I was just looking up some things on the VA dept. of education website today and saw something that concerns me. For high school SOL tests, to have accommodations it asks a question and it is either a yes or no answer. Does the student have the same accommodations for classwork and class assessments that are being requested to be used on the SOL.
My son was first qualified for sp.ed in VA, there was a form in the iep packet of papers that we filled out that listed how standardized tests would be taken. There is one also in the DODDS iep packet as well. He gets untimed testing, writes on the test booklet, less distracting testing area, portions read to him (not the lang. arts section). However, he does not use all these in class although use of the resource room is available for test retakes if needed.
I guess I can see this question as a way to make my son take the test without accommodations, which in turn if he does poorly (historically he does), will cause him to not graduate from highschool, since these SOL tests are given at the end of each course taken in order to get credit for the class.
At least that is how it looks from my reading. Scary. We don’t know if we will be going back to VA, we liked it there, but the army can send us anywhere basically. We have just requested VA. I note that there other states with similar testing so living somewhere else won’t necessarily get us out of this dilemma.
What do y’all think? Thanks for wading through.
Re: accommodations on VA SOL tests
I think how I read the rule was ‘if the student doesn’t require this,that and the other for reg.classwork and tests, then the student doesn’t get this, that and the other for the SOL’ which is a high stakes state standardized test used to pass a student from the class just taken. So… even if the student makes an A in the class but isn’t allowed to take the SOL with necessary accommodations, that student will fail the class if he fails the SOL.
Interesting. My son’s accomodations for standardized tests are different than what he gets daily. Frankly he should have the same accommodations for teacher made tests, but he does ok without it, and would rather be in the reg. class to take the teacher made tests. The team decided the appropriate accomodations for standardized tests. I do understand that on the college level, they look at the iep or 504 plan from hs to make appropriate accomodations for college. Not there yet so I do not know.