Last year the History SOL became more “rigorous” than last year and as a result, the entire state grade dropped more than in previous years. Kirk Moyers, head of the history department, was especially worried. AlthoughTo help students prepare for standardized tests, Moyers has more to help prepare him and the history department in the form of benchmarks and midterm review.

”Material from the beginning of the year sticks with the students better than the material from the second half of the school year,” said Moyers.

Last year’s history SOL was the first of many SOLs to fall under the harder and more “rigorous” testing regulations and teachers around the state were blindsided.

“We’ve had a big drop from previous years. We were in the low 90’s pass rate,” Moyers said. While this is not as bad as some schools, it was less impressive than HHS’  scores in years past.

“Last year was the first year for “rigorous” tests and history was the first subject to be affected, they also raised the cut score,”Moyers said. Raising the cut score made it so that it was harder to pass by two or three questions.

Moyers also attributes the drop in scores to the increased vocabulary used on the test, “It’s hard for ESL students and thier scores went from passing by two or three questions to not passing by two or three questions,” Moyers said.
Another reason the scores dropped is because, the state did not release any sample questions in advance. teachers were preparing for the new SOL using the old SOL, which was, again, “less rigorous.”
“A lot of people in the history department are freaking out, because last year we had a lot of AP and Honors kids ,who were not struggling, that didn’t pass,”said Moyers.

The history SOLs began on Tuesday. The history department is hoping for a better pass rate than last year.