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RICHMOND
Officials at some of Virginia's historic attractions are voicing their opposition to a proposal to eliminate standardized history and social-science tests for third-grade students.
The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation's president, Colin Campbell, is among those urging the Department of Education to keep the third-grade history Standards of Learning exam. Campbell says dropping it would send the wrong message that history — American history in particular — isn't a priority for elementary education.
Virginia Historical Society officials also say they're against the measure.
The state Board of Education plans to vote next week on whether to drop the test, starting in the upcoming school year. The measure comes in response to a request from school superintendents for the state to identify ways to reduce their testing load — particularly in subject exams not required by the federal government.
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The reality
Third graders have 5 days of tests - talk about stress!!! The idea of cutting back on the SOL history test is a great idea because the plan is to intergrate it into other SOL tests (reading/language arts). The material would still be covered and would allow two tests to be combined into one and allow students a greater chance to succeed on the SOL tests after all the reading sections of the language arts tests can be on so many different topics which the students would have covered in class!!!
3rd grade SOL's
They "really" need to scale back on 3rd grade SOL's. 3rd graders take a 50 question math test. That is the same number of questions on the high school SOL tests. The 3rd grade Social Studies test covers mostly ancient civilizations, not Virginia history. Virginia history, like Jamestown, is covered in 4th grade. I know because my daughter just went on her field trip to Jamestown. They don't teach the content in 3rd grade. They start in the first week of school sending home "daily" questions that are repeated all year in hopes that the students learn (learn = memorize) it by the end of the year. The SOL's are a joke in all respects. They measure minimal knowledge and do nothing but cause the students and teachers stress. The teachers are rushed to cover the material that the students don't have enough time to really learn,so it's literally crammed down their throats. Wake up parents..speak out.
SOL's will remain
Everyone needs to understand that the SOL's (Standards of Learing) will remain. All grade levels, starting with kindergarten, have SOL's, even though not all grades levels take tests on the SOl content. It's the 3rd grade test that might be eliminated. The 3rd grade Virginia history content, and there isn't really very much of it, will still be there. It just won't be tested. The 4th grade is the big year for learning Virginia history.
As it is the testing receives way too much emphasis and actually interferes with the kind of teaching that encourages critical thinking.
SOLs
The Virginia Historical Society should work in a classroom for awhile. Students are tested too often and if the test load can be reduced then it should be reduced. Up through third grade should be concentrating on Math and Reading. These two areas are the foundation for all other content areas.