THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 26, 1995 TAG: 9503240174
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 31 lines
The report cards for the public schools gave Portsmouth residents a lot to mull over and raised some questions school administrators need to answer.
The 19-point increase in the percentage of fourth-graders besting their peers on standardized tests is wonderful. A slight decrease in high school dropouts while other cities were showing an increase also is good news, perhaps indicating that we have bottomed out and are starting to deal with the problem.
Conversely, the 14-point decrease in students completing vocational programs is very disturbing, since those youngsters most likely will stay here and need to work.
In addition, Portsmouth's 11th-graders had miserable scores on standardized tests. All three high schools were embarrassingly low, especially Churchland which dropped 15 points.
The improvements on one hand are wonderful, but the good news is by far offset by the bad news at the high schools. What's happening here and what can we do about it? by CNB