By Charlotte Matherly, contributor
A new state law encourages school districts to step away from one-time standardized social studies tests and instead demonstrate student learning through a series of more rigorous, inquiry-based assessments given throughout the year.
Rockingham County has already piloted a similar program in its world geography classes, but school board members will now weigh whether to expand that style of assessment to its civics and Virginia studies courses.
These new types of assessments, often referred to as the “inquiry design model,” are designed to evaluate critical thinking skills over basic knowledge. Rather than focusing on memorization, which is prevalent in traditional multiple-choice questions, they’re driven by curiosity, said social studies supervisor Beau Dickenson.
Under the state law, each school district has the option to create their own questions that achieve learning objectives set in statewide standards.
Dickenson posed a sample question to the school board on Monday evening, in which world geography students were directed to explain why the population of West Virginia is shrinking by drawing on evidence from course material. That was designed to get them thinking about how geography shapes where people live.
In the world geography classes that have already implemented the inquiry model, pass rates rose from 76% in traditional standardized tests to 93% over the course of one year, Dickenson said.
“If we want our kids to critically think, demonstrate not only knowledge but the application of that knowledge … that is why this assessment system is better in my view,” he said. It tests their ability to analyze and synthesize information, compile an argument and support that claim.
Board member Hollie Cave said she questioned whether this style of assessment could hinge too much on a student’s own curiosity and interest, rather than relying on solid teacher instruction. Students who don’t have a natural interest in school or in a particular subject, she said, could be disadvantaged.
“I would argue that a teacher cannot be replaced … I don’t believe that they’re meant to be a bystander in the process,” Cave said, “so it worries me that in a classroom that they wouldn’t be leading instruction, that the students would be leading themselves.”
“Curiosity is important, but it doesn’t replace instruction,” she added.
Cave and fellow board member Hilary Irons asked Dickenson about the possibility for teachers to predetermine correct answers, potentially leading students toward one conclusion or another.
But Dickenson said this method of testing, in which students can present one of several potential correct answers to a given question, fights “indoctrination.”
“Inquiry is the antithesis of indoctrination,” he said. “It is the solution to that in a classroom … It privileges student argumentation, as long as they cite their sources and make a verified claim. That’s what we want in social studies, you know? We don’t want a particular right answer.”
Dickenson also said more frequent tests — one in fall, winter and spring — allows students the opportunity to grow rather than relying on one high-stakes test at the end of each academic year.
“If I’m a student that doesn’t really do well with assessment, regardless of the type, if I’m a student with high test anxiety, this gives me three chances to improve and three chances to understand what the expectations are and what I’m being asked to do,” Dickenson said. “It also gives me, the teacher, three chances to understand what that student needs and how to make sure that they’re successful.”
Spotswood expansion plans unveiled
Spotswood High School is slated to expand to hold 234 more students, up to a capacity of 1,250. An architect’s facility assessment study this spring generated plans to add more space, said Justin Moyers, the school district’s chief finance and operations officer. That includes the creation of a theater room, a special education “suite,” more office space and more accessible parking.
The plans come as Rockingham County braces for a population swell, particularly in that corner southeast of Harrisonburg. Expansion will also raise Spotswood to the capacity held by the county’s three other high schools.
“They are in our urban growth area. They are by far projected to receive the most growth in the next 10 years,” Moyers said, “so we will need that capacity to keep us from having to redistrict more than what we might have to anyway.”
On deck for upgrades are the gymnasium floor, cafeteria, kitchen, roof system, windows, ceilings, restrooms and other physical infrastructure, including the heating, venting and cooling system.
“This is where we are ripping out the guts of what has been there since the building was opened,” Moyers said.
All that work, he hopes, will give the high school a much-needed facelift.
“When you go inside Spotswood in four years, you won’t realize you’re not at a brand new school. That is our goal, and the goal is then for it to last 50 years, and we’re not going to be back there touching it again.”
Nothing is set in stone, Moyers said, and the plans are preliminary at best. Construction is not slated to begin until 2028. As of late 2024, the cost estimate was around $70 million.
Other construction projects are underway, with renovations at Elkton Middle School and an addition to Pleasant Valley Elementary School set to wrap in August, just in time for the next school year.
School officials are also planning to build a new Massanutten Technical Center and are weighing the construction of a brand new elementary school.
New technology, grading policies on deck
The board directed Superintendent Larry Shifflett to prepare a new policy that would draw clearer guidelines for the sanctioned uses of technology in the classroom.
The county already has a strict ban on student cellphone use during school hours, but board chair Sara Horst wants to focus on “reasonable parameters” for how electronic devices can and should be used for learning.
“In my mind, we are not looking to restrict teachers,” Horst said, but “I’m looking at the types of work that students are doing on their Chromebooks and on their iPads.”
Horst said as a baseline, she wants minimal-to-no screentime in early childhood education settings, citing studies that show large amounts of it adversely impacts students’ learning. In other grades, she said she feels technology should be used “strategically” and without excess.
Once the board and Shifflett develop a draft of the new policy, they plan to solicit feedback from teachers and communities.
This could be one of several changes on the way for county schools next year, as Shifflett has also convened a committee to review and update the grading policy.
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