Why is so much time being given to teaching the Standards of Learning in elementary and middle grades?
The Standards of Learning identify what a student should know and be able to do at the end of each grade. If a teacher is spending time on the Standards of Learning, he or she is addressing what the students should be learning. Further, the Board s Standards of Accreditation also sets minimum amount of instructional time that a school must devote to the core academic subjects of English, Mathematics, Science, and History and Social Science. In elementary schools at least 75 percent of the yearly instructional time of 990 hours must be devoted to the four core academic subjects; in middle schools, a minimum of 140 clock hours per year must be used for instruction in the four core academic subjects. I think that too much emphasis is being placed on the SOL tests in the lower grades. Why is my child being tested so much? The Standards of Accreditation require that SOL tests be given at the end of grades 3, 5, and 8 in each of the four core academic areas of English, Mathematics, Science,
