THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 17, 1996 TAG: 9605170486
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
If you want to get into a written debate with a Pasquotank County seventh-grader, come prepared.
When it comes to making an argument and defending it on paper, these kids know what they're doing.
Results from a state writing test released Thursday show that nearly three in four seventh-graders earned a ``proficient'' score on an exam designed to test their ability to establish and support a point of view.
The 74 percent is well above the state average of 59.5 and shows a 30-point growth over the same group's performance as sixth-graders.
The Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Schools' sixth- and fourth-graders also grew in writing proficiency, although the 47 percent proficiency among fourth-graders came in below the state average.
Sixth-grade scores were not part of the state's testing program this year, but Elizabeth City-Pasquotank tested and scored its sixth-graders locally.
Nearly 59 percent of sixth-graders scored at least a 2.5 out of 4 possible points, with 2.5 or higher qualifying as proficient.
``Grades 6 and 7 scores were outstanding,'' said Superintendent Joe Peel. ``Writing has been a major emphasis, and folks have done a good job. The kids have responded well and performed well.
``I'm excited.''
The writing test has taken on new importance in the fourth and seventh grades, because it is one of just a few exams that North Carolina public school officials use to decide how well local school districts are doing their jobs.
This was the first year seventh-graders took the writing test. At the state level, sixth and eighth grades were dropped from the exam.
Some of the year's most important testing will come next week,when North Carolina's third- through eighth-graders take multiple-choice, end-of-grade tests in reading and math.
School officials said good writing test scores will not necessarily mean good results on the multiple-choice exams.
``I don't know that there's a correlation between these things,'' Peel said. ``They're measuring different things.''
Elizabeth City-Pasquotank's seventh-grade writing results do not include scores from 88 tests that were discounted this spring after administrators learned that one teacher had given hints about the test to her students ahead of time.
``This is without the kids in there who were involved in that incident,'' Peel said.
On the test, North Carolina's seventh-graders were asked to decide whether gym should be a required class, and then to back up their arguments in an essay. Pasquotank sixth-graders gave their point of view about whether music should be played during lunch hour.
``We're trying to prepare them to argue with their parents,'' joked Assistant Superintendent C.E. ``Mack'' McCary. ``If they're going to argue, they should at least be well-reasoned.''
Fourth-graders were tested in a different format: narrative. They were instructed to write a story about what would happen if they picked up a mysterious bottle on their way home from school and found something surprising inside.
Other area districts reported some successes and some rocky experiences with the writing tests this year.
Perquimans County Schools' seventh-graders beat the state average, with 65 percent turning in proficient tests. Just more than half the district's fourth-graders scored proficiently, nearing the state average and jumping about 10 points from last year, said district testing director Paul Ward.
``We were pleased,'' Ward said.
Edenton-Chowan's fourth-graders scored at about the same level as Pasquotank's. But administrators hope to improve quickly from the district's 36 percent rating.
``We find that the first year we administer a new test at a new grade level, we typically get a low score,'' said Maxine Britt, Edenton-Chowan Schools' director of instruction. ``It seems to take a year or two for that grade level to get comfortable with that test.''
Britt pointed out that nearly 65 percent of the district's eighth-graders had scored well on the test last year, up almost 20 points from the year before.
``We're very optimistic that now that we know where we are, that we will see some improvement this year,'' Britt said.
Officials in Camden, Currituck, Dare and Gates counties did not provide their districts' test scores on Thursday. ILLUSTRATION: Chart
State writing tests
For complete information, see microfilm.
by CNB