ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, August 6, 1996 TAG: 9608060083
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NORFOLK
SOURCE: Associated Press
Students at two elementary schools improved their scores on achievement tests so much that cheating was suspected. Now, a retest has confirmed the gains.
``Both schools have demonstrated enviable student achievement levels and are to be congratulated for outstanding academic achievement,'' Superintendent Roy Nichols said Monday.
Fourth-graders at Bowling Park and Tarrallton first took the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills in March. Standardized tests measure what pupils have learned in such subjects as reading, language, math and science.
Nichols decided to retest pupils because they did so much better on the tests this year than as third-graders. In some categories, the scores doubled.
The fourth-graders took a different version of the test in late May.
While overall average scores dipped on the retesting, they fell within an acceptable range to validate the initial improvement, officials said.
Bowling Park's overall average score on reading, language skills and math dropped from the 90th percentile in March to the 75th percentile in May. Tarrallton's average score dropped from the 79th percentile to the 69th percentile.
The national average falls at the 50th percentile.
Nichols attributes the drop in scores to stress resulting from some of the pupils' resentment at having to take the retest. He also said many kids probably were distracted because the retest came just days before summer vacation.
Some Bowling Park parents said the retest was racially motivated. The school is one of the city's 10 majority-black elementary schools.
``This proves to anyone who had doubts that our children are capable of learning and retaining what they've been taught,'' said Yvonn Hardy, Bowling Park's PTA president.
In certain categories tested in March, scores at Bowling Park doubled from the previous year, jumping by more than 40 percentile points. Tarrallton's gains were not quite as dramatic.
The previous year, as third-graders, the Bowling Park pupils had earned an average score at the 56th percentile on math, reading and language skills. The Tarrallton pupils had an average score at the 53rd percentile the previous year.
Testing experts say a gain of 10 percentile points from one year to the next is reasonable, while increases such as those at Bowling Park and Tarrallton are unusual.
``It's not impossible, but it's not likely without some kind of intervention happening,'' said Gerald Bracey, who spent 10 years as director of testing for the Virginia Department of Education.
Bowling Park Principal Herman Clark said teachers tutored pupils before and after school and held Saturday classes for two months before the March test.
At Tarrallton, teachers worked with pupils on test-taking techniques, Principal Charles Clay said.
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