Standardized testing: How many tests are too many?

It's SOL blitz time, and a Ware Elementary School third-grader offers an answer to a practice question, an incorrect answer as it turns out.

She turns to a classmate. "I told you, I'm a failure," she said.

"Yeah, we are," the classmate responded.

In less than two weeks, students will face the real thing, high-stakes Standards of Learning exams that have vexed students and teachers since their introduction in 1997. Since then the state has toughened standards, rewritten questions and streamlined the number of tests actually administered. The major constant has been the stress.

Tests begin in third grade and continue through high school. Students pursuing an advanced diploma typically take 26 SOL tests throughout their public education career, nine passes are required in various subjects at the high school level for an advanced diploma. Students seeking a standard diploma take about 22 tests and six passes are required at the high school level.

Standardized testing has been a major theme on the national stage this year. Many state departments of education are looking at how they test students and whether the number of tests, and the tests themselves, are beneficial. They're trying to figure out how can they be modified to better serve students and the teachers who educate them.

Not everyone is certain the tests have value.

Large "opt-out" movements have swept school divisions elsewhere in the country. In New York, as many as 80 percent of students opted out of taking standardized tests. In Seattle, one school division had 95 percent opt out. Virginia's opt-out movement is gaining ground in Northern Virginia, but hasn't flourished in the Valley.

Change is coming for the Virginia tests, however. Resolutions have been passed to cut down on the number of tests students take, as well as to allow for expedited retakes if a student was close to passing but missed it by a certain margin. A committee for testing innovation has been meeting since last year, and school officials agree that more change is coming — that in five years the standardized testing landscape in Virginia will look quite different.

For now, students in the next few weeks here will sit in front of computers and take the same test as every other student in their grade or those who have completed the same high school course across the state. They will spend an average of 90 minutes taking a test.

But for many, a single test can take hours. Since there's no time limit, some students will have to be picked up by a parent after the school day ends because taking an SOL test has taken longer than a school day.

"The tests are an autopsy more than anything else," said India Harris, testing coordinator for Waynesboro Schools. "They happen after the instruction has taken place. It's not what you would call formative instruction."

WHAT DO PARENTS THINK?

While parents of only five area students opted their children out of SOL tests as of late April, many say they've have considered it or still are considering it. Post a question for parents on Facebook, and you'll get a variety of takes on the tests' worth versus the value of opting out.

"It is added pressure for the student and the teacher," wrote Staunton parent C.M. Wood. "I think my child is doing great, and one more test is not needed. Her grades stand for (themselves)."

Parent Lisa Dodson shared the experience of her daughter who struggled with SOL tests despite being a very good student.

"My daughter has a 4.1 GPA and is a senior. She was unable to pass one of the tests so finally there was a 504 plan (for students with learning disabilities) she qualified for," Dodson wrote. "If not, she would not have been able to graduate. This is unfair to students. Kids have enough issues to deal with, then they have these tests that put so much stress on them."

Some parents don't believe SOL tests can hurt and that the bigger danger of opting out is to the school division.

Krissy Thompson said, "While opting out is something parents can do, I'd strongly recommend researching and deciding what's best. Our schools are required to count them as failures, thus risking losing part of their funding, among other things."

Others responded that SOLs don't accomplish their goal of measuring student mastery of a subject.

"I certainly think that studies have not shown that SOLs yield what they were created to do," said parent Amanda Francis. "Teachers, schools and school systems are required to give them and teach to them. Once a school loses accreditation, the education provided is not seen as valid, which effects everyone... . No one likes the pressure it puts on students, teachers or school systems as all put in everything they have."

Testing in Staunton

Along with SOL tests, students in Staunton take between two to three benchmark tests yearly depending on the grade level, said Stephanie Haskins, testing coordinator for Staunton schools.

However, the classroom tests, assignments and observations really inform teachers of a students' understanding, Haskins said.

"No one test should be looked at in isolation," Haskins said, adding that SOLs help a school division understand information on a larger scale rather than student-to-student. If there is sweeping failure of a concept on an SOL test, it shows the school division that topic isn't being taught in a way that students can understand.

"The science of teaching is what we have to teach," Haskins said. "The art of teaching is how we make it real to students."

As of the end of April, only one parent has chosen to opt out their student from SOL tests this year in that division.

Haskins said she hopes the SOL innovation committee, which has been meeting to look at state standards, continues to improve the way accountability is handled.

"I think there is a vision to really make sure the learning we're providing for kids is authentic and real," she said. "I think that our current accountability system is not necessarily showing where everyone truly is."

Bessie Weller Elementary School in Staunton is facing losing accreditation or being conditionally accredited, after three years of math scores below the state standard.

More and more schools are failing to make accreditation each year. In 2011, only 30 schools in the state were not fully accredited. That number jumped to 100 in 2012, 393 in 2013 and 545 schools this year.

The trend is due to more thorough tests with multi-step problems, rather than just a multiple choice format.

Students in Staunton will take SOL tests beginning May 21.

WAYNESBORO LANDSCAPE

Waynesboro Schools do not require students to take benchmark tests throughout the year, although some schools elect to give them in certain subjects, India Harris said.

Fewer families have elected to opt out their children this year than last. Only four students will not take the SOLs this year as of late April, Harris said. She added that parents decide to opt out for a number of reasons. Sometimes they do it because its in the best interest of their child, perhaps because they have severe test anxiety; or they do it because they disagree with the SOLs in general, and opting out is a form of protest.

"They need to make sure that the decision isn't penalizing the school and the division," Harris said, adding that a school division in Northern Virginia was denied accreditation solely because of opt outs, which count as a failures for the division.

While there is no direct cost to the school division for SOL testing, the number of personnel hours and technology needed to administer the tests is an indirect cost, Harris said.

"No employee is exempt from the tests," Harris said, meaning that every employee will at some point have a task that relates directly to SOL tests. "The human capital is huge. We would be utilizing them differently and to the betterment of the kids."

"I don't have as big of an issue with the number of tests, but the length," Harris said. "Third graders should not be taking 50-item tests. It's not developmentally appropriate."

Harris added she thinks state officials have realized they are at the "too much" mark and will continue to reduce the number of SOL tests students must take.

Most students in Waynesboro will take SOL tests beginning May 11.

NO OPT-OUTS IN COUNTY

Students in Augusta County take benchmarks three times a year in math and reading, said Wendy Chandler, testing coordinator, in addition to the SOL tests required of them.

Chandler said that no parents have chosen to opt out students from the tests so far this year, but there were two inquires from parents of elementary-aged students.

SOL tests help shed light on teacher successes and failures, Chandler said. Although they don't like to compare teachers to other teachers, if a grade-level teacher is showing greater pass rates, they can share their strategies with other teachers.

Chandler said she doesn't necessarily feel there are too many SOL tests, but that they could be more streamlined and more authentic to real-world learning.

Students in Augusta County will take SOL tests beginning May 11.