By Charlotte Matherly, contributor
After weeks of debate, the Rockingham County School Board voted to start using a new testing model in certain classes that seeks to prioritize critical thinking over rote memorization.
Fourth-grade social studies and eighth-grade civics and economics classes will make the switch away from the traditional Standards of Learning assessments.
The new method, called the “inquiry design model,” was hailed by teachers at a school board meeting last month as inspiring more buy-in from students, encouraging them to be curious and think critically. Instead of multiple-choice answers, inquiry testing prompts students to answer more open-ended questions by making a claim and using evidence and logic to support their argument.
Not all board members were all in. Hollie Cave, who’s expressed concerns that the new model is too subjective and could erode academic rigor, said she felt sure enough the measure would pass, so she took the opportunity to vote “no.”
“I would like to issue the ‘no’ as a challenge to prove me wrong, to do well,” Cave said. “I’m issuing the ‘no’ as an admonishment to do well, and I think in 12 years that we’ll see the results from what we do here tonight.”
The issue has been so important to her, Cave said, particularly because it’ll impact social studies. What kids learn in that classroom today, she said, will “shape the culture of our nation.”
The inquiry assessments are an option for local school districts to pick up if they choose, enabled by a new Virginia law. Rockingham County has piloted the program in some world geography classes, which sparked a significant increase in pass rates.
Board member Hilary Irons, though supportive of the new testing model, said she worried about implementing too much change in a single school year, especially for fourth-graders. The board overhauled the county’s grading and screentime policies earlier this month, which are set to go into effect starting next month.
Opening the doors for volunteers
At the urging of board member Jackie Lohr, the school board will look into creating a new policy that enables volunteers to supervise students on trips more often. After attending a retreat with Turner Ashby High School’s Future Farmers of America chapter, also known as FFA, Lohr said she found that a full slate of extracurricular activities is starting to wear on the county’s agriculture teachers.
“The kids … want to take advantage of all sorts of opportunities out there, but it’s kind of burning out the teachers,” Lohr said.
She said she’s interested in crafting a vetting and approval process that would enable volunteers to help supervise students at the state fair, for example.
“I would like to have the board work on some kind of policy to help out teachers so we can keep the teachers in the classroom but also give students the opportunity to go on more out-of-classroom events,” Lohr said, “because I think that hands-on learning stuff is really awesome.”
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