THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 28, 1994 TAG: 9409280427
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Short : 41 lines
The Elizabeth City-Pasquotank County school system has been chosen as a guinea pig for yet another state reform program.
Still in the midst of a tremendous pilot project to change what students learn and how they are taught, the district now will help usher in a new way to test them.
Along with the Edenton-Chowan schools and eight other North Carolina systems, Elizabeth City-Pasquotank will develop a process for students to show mastery of 10 skills deemed essential for their success.
The skills, and the pilot sites for testing them, were chosen by the state's Education Standards and Accountability Commission. Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. established the 25-member body last year.
New forms of testing developed through the long-term project will require students to show that they can use what they have learned rather than just pick the right answer on a multiple choice test, officials said.
In a presentation to the school board Monday, Assistant Superintendent C.E. ``Mack'' McCary gave such examples as a chemistry test that requires students to use their training to identify mystery substances. McCary also discussed forming models, or ``rubrics,'' of performance standards against which students can compare their work.
``This is a major expansion of the whole concept of testing,'' Superintendent Joseph Peel said.
Peel said the work on testing will complement and support work under way in the Outcome Based Education project, which seeks new approaches to teaching and learning. At a state level, he hopes the two long-term studies will confirm each other's findings.
KEYWORDS: OUTCOME BASED EDUCATION EDUCATION TESTING by CNB