ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Tuesday, August 20, 1996               TAG: 9608200031
SECTION: CURRENT                  PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER 

BOARD CASTS WARY EYE ON CHANGING PROGRAM

To say that R.J. Harvey's student achievement report has sparked discussion in school circles is an understatement.

Parents, particularly those of gifted students, are calling School Board members expressing concerns that their children aren't being sufficiently challenged.

School Board members, particularly those from the Blacksburg area where many of the gifted students attend school, are questioning school administrators about these parental concerns.

And school administrators are trying to confirm the data supplied by psychology professor Harvey and decide where to go from there.

Harvey released the analysis earlier this year. His wife, former School Board member Peggy Arrington, had expressed her concerns about test scores repeatedly during her term on the board.

Harvey gathered test scores from the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, given to third-, fourth-, fifth- and seventh-graders. He compared those to results to the Cognitive Ability Test, which measures a child's inherent ability.

Harvey found that students who scored high on the ability test performed lower than expected on the skills test.

"A lot of people try to marginalize this as a gifted thing, but it really effects a majority of students," he said.

He found that two-thirds of all students scored in the top half on the ability test. Yet many of those students performed lower than testing said they should have. Some were more than six months behind according to their ability scores.

But the trends are general, he said. And school officials are wary about making changes based on his report alone.

"Any kind of analysis has its limitations," Harvey said. "For high and low achievements you may get more accurate results" by looking at individual performance.

Assistant Superintendent Jim Sellers said some areas clearly need work, including spelling and math computation. He's hoping tougher curriculum requirements - imposed by the state and implemented this year - will improve those areas.

And while Harvey's study deserves a good, hard look, School Board member Wat Hopkins said, it should not be the only impetus for change.

"My response is we don't have proof, we have an indication," he said. "Anyone familiar with quantitative studies knows you don't make policy changes based on one analysis."

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