THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 19, 1994 TAG: 9407190003
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: By SIDNEY L. FAUCETTE
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
In Virginia Beach, the first-year results are in from our ``accelerated'' schools, and readers of your paper deserve to hear the truth about this project, not the untruths in your editorial ``Bosher's agenda'' (July 5).
To begin with, test scores on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills and the Literacy Passport Test show gains at all six accelerated schools. One elementary school showed increases of 5 to 14 percentile points on each subtest of the Iowa Test.
Second, at accelerated schools, parent participation is up. Between 1992-93 and 1993-94, one school's PTA membership went from 570 to 880. This level of parental support makes me think of the folk wisdom I grew up with, when parents and teachers did not point fingers but supported each other. Children need this kind of adult cooperation if they are to become responsible citizens. In accelerated schools, parents also serve on school-improvement committees, where they experience true shared decision making.
At another accelerated school, the number of volunteers went from 109 to 346; and the number of hours donated went from 1,850 to 3,940. During those hours, students received tutoring in basic skills and extra help in assignments in all subjects. And in one school, volunteers gave third-graders instruction in French and fourth-graders instruction in Spanish twice every week for nine weeks. These volunteers helped the teachers provide both basic-skills practice and academically challenging experiences for students.
Third, discipline referrals are going down in accelerated schools. For example, between 1992-93 and 1993-94, the number of discipline referrals went from 109 to 84 at one accelerated school. At another, the decline was from 114 to 86. These declines in referrals reflect the project's insistence on responsible behavior in a school characterized by high expectations for learning.
Perhaps readers are wondering, ``Why are they called accelerated schools?'' The idea is to accelerate or speed up learning. How? By creating an enriched learning climate for all students, just as programs for gifted students provide accelerated or enriched activities for them. The difference is that accelerated schools push for academic learning and enrichment for all the students in the school.
This upsets a few parents, who confuse enrichment with social privilege. They unfortunately believe that disadvantaged children deserve less attention than more privileged children. But the parents of gifted students in accelerated schools soon discover that the ceiling of achievement continues to rise for their children even while the entire school is enriched. There's enough challenge to go around!
At our accelerated middle school, for example, between 1992-93 and 1993-94, eighth-grade foreign-language enrollment increased from 31 percent to 50 percent. The great news for gifted children and disadvantaged children is that accelerated schools conform to the gifted education model of academic challenge, individual attention and school success.
Professor Joe Renzulli, who directs the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented at the University of Connecticut, has praised accelerated schools and has actually initiated a Schoolwide Enrichment Project for all children. And Professor E. D. Hirsch at the University of Virginia recognizes the accelerated-school process as the right place for his Cultural Literacy program to flourish.
I think the accelerated-schools phenomenon can be explained by the old saying, ``A rising tide lifts all boats.'' With a rising tide of high expectations for academic learning, the entire student body learns more and performs better. That's why accelerated schools do not target test scores for improvement. They target the ``rising tide'' of high expectations; and they get improvements in test scores as a result, without usurping local control over curriculum content.
The editorial confused accelerated schools with outcome-based education (OBE), and your readers deserve a specific correction on that point. Accelerated schools have no connection with OBE. Accelerated schools, as I have explained here, are based on local control, parental involvement and school-based decision making. The editor is apparently unaware that I am the lone superintendent in Virginia who, with the full support of the School Board, publicly fought OBE until Governor Wilder killed it.
Be assured, however, that I strongly support the initiative of our state superintendent, Dr. William C. Bosher Jr., to establish and assess Standards of Learning. I agree wholeheartedly with this initiative because of my commitment to the measurement of student performance on content-based standards and to academic excellence for all children regardless of advantages or disadvantages of birth. MEMO: Mr. Faucette is superintendent of Virginia Beach public schools. by CNB