
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, September 3, 1994                   TAG: 9409070027
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-12   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By RICK LINDQUIST STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD                                 LENGTH: Medium

RADFORD'S SIXTH-GRADERS MAKE TOP 10 ON LITERACY PASSPORT

The city's sixth-graders made the top 10 list last spring in their performance on the Virginia Literacy Testing Program - the Literacy Passport - even though scores were down from last year's.

"We were eighth in the state out of 136 school divisions," Superintendent Michael Wright told the School Board on Thursday.

Last spring, an average of 89.5 percent of all students who took the reading, writing and mathematics tests passed, down from 94.6 percent in spring 1993. At the same time, the number failing all three tests rose sharply, from an average of 5.3 percent in 1993 to 10.4 this year. The 92 pupils tested this year included those with special needs.

Pupils must pass all three tests to receive a high school diploma. In past years, Radford's Literacy Passport scores have been at or near the top statewide.

Wright said he was pleased with the Literacy Passport results as well as those on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, a series of tests given to fourth- and eighth-graders, and in the Tests of Achievement and Proficiency taken by 11th-graders. The tests measure achievement in reading, language, mathematics, social studies and science. Compared with last year's, scores on the Iowa tests were up for eighth-graders this year - in some cases by several points - but held about the same for fourth-grade pupils. Achievement scores for the high school juniors dropped slightly.

This year's results on the standardized Cognitive Abilities Test - or COGAT - for the most part were on a par with last year's. The test was administered to grades one through 11.

Coordinator of testing Bob Swindell, who briefed the board on the test results, speculated inclement weather earlier this year may have played a role in how youngsters fared on the standardized tests. "This was a rather stressful year. We missed a lot of time and continuity," he said.

Swindell also prefaced his report with a caution. "These standardized tests are just a sample of behavior taken at one point in time," he said, pointing out that the tests don't measure a youngster's motivation or attitude. Students scoring in the lower 25 percent get remedial help, he said.

The board also learned that citywide enrollment of 1,490 as of Thursday was up by 32 students from the close of school last spring. The figure includes approximately 150 tuition-paying students from outside the city. Despite the increase, Wright said the system has been able to keep class size "in the low 20s" for the most part.

by CNB