ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 13, 1996 TAG: 9612130094
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
Virginia's students are being set up for failure by the testing for the state's new academic standards, Roanoke County School Board member Jerry Canada says.
He contends it's unfair to test students on material in English, history, mathematics and science that they studied three years earlier.
"You can't expect students to remember things that long," Canada said Thursday night. "This is not a level playing field for the students, teachers and schools."
Beginning in 1998, students will be tested at four grades - three, five, eight and 11 - on the new standards, which are benchmarks of the knowledge and skills students are expected to master at each grade level.
The tests will cover content in each of the four core subjects in the grades between tests. The eighth-grade tests, for instance, will cover material that students studied in sixth, seventh and eighth grade.
State education officials have said teachers, schools and school boards will be held accountable for student performance on the tests. But the state board has not decided on the consequences if students fail to meet a minimum level of competency.
The possibility of withholding state funds, closing schools and other penalties has been raised by officials in Gov. George Allen's administration.
"If teachers and school officials are going to be held accountable, we need a fair testing system," Canada said. "I want our children to be given a fair chance."
Students should be tested at the end of each school year, he said.
Michael Stovall, board vice chairman, agreed.
"It looks like the state Board of Education wants students to fail," Stovall said. "This is too much time between tests."
Board members voted to send a resolution to the state board urging revisions in the testing plan, although Canada said it's unlikely the state will make changes at this point.
The new academic standards and testing program are the centerpiece of Allen's education reforms.
Administration officials had proposed testing students in five grades - three, five, seven, nine and 11 - but the General Assembly didn't provide enough money for that many tests.
On a related matter, the county board asked school administrators to reconsider a recommendation that all students be required to take a world history course for credit toward a diploma. School officials recommended the course because students will be tested on the subject in the 11th grade.
Two members of an advisory panel for the county's vocational education program said they feared that such a requirement could reduce students' opportunities to take vocational courses to better prepare themselves for work. Another required history course would mean that students could take one less elective, they said.
Several board members said they are also worried that another required course might reduce students' options in taking elective art and music courses.
The world history course would be part of a two-year sequence that would begin in the eighth grade.
Students would study historical events and movements up to about A.D. 1000 in the eighth grade. But they would not earn a graduation credit for this class because eighth grade is not part of the high school curriculum.
In the ninth grade, they would cover events after A.D. 1000 and earn a credit.
Currently, high school students are required to earn three credits in history and social studies to get a diploma. All students must take American history in the 11th grade and U.S. and Virginia government in the 12th grade. These courses provide two credits.
They can take either world geography in the ninth grade or world history in the 10th grade for the third credit in social studies. They can take both, but they aren't required to do so.
Ninety-nine percent of the county's ninth-graders are taking world geography this year. But only 34 percent of 10th-graders are enrolled in world history.
Students will be tested on both world geography and world history in the testing program for the state's new academic standards.
Under the new alignment that has been proposed by school officials, all students would have been required to take world geography in the 10th grade in addition to world history in the ninth grade.
Board members asked school administrators to see if the world history material can be "compressed and included" in existing courses.
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