THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 5, 1995 TAG: 9505040135
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By MICHAEL B. HAMAR
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
I served on the Social Studies Standards of Learning Revision Committee. I was a member of a parent review committee for the revised Language Arts SOLs. I am disturbed by the inaccurate allegations being made by the opponents of the new SOLs for math, science, language arts and social studies. As a parent of schoolchildren, I have long been concerned about the decline in the rigor and academic content of the public-school curriculum. Though not perfect, the Virginia Department of Education's proposed revisions will significantly improve the quality of the education received by Virginia's children.
I am dismayed that the Virginia Education Association, its local affiliates and a small but vocal minority of teachers have chosen to oppose the improved SOLs. They fail to realize the great degree of difficulty entailed in producing them.
Contrary to the allegations made at the public hearing at Maury High School on March 27, the new Social Studies SOLs are not the work of a cabal of bureaucrats in Richmond. The main concepts and direction are the product of the Social Studies SOL Revision Conference. It met for three days last July in Newport News and involved over 60 individuals, the vast majority of whom were social-studies teachers and administrators from school divisions across Virginia. Also included were parents and representatives of the PTA and various other organizations.
Often after very heated debate, the participants found compromise, if not consensus, and all social studies SOLs for grades K-12 were reviewed and revised. A minority of the teachers sought a watered-down curriculum which could be mastered by all students and which would be ``politically correct.'' Fortunately, the majority of participants, particularly parents, rejected this approach.
Instead, the SOLs were revised to contain greatly increased academic content (e.g., the ``expanding horizons model'' for grades K-3 which is focused on self and family, etc. was discarded and replaced by maps and charts, geography and history as a story) to better prepare students to be informed citizens, capable of understanding and competing in an increasingly complex world.
In the revised Language Arts SOLs, the elements opponents of reform most harshly attack were specifically requested by parents. Parents rightly believed that the trend away from teaching phonics and grammar has had a very negative impact on many students. Similarly, parents recommended that grammar again be stressed at all grade levels.
Opponents claim it is impossible for children in the early grades to master phonics and grammar. Yet precisely this type of instruction occurs daily in private schools all across Hampton Roads. Public-school children, especially ``at risk'' students, deserve the same instructional advantages.
The book list appended to the revised Language Arts SOLs, which has been repeatedly attacked by critics, was never intended as an approved reading list. That list and the designation of required lengths for papers at certain grade levels merely seek to empower parents to monitor student progress and to participate as equal partners with teachers.
The revised SOLs would make high expectations for all students more a reality. More important, they would help our public schools to produce graduates who are better prepared to succeed in higher education and the work place. It is ironic that the VBEA leadership, which typically wants more and more money ``for the children,'' has even cited excessive cost as a purported reason to reject the revised SOLs. In reality, the cost of implementing the SOLs here would equal less than 1 percent of the operating budget based upon Superintendent Faucette's figures. This would seem to be money well spent. It would be a tragedy if a small, militant group of naysayers deprived Virginia's children of the opportunity the revised SOLs represent. by CNB