Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 25, 1995 TAG: 9502280011
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
William C. Bosher, state superintendent of public instruction, told the state Board of Education on Thursday that the majority of the 1,000 he is sure will not graduate are special-education students or students with limited English proficiency.
All were allowed to postpone taking the state's Literacy Passport tests, required for graduation.
State law requires pupils to pass all three parts of the Literacy Passport Test to advance to high school. That barrier first was imposed for sixth-graders during the 1989-90 school year, when testing began on a statewide basis.
But several years ago ``someone blinked,'' and ``instead of a barrier, there was accommodation,'' Bosher said. ``A policy decision was made to let them go to high school as ungraded students.''
The Literacy Passport tests reading, writing and math skills. It is first given to students in the sixth grade. Students must repeat only those tests they fail, and they have until their last year in high school to do that.
The current 11th-grade class is the first group to have to meet that requirement.
The board reaffirmed that standard diplomas will not be awarded to those who have failed to pass all three sections of the Literacy Passport.
``If you can't read or write at a sixth-grade level, then a diploma is a fraud,'' board member Alan Wurtzel said.
In addition, about 460 high school juniors still have not passed the state's minimum competency test, according to results released during the board meeting. Those students officially cannot be classified as 11th-graders until they pass the test.
The overall passing rate for students taking all three tests at all grade levels improved from 49 percent in the fall of 1993 to 54 percent last fall. The passing rate for those taking all three went from 32 percent to 34 percent in seventh grade; 49 percent to 54 percent in eighth; 71 percent to 74 percent in ninth and 74 percent to 77 percent in 10th.
Memo: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.