Why should teachers use the SOL Blueprints?

Well first, teachers should be aware that the 2005 Blueprint is, in some cases, radically different than the 1995 Blueprint. For example, in 1995, in third grade, I think the three reporting categories in English break out to be something like 40, 40, and 20 percent. The new one has only two reporting categories and one is 70 some percent and the other is 20 some percent. So that makes a big difference in the level of emphasis that I’m placing on certain subskills or certain reporting categories. So teachers need to be intimately familiar with the Blueprint if they’re going to plan their instruction.

The second thing, the second reason to use the Blueprint, is when you get SOL test data back, it may show that you’re weak or students have deficits in a particular reporting category, but you need to got to the Blueprint to find out what the SOLs are that comprise that reporting category. So, once you find out the SOLs, you can then go to another document like the Curriculum Framework and find out the essential skills. Because that’s what you should be teaching is the essential skills, not SOLs. So the Blueprint is the link between the data and the SOLs, which then lead you to the essential skills.