Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 29, 1994 TAG: 9407290075
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
A report presented to the board by the state Department of Education said the lower scores on standardized tests ``are not great enough to be educationally meaningful, unless they constitute the beginning of a trend.''
The tests covered seven subjects in the fourth and eighth grades and six subjects in the 11th grade.
Scores in four subjects at the fourth-grade level remained the same, but all the other scores fell by 1 to 3 percentile places.
Despite the declines, Virginia students still scored above the national average in all subjects at all three grade levels.
Their rankings ranged from the 52nd percentile in eighth-grade vocabulary to the 62nd percentile in 11th-grade writing.
If a student ranks in the 62nd percentile, it means 62 percent of students nationally received a lower score.
Fourth- and eighth-graders took the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills last spring, and 11th-graders took the Tests of Achievement and Proficiency.
The biggest decline was in 11th-grade social studies, where Virginia students fell from the 60th to the 57th percentile.
The Literacy Passport Test administered first to sixth-graders consists of exams in reading, writing and mathematics.
Students must pass all three to receive an academic diploma from high school. High school students who transfer into Virginia also must take the test.
Last spring, 70.4 percent of sixth-graders passed all three tests - an increase of 1.1 percentage points over the previous year.
Students in higher grades retaking the test did not fare as well. Their results brought the overall pass rate down to 66.7 percent.
The pass rate was the best in three years and the second-highest in the five years since the program began.
``It does appear the Literacy Passport Test program is helping,'' said board Chairman James Jones. ``The test scores overall have improved - maybe not dramatically, but steadily.''
But board member Peter Decker, a former member of the state Board of Corrections, said he was troubled that black students' scores continue to lag those of whites.
Decker said he used to wonder why a disproportionate percentage of the state's prison population is black.
According to the Department of Corrections, about 65 percent of the inmates are black, compared with 18 percent of the state's population.
Looking at the test scores, Decker said: ``I'm seeing the answer to the question I asked.''
``We as a board need to concentrate on this problem,'' Decker said.
Blacks' percentile rankings on the standardized tests generally were in the 30s and 40s, while whites scored in the 60s and 70s.
Also, 75.9 percent of whites and 44.6 percent of blacks passed all three Literacy Passport Tests. Asians performed best, with 78.3 percent passing.
Among localities, Falls Church fared best on the literacy test with 89.2 percent of sixth-graders passing all three exams. Petersburg schools ranked last at 36.1 percent.
by CNB