THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 16, 1996 TAG: 9606150086
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Education
SOURCE: BY VANEE VINES, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: 93 lines
Graduating seniors and their parents have the most to celebrate this time of year.
But the latest state report card on city schools gives the school district itself reasons to rejoice.
While the district is still plagued by large numbers of students lacking basic skills, it's doing a better job of preparing more kids for college and deterring students from dropping out, the report card showed.
Last school year, 29 percent of Suffolk's high school juniors and seniors taking ``Advanced Placement'' courses scored well enough on national AP exams to earn college credit.
Only 14 percent of city students fell into that category the previous year.
At the middle school level, more eighth-graders are enrolled in algebra and foreign language classes. Those classes prepare students for college and build critical-thinking skills.
From 1993-94 to 1994-95, the percentage of city eighth-graders who studied a foreign language before high school jumped 5 percentage points - to 34 percent, the report card showed.
The percentage of eighth-graders who had taken an Algebra I class before high school was up 4 percentage points - to 21 percent.
The report card brought good news in other areas as well.
Three percent of the city's seventh through 12th-graders dropped out last school year, down from 5 percent in 1993-94.
The report card, released annually, highlights strengths and weaknesses in the state's public schools.
Educators and parents use it to improve instruction and craft school-improvement plans.
Many of the city's 1994-95 results are heartening, administrators said.
``There were a number of areas we were particularly proud of, like the dropout rate,'' said Milton Liverman, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.
``But there are still ongoing concerns.''
The report card, which covers the 1990-91 through 1994-95 school years, also pinpointed several problem areas.
Last year's middle school attendance rate, for example, reached its lowest point since 1990-91. In 1994-95, 46 percent of those students missed more than two weeks of school; 41 percent had done so the previous year.
Suffolk is still dogged by low standardized test scores.
The state's review of test scores doesn't take student-poverty into account, a factor that affects classroom performance.
But it does gauge how well city students perform on those tests in comparison with everyone else.
In 1994-95, 55 percent of Suffolk's fourth-graders, 54 percent of eighth-graders and 59 percent of 11th-graders performed below the national median on standardized tests.
The median is also known as the ``50th percentile.''
A student who performed in the 50th percentile on a standardized test did better than half of the original students tested, and worse than the other half.
On the tougher Literacy Passport Test, first given to students in the sixth grade, only 49 percent of local sixth-graders passed all three parts on the first try last year.
The district still offers summer classes for some underachieving students, as well as special programs for those kids during the school year.
Starting this fall, the district also plans to reduce class sizes in fourth and fifth grades, with the goal of giving teachers more opportunities for one-on-one instruction, Liverman said.
The report card showed slight improvement in another problem area: the high percentage of ``over-age'' students.
In 1994-95, 13 percent of city eighth-graders had flunked a grade level at least once - down from 15 percent the previous year.
Ten percent of last year's fourth-graders flunked a grade level at least once; the district reported the same percentage the previous year.
Liverman said the administration hoped its year-old Early Start preschool program would rescue more at-risk children in the future - well before they're caught in a web of academic failure. MEMO: GRADUATION '96/ 12 ILLUSTRATION: HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE STATE REPORT CARD
Some of the findings from the latest state report card on
Suffolk's public schools:
Three percent of the city's seventh through 12th-graders dropped
out last school year, down from 5 percent in 1993-94.
Fifty-five percent of fourth-graders, 54 percent of
eighth-graders and 59 percent of 11th-graders performed below the
national median on standardized tests last school year.
From 1993-94 to 1994-95, the percentage of city eighth-graders
who studied a foreign language before high school jumped 5
percentage points - to 34 percent.
Thirteen percent of last year's eighth-graders had flunked a
grade level at least once - down from 15 percent in 1993-94.
KEYWORDS: SUFFOLK SCHOOLS STATE REPORT CARD LITERACY PASSPORT
STANDARDIZED TESTS by CNB