THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc. DATE: Saturday, September 2, 1995 TAG: 9509010024 SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL TYPE: Editorial LENGTH: Long : 162 lines
Just by broaching the subject of ability grouping, Norfolk schools Superintendent Roy Nichols rocks the boat big-time. But just-released test scores should prompt every parent and taxpayer in the city to put in their oar on his side.
Ability grouping determined by ongoing evaluation in basic academics - reading, writing, arithmetic - has distinct advantages: It allows both a greater concentration of resources and direction - academic or vocational - for students who need more attention and a wider, faster path of achievement for students who master a subject more quickly. A student who is ``not working up to potential'' is one thing. A student who is not allowed to work up to potential, and a student who is not helped to work to potential, are indictments of public education.
But debate on ability grouping, as with so many issues today, gets bogged in race and politics. Opponents contend that it stigmatizes children of lesser ability, condemns them to a lesser ``track'' in school and in life, and deprives all students of diversity in academics and socio-economics. But that's not the way it has to be, and that's not the way Superintendent Nichols intends it to be.
And how could it be worse than the way it is now - a fast track to poverty, illiteracy, illegitimacy, unemployability, even jail for a passle of the city's kids?
It is fact that Norfolk's public schools serve a population that is heavily black (63.2 percent) and low-income (61 percent of students receive free or reduced-price lunches).
It is no secret that the home lives of too many black students, their unreadiness for education and what School Board member Robert Williams aptly calls ``ethical illiteracy'' put a real burden on Norfolk property-tax payers, put teachers and attentive students under demoralizing stress, put black job-seekers at a tremendous disadvantage and put a real damper on neighboring cities' enthusiasm for regionalism.
It is no secret - see the 1995 statistics from Norfolk public schools interpersed throughout this piece - that despite the highest per-pupil spending in South Hampton Roads, Norfolk schools post some disastrous results, particularly among their African-American stu-dents.
The status quo just plain won't do.
That's why Dr. Nichols hired last year a special assistant, Fred Oliver, to coordinate programs to improve black students' performance. Top goals are improved student performance, as measured in part by the number of National Merit and Commended Scholars and more course-work in math and foreign languages; better SAT scores; and more students passing all three sections of the Literacy Passport Test on their first try.
There have been improvements:
The number of students who graduated without having passed the Literacy Passport Test hit a lot of 7 percent.
The number of black students who scored 1,000 or better on the SAT rose 82 percent.
The average SAT scores of Norfolk's African-American seniors rose 6 points.
But look closely.
It's no boast that Norfolk public-school graduates are assured of having gotten at least the sixth-grade education measured by the Literacy Passport Test.
The number of black students who scored 1,000 or more on the SAT did rise 82 percent - to 11, from 9. That's 11 out of 342 black SAT-takers, and 758 black seniors.
Black SAT-takers' scores rose 6 points, but the average rise overall was 24 points.
That 6-point rise takes black scores from an average 678 to 684. That's 49 points below blacks' average score statewide, 212 points below all students' average statewide, and 226 points below the average score nationwide.
The schools have their work cut out for them.
Yet it has been impolitic to say that students should be sorted by their ability to learn, the better to help achievers at every level to achieve.
It has been impolitic to say that students should be sorted by their willingness to learn, the better to help achievers at every level to achieve.
And it's downright gutsy to say, as Dr. Nichols and board members have just said, that administrators, principals, teachers should be held accountable both for how well they educate children and for the value and values they produce with tax money in the process.
The first step toward solutions is acknowledging the problems. A second is recognizing their scope. A third is admitting that schools must differentiate among students with different needs - different academic and different disciplinary needs. A fourth is periodically assessing every aspect of the system to see whether it measures up.
The willingness of Dr. Nichols and School Board members to take radical, controversial steps to improve Norfolk's school system reflects commendable courage and commitment on their part. More important, it reflects the urgency of the system's distress. MEMO: THE DIMENSIONS OF NORFOLK'S CHALLENGE
Norfolk public-school statistics show that in school year 1994-95:
Of 33,421 students in Norfolk public schools in June 1995, 21% were
seniors, 23% were middle-schoolers, 55% were grammar schoolers.
58% of high-school seniors in June 1995 were black.
56% of high-school graduates were black.
87% of black seniors in school at the end of June graduated in 1995.
1% of them had a GPA of 3.5 or better.
7% of them had a GPA of 3.0-3.49.
15.5% of them had a GPA of 2.5-2.99.
37% had a GPA of 2.0-2.49.
32% had a GPA of 1.5-1.99.
6.5% had a GPA of 1.0-1.49.
16% of high-school graduates had a GPA of 3.5 or better. 10% of that
16% were black.
12% of high-school graduates had a GPA of 3.0-3.49. 3.5% of that 12%
were black.
20% of high-school graduates had a GPA of 2.5-2.99. 43% of that 20%
were black.
33% of high-school graduates had a GPA of 2.0-2.49. 64% of that 33%
were black.
25% of high-school graduates had a GPA of 1.5-1.99. 71% of that 25%
were black.
4% of students had a GPA of 1.0-1.49. 85% of that 4% were black.
47% of black high-school graduates got a general diploma, since
discontinued by the school system
63% of general-diploma graduates were black.
46% of seniors in school in June 1995 took the SAT.
58% of SAT-takers were black.
45% of black seniors took the SAT in 1995.
15% of SAT-takers scored 1,000 or better.
3% of black SAT-takers scored 1,000 or better.
Average SAT score nationally: 428 verbal 482 math 910 total
Average SAT score among blacks nationally: 356 388 744 total
Average SAT score among Norfolk seniors: 327 357 684 total
3% of 6th-graders who had attended Young Park Elementary School passed
all three sections of the Literacy Passport Test this year.
19% of 6th-graders who had attended Campostella Elementary School
passed all three sections of the Literacy Passport Test this year.
20% of 6th-graders who had attended Roberts Park School passed all
three sections of the Literacy Passport Test this year.
23% of 6th-graders who had attended Tidewater Park Elementary School
passed all three sections of the Literacy Passport Test this year.
28% of 6th-graders who had attended Bowling Park Elementary School
passed all three sections of the Literacy Passport Test this year.
100% of the city's eight middle schools posted a drop in percentage of
6th-grade students passing the writing and math portions of the LPT.
75% of the city's eight middle schools posted a drop in percentage of
6th-grade students passing the reading portion of the LPT.
37.1% of nondisabled black students at any grade level in Norfolk
public schools passed all three portions of the LPT. (Statewide, that
portion is 43.8%).
KEYWORDS: NORFOLK SCHOOLS STATISTICS STANDARDIZED TEST by CNB