THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 28, 1995 TAG: 9503280246
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines
Some criticized them as a giant step backward. Others praised them as a quantum leap forward.
There seemed precious little room for bridging those differences at a public hearing Monday night on proposed changes in the standards used to educate Virginia's public school students.
But that is the task facing the state Board of Education, which is considering the approval of updated standards for what is taught in four core subjects: language arts, social studies, science and math.
On one issue, a majority of speakers agreed: They urged the state to delay adopting the standards to allow more time for revision and efforts to reach consensus.
``This is not politics,'' said Norfolk lawyer Peter Decker, who serves on the state board and conducted Monday's hearing. ``Where the youth of our state are involved, politics can be damned.''
About 600 Hampton Roads residents, including educators, parents and business people, packed the Maury High School auditorium, some arriving an hour before the hearing to sign up to speak.
A volunteer for Gov. George F. Allen's political action committee, Campaign for Honest Change, handed out yellow fliers attempting to debunk criticism of the proposed standards of learning, or SOLs.
Citizens Against Goals 2000, a Virginia Beach group that supports the revised standards, handed out stickers reading ``Back To Basics'' and ``Say Yes to Higher Academic Standards.''
Educators who spoke voiced universal concern about the proposed changes to social studies and language arts. They criticized what they viewed as an overemphasis on facts at the expense of critical thinking and problem-solving, which are skills they called vital for 21st century jobs.
They questioned the emphasis on phonics, a technique of sounding out vowels and consonants, to teach reading; children learn to read by various methods, they said.
``If what is proposed is called the `back to basics' movement, I guess I don't know what the basics are,'' said Sharon Butler, a Virginia Beach fifth-grade teacher.
Stephen Tonelson, representative of the Maury PTA, said the standards might produce graduates who ``know a lot of facts'' - who are ``wonderful at Trivial Pursuit, but who are unable to think or to problem-solve.''
Others said the push for higher standards in many cases reflected an attempt to introduce subjects that children were not equipped to learn, especially in elementary grades. First-graders would be expected to know about ancient Egypt. Second-graders would be taught about ancient Greece and Rome, the rise of two world religions and pre-Columbian history.
``While second-graders can appreciate other cultures and regions of the world, no state regulation is going to provide a 7-year-old with the intellectual development needed to understand this difficult material,'' said Joanne Funk, the mother of three children and a social studies specialist in Norfolk schools.
Vicki Hendley, president of the Virginia Beach Education Association, said the new standards would create financial burdens, requiring school districts to purchase new textbooks, supplies and curriculum guides.
``That is a massive and expensive undertaking for a school system the size of Virginia Beach,'' Hendley said.
Speakers who supported the proposed changes applauded what they viewed as a move toward higher standards.
``The revised SOLs are a very positive step to prepare students to succeed in higher education and the work force,'' said Michael Hamer, a Virginia Beach corporate attorney who made an unsuccessful run last year for the city School Board.
The Rev. Joseph Gwynn, president of Citizens for Better Education of Virginia Beach, said that Virginia might be stepping back but that ``I'm not convinced that's such a bad thing.'' He criticized the state's teachers unions as having a vested interest in opposing standards that would hold them accountable.
``They've had no accountability,'' Gwynn said. ``They've had a blank check.''
``I thought school was supposed to be hard and challenging and a place to learn,'' said Jim Morris, a Virginia Beach parent. ``We want people who can think, and I think basics work.''
The Allen administration wants to develop tests to measure how well schools are teaching the standards. Schools that fail to measure up could lose accreditation, while those making progress could receive incentives, including money or less regulation.
State schools Superintendent William C. Bosher Jr. hopes to have the standards in place before next school year. The state Board of Education will discuss the standards at its April meeting but is unlikely to vote on them then, Decker said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
CHRISTOPHER REDDICK/Staff
Klinton Ruff, a 5-year-old pre-kindergarten student at Bowling Park
Elementary School, attended Monday night's hearing with his mother
and older brother.
by CNB