THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 8, 1995 TAG: 9510060009
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines
The Allen administration has presided over the drafting of more detailed new standards of learning (SOLs) for the public schools. With some reservations we have applauded the results. Neither schools nor their students can perform if there's no agreement on what's expected of them.
Now the State Board of Education is considering the next logical steps. With standards in place for math, science, English and social studies, a way is needed to measure whether students meet them. Therefore, tests must be created.
Superintendent William Bosher intends to ask the General Assembly to appropriate $25 million over two years in order to fund creation of statewide tests that would be administered in the third, fifth, seventh, ninth and 11th grades. Private contractors would bid for the job of designing the tests.
The price tag seems rather steep, but there's no way around paying for the development of testing instruments. When Virginia decided to go its own way and design its own SOLs, it made creation of its own testing regime an inevitability.
The School Board has also begun to consider the final inescapable consequence - accountability. When new standards and tests of them are in place, what should be done about students and teachers who don't measure up? If students don't master the SOLs, there have got to be predictable sanctions.
If students fail, should they be forced to repeat classes? Will remediation be available? If not, what's to prevent some students from falling further and further behind? Answers to these questions will dictate the kind of educational system we construct. Do we believe education is an assembly line and that learners who can't keep up should drop out? Or do we believe it is the job of schools to start where individual students are and bring each along as fast as possible toward agreed-upon goals?
And how will administrators know if failure is due to poor learning habits or to poor teaching ability? Will tests of the teaching of the new SOLs also be devised? It seems reasonable.
Deciding how to deal with underperformance is already dividing the board and can be expected to occasion much debate. If such debate generates light instead of heat, it could be very useful.
But until SOLs and a curriculum are in place and testing instruments are created to measure performance, it may be premature to worry about how to deal with those who don't measure up. The next step is to approve funding for tests. The legislature should do so, while making sure that fiscal prudence is exercised.
The Allen administration has presided over the drafting of more detailed new standards of learning (SOLs) for the public schools. With some reservations we have applauded the results. Neither schools nor their students can perform if there's no agreement on what's expected of them.
Now the State Board of Education is considering the next logical steps. With standards in place for math, science, English and social studies, a way is needed to measure whether students meet them. Therefore, tests must be created.
Superintendent William Bosher intends to ask the General Assembly to appropriate $25 million over two years in order to fund creation of statewide tests that would be administered in the third, fifth, seventh, ninth and 11th grades. Private contractors would bid for the job of designing the tests.
The price tag seems rather steep, but there's no way around paying for the development of testing instruments. When Virginia decided to go its own way and design its own SOLs, it made creation of its own testing regimen an inevitability.
The School Board has also begun to consider the final inescapable consequence - accountability. When new standards and tests of them are in place, what should be done about students and teachers who don't measure up? If students don't master the SOLs, there have got to be predictable sanctions.
If students fail, should they be forced to repeat classes? Will remediation be available? If not, what's to prevent some students from falling further and further behind? Answers to these questions will dictate the kind of educational system we construct. Do we believe education is an assembly line and that learners who can't keep up should drop out? Or do we believe it is the job of schools to start where individual students are and bring each along as fast as possible toward agreed-upon goals?
And how will administrators know if failure is due to poor learning habits or to poor teaching ability? Will tests of the teaching of the new SOLs also be devised? It seems reasonable.
Deciding how to deal with underperformance is already dividing the board and can be expected to occasion much debate. If such debate generates light instead of heat, it could be very useful.
But until SOLs and a curriculum are in place and testing instruments are created to measure performance, it may be premature to worry about how to deal with those who don't measure up. The next step is to approve funding for tests. The legislature should do so, while making sure that fiscal prudence is exercised. by CNB