ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, October 19, 1996 TAG: 9610210034
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
Virginia's new academic standards will have consequences for schoolchildren who fail to meet them.
Beginning with the class of 2002, students must pass the test for the standards in math, science, social studies and English for 11th-graders before they can receive a standard high school diploma.
Doris Redfield, chief of the division of assessment and reporting for the state Department of Education, said Friday the new testing requirement will work the same as the state's Literacy Passport Test, which currently is a prerequisite for a standard diploma.
The passport test, which is given in the sixth grade, covers reading, writing and mathematics.
Redfield said the state board's goal is to integrate the passport test with the testing for the new academic standards. The state will continue to require the passport test until the standards' testing is fully implemented, she said.
Speaking at a Virginia Education Association conference in Roanoke, Redfield said both students and schools will be held accountable for meeting the Standards of Learning.
But the state board has not decided on consequences for children who fail to meet them, nor has it determined the consequences for schools, she said.
The standards are benchmarks of knowledge and skills students are expected to know in core subjects at each grade level.
Students will be tested in grades three, five, eight and 11 to determine whether they have mastered the standards.
Some school superintendents are worried about the requirement that students pass the 11th-grade standards test before they can get a standard diploma, said Robert Hanny, professor of education at the College of William and Mary.
They don't know whether the students will get a substandard diploma or whether they will have to stay in school until they pass the test, Hanny said.
If students who fail the test must stay in school longer, school costs could increase, he said.
Redfield said some details of the testing program have not been resolved because the contract with Harcourt Brace Educational Measurement, the testing company tentatively selected for the job, hasn't been signed.
Field testing for the new academic standards will begin next spring, but the first year's scores will not be released and will be used only for determining the validity of the tests and establishing scoring guidelines.
Not all children will necessarily have the same items on their tests, and the objective is not to measure the number of right answers by each child, she said. Instead, the field testing will be designed to measure the validity of the test form and the items, she said.
The test scores in the spring of 1998 will be released, but the score for passing and other achievement measures won't be determined until after these results have been analyzed, she said.
The testing will be cumulative and will cover the materials in the four core subjects between the tested grades. Eleventh-graders will be tested on material in their courses in the ninth, 10th and 11th grades.
In addition to the new standards program, Redfield said, the state will continue its achievement-testing program to measure how Virginia students compare with the rest of the nation in English and math. Students also might be tested in science and history, depending on the testing company that is selected, she said.
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