DATE: Sunday, August 24, 1997               TAG: 9708250225

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SERIES: BACK TO SCHOOL

SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  329 lines

NEW, TOUGHER EXPECTATIONS WILL CHALLENGE '97 STUDENTS

In a series of stories The Virginian-Pilot examines the changes to Virginia's education system.

Harry Byrd Sr. Plate tectonics. Binary logic. The Congress of Vienna.

Know who and what they were?

If you're among the roughly 170,000 public school students in South Hampton Roads, you'll have to before you graduate from high school - and, in the first two cases, while you're still in elementary school.

As Virginia students return to school next week, they'll face the state's toughened curriculum standards, which require that more be taught earlier to students. In kindergarten, the cause of shadows. In fifth grade, the difference between free verse, rhymed and patterned poetry. By eighth grade, the creation of home-page documents on computers.

The State Board of Education approved the revised Standards of Learning in 1995. Most Virginia school districts at least began phasing them in last year. Though there is no firm deadline, they are expected to complete the task this school year.

That's because the state will begin testing third-graders through high schoolers on their mastery of the new standards starting next spring.

And if the students don't do so well, they - and their schools - might face big-time penalties down the road.

High school students won't be able to get their diplomas unless they pass a majority of the new state exams. And schools will lose their Virginia accreditation if 70 percent of their students don't pass each of the tests.

Those penalties are part of proposed changes in another set of rules, the Standards of Accreditation, which govern how public schools operate. The board tentatively endorsed those revisions, 8-1, in June and is expected to formally approve them at its Sept. 4 meeting.

The penalties wouldn't take effect until the next decade. But students could feel an immediate effect from another proposed change that has drawn widespread fire: dropping the requirement that all Virginia schools teach sex education and that elementary schools employ guidance counselors.

Together, both sets of standards radically change the face of Virginia schools - how students are taught, how schools are measured, what matters most in the classroom.

The revisions have won enthusiastic reviews inside and outside Virginia. ``I think students are better off,'' said Shelley Deneau, a fourth-grade teacher at White Oaks Elementary School in Virginia Beach. ``My belief, as a teacher, is that if we set our expectations high, students will strive to achieve that.''

Last month, the American Federation of Teachers, in a study of curriculum standards, declared Virginia a model for other states. Virginia was the only state that received across-the-board ``exemplary'' ratings in each subject area.

Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for Education Reform in Washington, usually doesn't see eye-to-eye with teacher groups. But she, too, praised Virginia's initiative, saying the state is leading the way in sharpening requirements - and holding out tough consequences if students don't meet them.

``The public has shown time and time again that they're frustrated that schools don't have a consistent program of learning and don't have benchmarks and goals for children, so learning is uneven from school to school,'' said Allen, whose nonprofit group advocates reforms including charter schools.

Yet some Virginia educators doubt that the educational makeover is in the best interest of students.

Cheri W. James, president of the Virginia Education Association, which represents 55,000 school employees, calls the curriculum standards ``a step backwards'' because they overemphasize lists of facts and undercut efforts to teach ``thinking skills.''

The accreditation changes she calls ``a political sham.'' Students, she said, need counseling and sex education. The 70 percent pass rate to maintain accreditation might not be realistic for schools with large numbers of low-income students, she said. And it doesn't offer hope to schools that aren't meeting the mark but are headed in the right direction.

``Everybody's posturing in Richmond, and nobody's thinking about that kid in the classroom,'' James said.

Stephen W. Tonelson, a professor of child study/special education at Old Dominion University and a parent of two girls at Norfolk's Maury High School, said: ``The major concern that I have is: What happens to the children who do not accomplish the objectives? I think the support for the children who need remediation may become a significant amount of money early on, and it's a little bit unclear to me where that money is coming from.''

Some critics say the changes - pushed by Republican Gov. George F. Allen and his appointees leading the state Department of Education and state board - are part of a larger agenda to undermine public education.

``If we set standards high, if we give a test and we choose a score that many schools can't achieve, we can demonstrate public schools aren't working,'' James said. ``Then we have all the proof we need for (approving) vouchers'' to help parents cover the cost of private school.

But Michelle Easton, president of the state board, believes the tougher standards will bring out the best in students and teachers: ``We want parents and taxpayers to support what's going on with the education of our children. This will be a way to solidify support by showing them how well we're doing and what we're doing to lift levels of achievement.''

Easton describes the revised curriculum standards this way: ``They're extraordinarily clear and specific; these lay out the knowledge we want students to be taught.''

Gone are such standards as ``The student will identify and describe personal feelings'' or ``The student will demonstrate increasing curiosity about the world around him or her,'' both former goals in kindergarten.

Now kindergartners have to be able, among other things, to print their names and know the basics about Harriet Tubman and Davy Crockett.

Third-graders used to be taught to recognize ``the shape of the United States and Virginia, and that most other states have distinctive shapes.'' Now second-graders have to locate the following on a U.S. map: ``Washington, D.C.; the states of Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee; and major rivers, mountain ranges and lakes in the United States.''

Fourth-graders, who formerly had to measure volume and length using the metric and U.S. systems, now must know how to convert a variety of measurements between the systems.

The changes come largely in the elementary grades and are most striking in the area of history. Easton said that's intentional.

Citing studies that show that many high schoolers can't place Mexico on a map or date the Civil War, Eaton said: ``If they don't ever hear the fact-based history until middle school and older, I'm not surprised. The idea is that you introduce them at the appropriate level of instruction and they get it again in high school. This is how we learn best.''

Or is it?

Tonelson, a former PTA board member at Maury High, complained at a Norfolk hearing two years ago that the new standards would produce students ``wonderful at Trivial Pursuit, but who are unable to think.'' Final changes since then beefed up the problem-solving components, Tonelson said, but the curriculum is still top-heavy with facts.

``Does someone need to know about Mesopotamia as a fact in order to think critically as an 8-year-old? The answer is no,'' he said. ``They don't need isolated information in order to problem-solve.''

E.D. Hirsch Jr. disagrees.

Hirsch, a University of Virginia professor, is among the nation's leading proponents of the idea that students must acquire a ``core knowledge'' of facts. ``You can't think critically without a foundation of factual knowledge on the subject you're thinking about,'' he said. ``The idea you can develop thinking skills in the abstract is an idea no cognitive psychologist would agree with.''

Easton and Richard T. La Pointe, the state superintendent of public instruction, say the curriculum doesn't stint on either facts or deep-thinking exercises. ``When you review the standards,'' Easton said, ``you find huge amounts of challenges to kids to analyze, to compare, to relate knowledge.''

La Pointe cited the third-grade requirement that students describe ``the discovery of the Americas . . . , with emphasis on the people, their motivations, the obstacles they encountered and the successes they achieved.''

Local teachers differ on the effects in the classroom.

Gary Blumenstein, a seventh-grade social studies teacher at Virginia Beach's Larkspur Middle School, began switching to the new curriculum last year. He feels a bit hamstrung. ``At middle school, the research tells us they learn better, they enjoy the subject more, if you can do a lot more hands-on. With the amount of content, it limits the amount of time you have to inject those kinds of activities.''

Deneau, the Virginia Beach elementary school teacher, thinks it can work: ``My position is to take the information that the state gives us and give it some value and make it important to the children.'' An example: Instead of just teaching the history of the Civil War, she divides the class into abolitionists and slave owners and has them debate the issue of slavery.

A national survey by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Public Agenda Foundation found that more than 70 percent of teen-agers want tougher challenges in school. Jaquiya Hammiel, a rising senior at Oscar Smith High in Chesapeake, thinks it's a good idea, too.

``I got bored in school, especially when I was younger,'' she said. ``A tougher curriculum would have helped me.'' And it can help others. ``Maybe they would take challenging classes in high school if the classes in elementary school were more difficult.''

The proposed accreditation changes reflect a deep philosophical shift, triggered by the push for ``accountability'' in education and the growing emphasis on results.

Virginia, like most states, has accredited schools based on the range of library offerings, the teacher-student ratio, even the ``proper display'' of the American flag, La Pointe said. But ``that shouldn't be the basis for accrediting schools whose primary job is to teach children.''

Hence, the proposed demand that 70 percent of a school's students pass the new state tests, which will be given in the third, fifth and eighth grades and in high school. Easton likens it to knowing a dentist's success rate with patients: ``Would you go to a doctor who failed with 30 percent?''

Sunny Dixon, principal of Kilby Shores Elementary School in Suffolk, isn't sure every school can meet the goal, no matter how hard teachers try.

``There's always going to be some factors, regardless of what your school does, that you'll not be able to overcome totally,'' Dixon said. For instance, schools with high numbers of low-income students or large proportions of students transferring in and out might be at a disadvantage.

``It's like saying everyone should have a certain income; that doesn't work out either.''

Think positive, said Easton. ``We believe all children are capable of these minimum standards, if given good instruction,'' she said. ``This board rejected the double standard wherein we have lower standards for poor and disadvantaged children. We refuse to forever condemn children from challenging circumstances to stay there.''

But the board has been faulted from many quarters for not preparing a plan to help students who do encounter trouble.

The American Federation of Teachers, while lauding the curriculum standards, criticized Virginia for its lack of ``intervention'' programs. And Lt. Gov. Donald S. Beyer Jr., the Democratic candidate for governor, earlier this month proposed allocating $10 million to help students who fail the tests. ``We should not set higher standards without providing ways for all students to meet those standards,'' he said in an Aug. 6 letter to Easton.

La Pointe said he is looking into remediation plans. But he also noted that the state this year approved a $600 million increase in public-school funding that could also cover those needs.

No school would lose its state accreditation until 2003-2004. But what would happen if a school did get dropped?

The state would not swoop down to take it over. The school would not lose state funding. Nor would students lose their ability to get diplomas, Richmond officials said.

But the action would raise a large red flag to the community, Easton said, and inevitably bring on improvements. ``It's incomprehensible to me that a school would lose its accreditation, and local educators and taxpayers would shrug their shoulders and say, `So what?' ''

Anita O. Poston, chairwoman of the Norfolk School Board, isn't so sure.

``I'm concerned once they label a school as having a problem, it's going to be very difficult for that school to solve its problem,'' Poston said. ``What teacher is ever going to want to go there to teach? What principal is going to go there to administer? If you're in a poor district already, where are the resources going to come from to strive for the excellence they're looking for?''

But these changes have been overshadowed by the last-minute proposal to drop the state mandate for sex ed and elementary guidance counselors. The board tacked on that proposal in June after receiving a letter from Gov. Allen strongly requesting it. All nine board members were appointed by Allen.

At hearings across Virginia in July, a majority of speakers asked the board to keep the sex ed and guidance requirements. Board members don't appear to have been swayed. ``People come out to hearings when they oppose something,'' Easton said. ``I believe the majority would like the decision to be made at the local level.''

The board will vote on the entire accreditation package Sept. 4. In the meantime, students will have had their first 1 1/2 weeks of class, gearing up to tackle ancient Greek civilization and the Russian revolution, Susan B. Anthony and Ulysses Grant, static electricity and genetic engineering. MEMO: PILOT ONLINE: Links to the complete Standards of Learning,

Standards of Accreditation and the Standards of Quality are on the News

page at www.pilotonline.com ILLUSTRATION: Graphics

THE SERIES

Today: An overview of the new standards

Monday: The cost of implementing the new technology standards

Tuesday: Students will need more and tougher math classes to

graduate

Wednesday: Teaching reading and writing to younger students

Thursday: History and social studies focus on Virginia and world

history

Friday: Kindergarten standards become more academic, less social

FOR MORE INFORMATION

To see the Standards of Learning and the proposed changes in the

Standards of Accreditation for Virginia's public schools, check with

your local school or library, call the Department of Education at

(804) 225-2403, or check the department's World Wide Web site at

http://pen.k12.va.us/

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

See if you can answer these 10 questions, on items covered in the

state's Standards of Learning. Answers include the grades in which

the subjects are taught.

1. What is ionic bonding? A) Transfer of electrons from one atom

to another. B) The combination of two positively charged particles.

C) The combination of sodium and chlorine to form salt. D) Both A

and C.

2. Who said, ``Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall''? A) George

Bush. B) Boris Yeltsin. C) Ronald Reagan. D) Raisa Gorbachev.

3. Who was William Lloyd Garrison? A) A journalist who advocated

the abolition of slavery. B) The ninth president of the United

States. C) The first president of the University of Virginia. D) A

former slave who fomented a rebellion in Virginia.

4. What was the Harlem Renaissance? A) A 1995 action movie

starring Wesley Snipes. B) New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's

campaign to tear down low-income housing. C) The flowering of black

literature in the U.S. in the 1920s. D) John Kennedy's job-creation

program.

5. What was the Congress of Vienna? A) A group of Nazi

sympathizers that ran Austria during World War II. B) The puppet

elected body under Charlemagne. C) The panel that investigated the

assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. D) A 19th-century

conference to settle disputes between France and the rest of Europe.

6. Who wrote ``Letter From Birmingham Jail''? A) Medgar Evers. B)

Martin Luther King Jr. C) Malcolm X. D) Alabama Gov. Fob James.

7. Twelve centimeters is how many inches? A) 4.8. B) 6. C) 5.2.

D) Depends on the distance.

8. Who was Giuseppe Garibaldi? A) Italian immigrant who was

elected first president of the Teamsters union. B) 19th-century

military hero who fought to unite Italy. C) Benito Mussolini's chief

of staff during World War. II D) None of the above.

9. Who was Harry Byrd Sr.? A) First man to walk on North Pole. B)

Influential West Virginia senator in late 20th century. C) Liberal

chief justice of Virginia Supreme Court. D) Powerful Virginia

senator in mid-20th century.

10. What was ``Big Stick Diplomacy''? A) Boris Yeltsin's failed

attempts to keep breakaway republics within Russia. B) Ronald

Reagan's attempt to face down Russia's nuclear threat. C) Theodore

Roosevelt's policy justifying intervention in Central American

affairs. D) Franklin D. Roosevelt's policy justifying intervention

in World War II.

ANSWERS

1. D (High school)

2. C (sixth grade)

3. A (fifth grade)

4. C (sixth grade)

5. D (ninth grade)

6. B (11th grade)

7. A (fourth grade)

8. B (ninth grade)

9. D (fourth grade)

10. C (sixth grade)

THE CHANGING STANDARDS

A standard that has been deleted:

Old: The student will demonstrate increasing curiosity about the

world around him or her. Examples of curiosity include watching and

wondering, telling experiences and asking questions. (Kindergarten)

A standard that has been revised:

Old: The student will identify various literary forms. Literary

forms such as drama, fiction, nonfiction and poetry may be included.

(Fifth grade)

New: The student will read a variety of literary forms, including

fiction, nonfiction and poetry. Describe character development in

fiction and poetry selections. Describe the development of plot and

explain how conflicts are resolved. Describe the characteristics of

free verse, rhymed and patterned poetry. Describe how author's

choice of vocabulary and style contribute to the quality and

enjoyment of selections. (Fifth grade)

A standard that has been added:

New: The student will analyze and explain United States foreign

policy since World War II, with emphasis on the origins and both

foreign and domestic consequences of the Cold War; Communist

containment policies in Europe, Latin America and Asia; the

strategic and economic factors in Middle East policy; relations with

South Africa and other African nations; the collapse of Communism

and the end of the Cold War; and new challenges to America's

leadership role in the world. (11th grade)

Source: Virginia Department of Education

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