Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 25, 1994 TAG: 9403250187
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Landmark News Service
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Short
The state Board of Education voted unanimously on Thursday to extend for another year Virginia's contract with the company that provides the standardized tests, administered to all students in fourth, eighth and 11th grades.
State Superintendent William Bosher last month asked the board to consider at least a yearlong moratorium on the tests while he and his staff developed new academic requirements for schools and new tests to see if students had mastered required skills.
State educators say the current exams, the Iowa Test of Basic Skills for fourth- and eighth-graders and the Tests of Achievement and Proficiency for 11th-graders, are outdated. The national averages used to rank scores on those tests were developed 10 years ago.
Bosher said he had hoped to save the nearly $450,000 it would cost to administer the tests and the more than $600,000 legislators allocated to buy new exams for next year.
But problems surfaced. Many school divisions, for example, use the scores to qualify for federal and state funds.
Lillie D. Ricucci, state PTA education committee chairwoman, had warned of a negative reaction from parents if testing were eliminated even temporarily. But this approach, she said, "sounds like a good way to go about it."
by CNB