Teachers and students always feel the pressure rise after spring break passes by and the final months of school come rolling in, with SOLs approaching. Students have nine months to cover critical information and ideas; this final test is the determining factor of experience and knowledge learned in the subject. One can pass or one can fail.

Down the hall in room 201, special education students working hard to also pass an end of the year test, although it is more of a portfolio of accumulated videos and worksheets which are gathered and sent at the end of their eleventh grade year.

"Students in my class focus largely on math and reading, although social studies and science are included on the alternative test they take. We learn the same subjects on an easier level," functional academics teacher Lynn Corsentino said.

What is interesting about the Virginia Alternate Assessment Program is that a student can be on a different level of learning for each subject. Special education students are learning on an elementary level to high school level depending on their personal progress.

The Virginia Alternate Assessment program is a very fair way of learning, having personal goals, instead of teachers pushing the class further and further ahead to cram in the curriculum determined by the state.

This "important" information needed to know to pass the SOL is not always ingrained in student’s minds, due to the short amount of time students have to do such a large amount of work. Students often find teachers pushing to the next topic just to meet the quota. This creates all sorts of problems because students will just forget what they learned after they don’t have to know it anymore.

Is this the best way of learning? More times than not classes are found skimming over information. This system could be improved and adapted for children without disabilities, but is spot on for special education students.