ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, June 14, 1996 TAG: 9606140028
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PEARISBURG
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
The "First Timers" Club. An honor roll for parents. An academic pep rally.
All of these are ideas generated out of need; projects to motivate, excite and inform. All - if the latest test score results are any indication - have been a success.
Giles County's primary schools initiated these and other ideas with one clear purpose: Raise the Literacy Passport Test scores.
And they have. Compared with last year, overall scores in the state tests jumped 25 percentage points this year.
Sixth-graders throughout the state take the Literacy Passport Test. Pupils solve math problems, answer questions about written passages, and write several paragraphs on their own.
They can continue taking the test if they fail any part of the test, but must pass before being considered a ninth-grader.
The biggest improvement in this year's scores came from Narrows Elementary, where 39.2 percent of sixth-graders passed the test in 1995; this year, 76.1 percent passed.
Principal Ron Skeens said the main difference was that this year, pupils, teachers and parents became "stakeholders" in each child's achievement.
"It was the awareness - that this is important. The students really took their time and went after it," he said.
Before the test, the school held an academic pep rally.
"Who ever heard of an academic pep rally?" Skeens joked. "But they did it. They made signs and made up cheers. We had a great time."
After the results came back last week, 35 students got a "First Timer's" club T-shirt for passing all three parts the first time around.
Last summer, when the state test results were released, school administrators faced some grim realities. Fewer than half of Giles County sixth-graders passed the entire test.
The county ranked 17 percentage points below the state average and landed last when compared with other counties in the New River and Roanoke valleys.
Last year's low scores prompted Superintendent Bob McCracken to develop committees to focus on student achievement. Principals, teachers, parents and older students initiated various ideas.
"The key word is ownership," said Ron Whetzel, the director of instruction. "Every parent, every student, every teacher can tell you what the [Literacy Passport Test] is and how we scored. People understand the importance of it."
In the last few weeks of school, parents received their own report cards. Those who checked off 15 statements - "I talked with my child about test scores," or, "I sat down with my child at a computer," for example - received a bumper sticker that announced their "honor roll parent" status.
These ideas, said Eastern Elementary Principal Rom Matlock, are only the beginning.
"We'll be satisfied when I can say we passed it 100 percent," he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart: Literacy Passport Test Scoresby CNB