Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 3, 1993 TAG: 9306030354
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Seventy-one percent of the county's sixth-graders passed all three Literacy Passport tests, an improvement of 12 percentage points over last year, Dodge said.
The state Department of Education requires that Virginia students pass all three sections of the test - reading, writing, and mathematics - before they can officially enter the ninth grade.
This year, 92 percent of the county's sixth-graders passed the mathematics section, 83 percent the reading section and 80 percent the writing section.
Jim Foudriat, a Department of Education spokesman, said statewide results will not be available until at least July.
The reason Montgomery teachers and administrators feel so good about the scores is they focused on making an improvement, said Jim Ruffa, director of secondary education. The tests became a high priority of principals and were included in their work plans, he said.
Ruffa said he was particularly pleased for the county's teachers who worked to improve the scores. He has visited some of the schools to personally thank them.
Lex Bruce, the county's testing coordinator; Judy Barylske, supervisor of language arts; Edgar Morris, math supervisor; and Sandy Morris, supervisor of elementary language arts, held workshops to help teachers feel more comfortable with the literacy program, Ruffa said.
The idea was to have teachers focusing on the right things in their instruction. It was not a case of "teaching to the test," he said.
The Literacy Passport program is designed to ensure the state's high-school graduates have at least the basic skills they need to function in society.
Dodge also told the board that the county had improved its performance in 33 of 48 categories in the state's Outcome Assessment Program. That program measures performance in a variety of categories, not just student testing, including such areas as attendance, number of eighth-graders taking a foreign language and percentage of special education students graduating with advanced diplomas.
In other business, the board, at Dodge's recommendation, agreed to form a committee to study how the county's teacher and administrative salary scales could be adjusted to make them more fair.
The board has wrestled with the issue for at least five years but, because of a lack of funds, without success, Dodge noted. Every time a straight percentage raise is granted employees, the problem gets worse, he said.
On the current scale, newer teachers get small raises while the oldest teachers get raises of several hundred dollars. At a recent board meeting it was estimated the cost of equalizing the scales would be more than $1 million.
The committee, whose findings the board expects by late September, would consist of board members, central office administrators, elementary and secondary principals and five teachers to be named by the Montgomery County Education Association.
by CNB