the elementary-level science SOL tests  have never been 
significantly revised.  
Elementary students don't seem to have trouble passing  the exams, yet the 
percentage of perfect scores statewide has remained  relatively low: 5.4 percent 
for third graders last year and 2.3 percent for  fifth graders. 
Why is it harder for students to ace this  test? 
It could be the type of questions. Science tends to  require problem-solving 
rather than fact memorization.  
In an example from last year's exam, third-graders were  given four pictures 
of animals on a seesaw and asked, "Which of these shows that  the toy cow is 
lighter than the toy horse?"  
Fifth-graders were shown four pictures and asked which  depicted the type of 
cloud that would most likely be seen during a thunderstorm.  

Jeri Outerbridge uses a  touchscreen board during a geography game at 
Dreamkeepers Academy in  Norfolk. Jeri and fellow students, from left, Geoffrey 
Stewart, Ta’Kita  Clark and Travon Grady were preparing for upcoming Standards of 
Learning  testing with teacher Kristen Gott.  
"They have to know the concept, and they have to be  able to apply it," said 
Ashanda Bickham, a teacher at Norfolk's Chesterfield  Academy of Math, Science 
and Technology. "It's a higher level of  thinking." 
Some teachers, such as Bickham, must also figure out  how to relay science 
concepts to students who have weak reading  skills. 
She solved the problem by chucking the thick textbooks.  Instead, she uses 
work sheets from a prepared curriculum to help students create  an "interactive 
notebook."  
The children paste paragraphs and pictures into a  spiral notebook in which 
they also write notes and draw pictures. Bickham walks  the students through 
the texts, asking increasingly difficult  questions. 
Said fourth-grader Lytaja Brown, "You get to draw what  it's about, and it 
stays in your head." 
More hands-on activities and lessons that promote  inquiry will help students 
improve in science, said Paula Klonowski, a science  specialist with the 
Virginia Department of Education.  
More time in class would also help, teachers say.  
The most common complaint from elementary teachers is  they don't have enough 
time in their schedules to teach science effectively,  Klonowski said. 
Costis, at Dreamkeepers Academy, said science lessons  require more 
supervision from teachers and often can't be interrupted.  
"To have enough time to set up and put down a  full-blown science 
experiment," she said, "you're kind of up a  creek." 
Additionally, teacher training programs sometimes give  short shrift to 
science, said Veronica Haynes, Norfolk's senior coordinator for  the subject.  
"I think they're afraid of science," she said, "and all  the hands-on that 
comes with doing science education." 
Virginia's standards in U.S. history and world history  have been rated 
highly by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, a Washington think  tank.  
Standards aren't necessarily linked to test scores,  though. In Georgia, 
another state with solid ratings, 120,166 third-graders took  the state's 
standardized social studies test last year, and just 43 received the  highest mark. 
Virginia has the chance to revise the history and  social science guidelines 
- and possibly change the tests - this year, as they  come up for review 
again. The science standards, which also drew praise from the  Fordham Foundation, 
are up for review in 2010.  
Pyle said the history and social science standards are  unlikely to change a 
lot, given the overhaul in 2001.  
Mark Emblidge, president of the state Board of  Education, said scores are 
one of many factors considered when standards are  reviewed. Ultimately, he 
said, the goal is for all students to pass. But high  achievers also should have 
something substantial to strive for. 
Despite the focus on pass rates, some educators are now  encouraging students 
to shoot for scores higher than 400. 
One Southeastern Elementary teacher has a "500 club,"  and Costis tells her 
high-achieving students that "pass/advanced is for  sissies."  
For 600 scores, some schools offer rewards including  trophies, boomboxes and 
passes to Busch Gardens.  
The ever-rising scores put increasing pressure on  teachers and 
administrators, who are often expected to show improvement each  year. But parents and 
children say scoring a 600 is like racking up bonus  points: good for bragging 
rights but not much else. 
"I didn't tell any of my friends," said Edward Grant, a  Dreamkeepers 
fourth-grader who scored a 600 on the history test last year. "I  was just talking 
about it in my head. I was so happy." 
News researcher Jake Hays contributed to this  report. 
Reach Amy Jeter at (757) 446-2730 or _amy.jeter@pilotonline.com_ 
(mailto:amy.jeter@pilotonline.com) . 



************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.