Public Secondary Schooling should be reconceptualized (structure, curriculum, and pedagogy) to be effective in 2025 by allowing the Standards of Learning to be modified to assess the whole of a student’s classroom learning. A nationwide/statewide test, I believe, is effective in allowing teachers to be accountable for their actions/lesson plans/professionalism. However, these tests have allowed a lot of learning habits to fall from the wayside. An emphasis on reading comprehension, I feel, has declined tremendously. Now in 2011 the SOL, in my opinion, has an emphasis on test taking and not on actually knowing and therefore comprehending the material teachers devote all of their instructional time to presenting. If a student is able to take a test by rote, he/she may not even have basic comprehension of the material in order to pass it, let alone having a passing proficiency. If the student can take a test, meaning using a #2 pencil, filling in letter bubbles correctly, erasing wrong answers completely, and regurgitating what a teacher has drilled into their heads; then they certainly have a strong chance of passing the current SOL.
With all of that said, however, I do not believe the SOL is wrong or corrupt. I do believe that the SOL could be modified to have assessed a fuller picture of a students learning. Draves and Coates mentioned in Nine Shift that society changes from the horse and buggy to a car, and I believe that in a small way the SOL can change as well, allowing for more differentiation to testing. In the area of Special Education, students are able to take the VGLA and it allows those students the opportunity to differentiate their testing. In the VGLA students can write their answers, complete essay questions and answer even short answer multiple choice. I think that in 2025 the SOL could model itself after the VGLA thus allowing the students to better fulfill a more rich and authentic testing situation.
As for three arguments I could use would be as follows: number one is Authentic Assessment. Authentic Assessment for the SOL could allow for a more rich and differentiated testing. Instead of answering multiple choice questions students could be given a variety of areas to choose from. I like to think of the “choose your own ending” books, and bring that to the testing of the SOL. Then differentiation could allow students to make projects, portfolios, etc. to display for parents, teachers, and the community. Grant Wiggins said it best about authentic assessment, “"...Engaging and worthy problems or questions of importance, in which students must use knowledge to fashion performances effectively and creatively. The tasks are either replicas of or analogous to the kinds of problems faced by adult citizens and consumers or professionals in the field." (Wiggins, 1993, p. 229).
The second argument could be made that altering the SOL could allow for more different achievements to be reached. Instead of a number that each student has to reach, the student could be graded on a rubric that would grade him or her differently. Students could be graded as problem solvers, thinkers, doers, artistic, etc. Students would not have to be given an F grade on a test but be graded on their whole being as a student. This could then prompt colleges/universities to target those students and help them reach those high academic goals. A student, who may have a love for art, but not math, could take this SOL and achieve a higher chance of attending the Rhode Island School of Design and not Harvard. Rubric building is essential to learning, and sites such as Rubistar and RCampus have led the way to bringing more awareness and understanding, and more importantly the use of rubrics.
The final argument I could make to the community as a whole is that if the SOL is altered it will better the community. Instead of passing of students because they do pass the SOL, the SOL will allow the student to find themselves and be on a better track to getting a job, going to college, or just being somebody beneficial to the community. We as teachers try to do that in our lessons, but if a statewide test emphasized that more; we would have a much stronger case to help the community. The SOL is given at the end of third grade and up to twelfth grade. That would allow a lot of time for a student to take the SOL and do well on it, enough to know where they are going. Nancy Safer and Steve Fleischman of “Research Matters / How Student Progress Monitoring Improves Instruction” from Educational Leadership mentioned, “Student progress monitoring fits well into the routine of the classroom. The probes can be administered quickly, and the results are immediately understandable and easy to communicate.” Thus tracking student progress could allow teachers and parents to see where the students is doing well in and foster that love of subject to better themselves and the community.
