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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 3, 1994                   TAG: 9408040015
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

VIRGINIA SCHOOLS

RESULTS of this year's standardized tests in Virginia public schools are in. The official spin put on them is OK so far as it goes. But it doesn't go very far.

According to a report last week to the state Department of Education, Virginia fourth-graders showed no change in performance this year from last on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills. But eighth-graders taking the same test, and 11th-graders taking the Tests of Achievement and Proficiency, showed a slight drop, though Virginia continues to rank above the national average.

The lower rankings from last year, said the report, are too small to be meaningful unless they mark the beginning of a trend.

Which, of course, is something that could be made about many things. Have a slight cough? You own stock whose price dropped a point? Nothing to worry about ... unless it's the beginning of a trend.

The department last week also released information showing that 70.4 percent of Virginia sixth-graders passed all three sections of the Literacy Passport Test, which a student must eventually pass to get an academic diploma from a high school in the state. The overall pass rate, including older students retaking the test, was 66.7 percent.

The passing percentage is slightly higher than in 1993 and 1992. But it has been exceeded before in the five years the test has been administered, and the flip side is that 30 percent of Virginia's sixth-graders failed a test measuring only minimum competencies. Moreover, their chances of passing it decline each year they must continue to take it.

For Virginia, in sum, the story of the scores is mixed. In any event, scores on standardized tests - whether high, low or in between - should not be taken as perfect representations of the quality of teaching and learning. Nor should test scores be used as a tool for mindless excoriations of public education that fail to take into account the array of societal problems whose consequences the schools today must deal with.

Test scores are, however, one of the few ways the public has for gauging the performance of its schools. And if America is to conquer its economic and social problems, and to prosper in the 21st century, public education is a primary means - perhaps the primary means - for doing it.

Test scores are important for what they tell us about the performance of the public schools. More comprehensive yardsticks would be welcome. The performance of public education is key to the quality of the nation's future. Continuously improving schools would be welcome, too.

by CNB