Alignment of Classroom Assessments with the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL)
January 15, 2004 |
Alignment of Classroom Assessments with the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL)
by Joan A. Rhodes, Valerie Robnolt, and Susan McKelvey (2004)
Parents, teachers, and school administrators all have one common goal — student success. Teachers have been trusted to impart knowledge to students, while hopefully fostering a love of learning, then assessing how much the students know. Assessment in the classroom, whether informal, formative, or summative, has been the major source of identifying student strengths and weaknesses. Today, many people believe that teachers must be accountable for what they do in the classroom. Within the educational system, students’ success has been measured inconsistently from state-to-state, district-to-district, and even classroom-to-classroom. In this age of accountability, national and state standards have been developed, and through state-wide assessments, students are tested on what they have learned. Each state is accountable to the United States Department of Education, administrators are accountable to their school district and state, and teachers are accountable to the administrators. Today, all American Students are expected to meet very specific standards. Teachers much assess their students’ knowledge and abilities through testing in the classroom.
