THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 18, 1994 TAG: 9408170160
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines
If School Board member Robert F. Williams had his way, the grade D would be banished from the vernacular. It would be unacceptable for a student attending Norfolk schools to squeak by.
``I propose that we eliminate the grade D completely so that the class that graduates in the year 2006 will never know a D,'' Williams told fellow board members during their annual summer retreat earlier this month in Williamsburg.
``We need to send the message that it is not satisfactory to pass a course substandardly. We need to convey to administrators, teachers, counselors and students an expectation of high achievement.''
Williams, 45, director of reproductive sciences for the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine at the Eastern Virginia Medical School, has three daughters in Norfolk public schools. He prompted a wide-ranging discussion on the need to improve academic performance and expectations when he introduced a topic he called ``No to the minimum, Yes to the maximum.''
Besides eliminating the grade D, Williams had other ideas to elevate the school system beyond mediocrity. Among them:
To motivate the brightest students, create an advanced high school diploma - an International Baccalaureate Degree.
To guard against gender bias, offer segregated classes for boys and girls in middle school.
To reach more students, modify teaching techniques to accommodate a wider range of learning abilities. Some kids, for example, learn better through ``hands-on'' training, while others can quickly grasp abstract material.
To reduce dropouts, revise grading practices to eliminate failing grades for students who have to repeat courses but pass them with at least a C the next time. Williams also recommended that the current practice of linking a student's report card to attendance record be abolished.
To improve the quality of education in middle school, revamp the curriculum; require each student to take a course in study skills; and increase opportunities for the brightest students to take classes for high school credit or advanced placement.
To reach younger children, place more emphasis on early childhood education and make elementary schools more accountable in preparing students for the sixth-grade Literacy Passport Test. The state test, which a student must pass before entering ninth grade, measures basic skills that should be learned by sixth grade.
While board members agree steps are needed to improve student performance, they gave no indication when they might consider Williams' recommendations, some of them potentially controversial. The proposal to segregate boys and girls in middle school, for example, could raise legal questions.
Superintendent Roy D. Nichols Jr. said he plans to review the system's academic standards, including grading practices, during the coming year.
``I think we don't expect enough of our kids,'' Nichols said during discussion. ``We water down courses. I think we need to give them tougher courses, not easier courses.''
Williams said he found it ``unacceptable'' that Norfolk students hover near the 50th percentile nationwide on standardized tests. He said the system should aim for the 70th percentile.
The same holds true for the Literacy Passport Test, he said. This spring, 53.4 percent of Norfolk sixth-graders passed all three portions of the test. It should be 75 percent, he said.
While individual students do excel, the overall grade-point average of graduating seniors is discouraging, board members agreed.
Students who entered ninth grade in 1989-90 and were expected to graduate in 1993, for example, mustered only a combined D average in high school - a GPA of 1.35 on a scale of 0 to 4.
Nichols said certain grading practices may skew grades downward and distort the picture of student performance. Some grading methods may even be counterproductive, he said, leading some kids to drop out.
The upshot: there may be a need to establish consistent, systemwide grading practices, Nichols said.
``I think we've got more at work here than just a lack of learning,'' Nichols said. ``We need to look at rules and regulations and grading practices that could have a discouraging effect on kids.''
Nichols said he would review the current practice of averaging the grades of a student who repeats a course. Even if the student earned an A the second time around, his record would reflect an average of the two grades - or a C.
``We really penalize kids that way,'' Nichols said.
Nichols also said he would consider asking teachers to stop handing out 0s on tests. Some school systems, he said, have adopted a policy of not issuing a score below 50 - still a failing grade.
``Can you imagine what it's like to get a 0?'' Nichols said. ``You can't come back from a 0.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Robert F. Williams thinks his ideas will elevate the public school
system beyond mediocrity.
by CNB