Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 28, 1995 TAG: 9507280088
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But there was a drop in the percentage of sixth-graders who passed the state's Literacy Passport Test.
This past spring, 65.6 percent of sixth-graders passed all three parts of the passport test, down 4.8 percent from 1994. The test consists of exams in reading, writing and mathematics.
This year's scores are about the same as they were five years ago, when the state launched the test in an effort to improve student performance.
``This is depressing to me,'' state Board of Education President James P. Jones said after the results were released Thursday. ``We're really at the same position we were five years ago, and that's just not good news for Virginia.''
The Literacy Passport Test is administered for the first time in sixth grade. Students must pass all three parts of the test to be classified as ninth-graders or above and to receive a high school diploma.
Students who fail any of the three tests are given two additional opportunities per school year to pass them.
High school students who transfer into Virginia also must pass the test to get a diploma.
In Western Virginia, Radford had the highest pass rate on all three parts of the test - 83.6 percent - followed by Salem, 76.7 percent, and Roanoke County, 74 percent.
Radford recorded a 1 percent increase this year. But Salem was down from 86.4 percent last year, and Roanoke County's score was lower than last year's 79.6 percent.
Several other localities in the region exceeded the state's pass rate of 65.6 percent. They include: Floyd County, 72.2 percent; Bedford County, 71.6 percent; Montgomery County, 65.9 percent; and Botetourt County, 65.7 percent.
Falling below the state average were Craig, Franklin, Giles and Pulaski counties and the city of Roanoke.
Statewide, 80.1 percent of sixth-graders passed the reading test, 77.6 percent passed the writing test and 83.6 percent passed the math test.
The improvement shown by Virginia students on the national standardized tests was a turnaround from a year ago, when the scores dipped slightly.
But state education officials cautioned Thursday that the increases "are not great enough to be educationally meaningful" unless they are the beginning of a trend.
This year, the scores ranged from the 53rd percentile in eighth-grade vocabulary to the 71st percentile in fourth-grade science.
A percentile rank indicates the percentage of students in the national sample who received lower scores.
If a student ranks in the 71st percentile, for example, it means that 71 percent of students nationally received a lower score.
Generally, students in Virginia ranked higher in science and social studies than in reading and vocabulary.
The tests covered seven subjects in the fourth and eighth grades and six subjects in the 11th grade.
Fourth- and eighth-graders took the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, and 11th-graders took the Tests of Achievement and Proficiency.
The exams are given annually to all students in the three grades.
The highest ranking for fourth-graders was the 71st percentile in science, with the lowest at the 54th percentile in vocabulary.
Eighth-graders also ranked the highest in science, 63rd percentile, and the lowest in vocabulary, 53rd percentile.
The top ranking for 11th-graders was in science, 66th percentile, with reading comprehension and mathematics tied for the lowest at the 56th percentile.
With a few exceptions, students in Western Virginia ranked above the national average. In most cases, they exceeded the state average, too.
Students in Radford, Salem, Montgomery County and Roanoke County recorded some of the highest rankings in the region, reaching the 80th percentile in some subjects.
Some information in this story came from the Associated Press.
by CNB