ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, April 22, 1996 TAG: 9604230085
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
EVERY FINALIST believes, to some degree, that tougher academic criteria are needed to boost Roanoke's schools.
If Gov. George Allen is looking for people who support Virginia's new academic standards and the plan to test students, he'll find four in the finalists for Roanoke School Board.
The finalists say higher standards will improve student motivation and achievement - and some argue higher standards will do more than money to upgrade the quality of schools.
"If we are going to improve our schools, it is important that each school within each school system be held accountable for the progress of their students," said candidate Brian Wishneff, who owns a consulting firm.
"We have not pushed our schools out of fear of offending somebody. The lack of high standards and expectations for our schools has been a problem," said Wishneff, Roanoke's former director of economic development.
Charles Day, a retired school principal seeking reappointment to the board, said schools need sufficient money and good discipline, but higher standards should be the main priority.
"Our schools are competing at the international level; therefore, we must be on the cutting edge of education," said Day, a part-time counselor at Virginia Western Community College. "We must give our students the best educational foundation possible."
Wishneff and Day are among the four finalists for two board seats with terms beginning July 1. The other candidates are Martin Jeffrey and James Lowe. City Council will interview the finalists publicly Thursday at 6 p.m. and announce its selections May 6.
At Allen's urging, Virginia has developed new academic standards for math, science, English and social studies. The standards are benchmarks of the skills and knowledge that students must master at each grade level.
Some educators charged that Allen's allies tried to slant the social studies standards to a conservative ideology. But after revisions last year, the state Board of Education approved the standards in all fields. The state will begin field-testing them in 1997.
Virginia's push for higher standards is part of a national movement. Most states have revised or started revising academic standards. In some states, the new standards have helped boost test scores and allowed schools to upgrade curriculum in core subjects such as math, science and English.
Lowe, head of construction administration for Hayes, Seay, Mattern & Mattern, a Roanoke architectural and engineering firm, said he supports the principle of rigorous academic standards and holding schools accountable for the quality of their instruction.
Lowe said he has not studied Virginia's new standards in detail and might take exception to some elements. But, he added, higher academic standards will do more to improve schools than additional money or better discipline. Since the 1960s, he said, spending on education and grade-point averages have increased, but test scores and functional literacy rates have fallen.
"Thus, there appears to be no evidence that increases in educational funding alone do or will improve the quality of education," Lowe said. "Likewise, discipline alone will not overcome the problems created by a soft curriculum and a general lack of educational accountability."
Jeffrey said that while he supports higher academic standards, more money is needed, especially for instruction, to implement them if the schools are going to be accountable.
Jeffrey, director of community development and outreach for Total Action Against Poverty, said the most pressing problem in the city's schools is the lack of adequate funds. To solve the funding problem, the schools must gain the understanding and support of parents, corporations, community institutions and others, he said.
More money, better discipline and higher academic standards are equally vital in improving schools, Jeffrey said.
Parental notification
On the issue of parental notification in counseling services, three finalists - Day, Jeffrey and Lowe - said guidance counselors should be required to obtain parental permission before talking with students about personal, social or other nonacademic areas of their lives. Wishneff believes counselors should be required to contact the parents in some situations, but not in others.
The state Board of Education has voted to relinquish control of guidance programs and to let local school boards develop their own policies on confidentiality and parental notification.
Students now can participate in counseling sessions unless their parents sign a form asking that they not be involved. This procedure, called ``opt-out,'' has the support of many counselors and educators.
But conservative allies of Allen have pushed for a policy, called ``opt-in,'' that would require parental permission before counselors could talk with children about nonacademic issues.
As a parent with three children in city schools, Jeffrey said he would want to know if a counselor was going to talk with his child about nonacademic topics.
Lowe said the Constitution guarantees the rights of parents to guide and direct the upbringing of their children. Guidance counselors should obtain parents' permission before talking with children about personal and social topics, he said.
"By seeking parental permission to talk with students, you are automatically involving parents in the process," Day said. "This provides an opportunity for counselors to inform parents that their children are experiencing problems at school and these problems could have a direct impact on their academic performance and social well-being."
Counselors should contact parents first before talking with students on some subjects, Wishneff said, but there may be other situations, like suspected child abuse, where it would not make sense.
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