THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 18, 1996 TAG: 9607160134
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: John Glass
LENGTH: 165 lines
TO PREPARE for this year's Literacy Passport Test, teachers at Azalea Gardens Middle School held Saturday classes and after-school tutoring sessions. And beyond that, says sixth-grade teacher Alma C. Chisholm, the school staff ``just put in a lot of hard work.''
Their efforts apparently paid off.
Of the city's eight middle schools, Azalea Gardens had the largest increase in sixth-graders passing all three parts of the state-mandated test last spring.
The school's sixth-grade pass rate rose from 44 percent in 1995 to 57 percent this school year, a jump of 13 percentage points.
But Azalea Gardens didn't have a monopoly on success. Every middle school in the city improved its performance on the LPT, a gatekeeper to ensure that students have mastered the basics in reading, writing and math before entering high school.
Blair Middle, consistently the city's best performer on the LPT, ranked first, with a sixth-grade passing rate of 67 percent.
Northside Middle, with a 60 percent passing rate, was second. Azalea Gardens ranked third citywide.
At 40 percent, Ruffner Middle had the lowest pass rate; however, Ruffner improved by 7 percentage points over the previous year.
Other schools with significant improvement in the pass rate were Lake Taylor Middle, where the rate rose by 11 percentage points, and Lafayette-Winona, where the rate increased by 10 percentage points.
After a worrisome drop in LPT scores in 1995, educators are touting this year's results. Citywide, 53 percent of sixth-graders passed the LPT, compared with 44 percent the previous year.
Superintendent Roy D. Nichols Jr. acknowledged that scores should be higher, but he celebrated the improvement - and gave credit to teachers and principals.
``A lot of that is reflective of what happened in the elementary schools, but middle schools have really put forth a concerted effort to make sure students were ready for the test,'' Nichols said.
At Azalea Gardens, for example, more than 100 students turned out for the voluntary Saturday classes, held for about a month before the test. Since busing wasn't offered, parents had to bring children to school. Teachers also held tutoring sessions two to three times a week.
Lucy Zaleski, chairwoman of sixth-grade teachers at Azalea Gardens, said: ``Teachers just gave a lot of their own time and went the extra mile.''
Zaleski, who taught an all-boys class of 15 students who were at-risk of school failure, said she was proud that all of them passed the test's math section. Not all passed the reading and writing sections.
``We're getting there, we're moving,'' said Zaleski, a former city teacher of the year.
Norfolk schools reading coordinator Clyde Colwell said the improvement may be a payoff from instructional programs put into place the last few years. Colwell also cited an increased emphasis on teacher training and a more coordinated effort among central office administrators and principals to raise test scores.
In addition, ensuring that students are reading has become a top priority, Colwell said. The district has purchased more novels and other literature for ``wide reading,'' and computer-based reading programs have helped motivate students, Colwell said.
But teachers and principals can do only so much, he said; the children must want to achieve.
``I think the students themselves have to take some ownership and have a real desire to read and write,'' he said.
The LPT results showed a discrepancy of performance among boys and girls and blacks and whites: 73 percent of white students passed the test compared with 41 percent of blacks. And while 58 percent of girls passed, only 48 percent of boys did.
Citywide, reading scores on the LPT rose for the first time in five years, with 71 percent of sixth-graders passing the reading section. That's up from 63 percent in 1995 and 67 percent in 1994.
For the past year, the school system has been embroiled in an internal debate over its ``whole language'' approach to teaching reading and language skills - as opposed to the traditional ``phonics'' approach. Phonics focuses on sounding out letters of words; whole language places more emphasis on reading as a way for students to learn words in context.
Driving the debate was the steady decline of students passing the reading portion of the LPT; the dip had coincided with the introduction of whole language.
Of particular concern were poor test results in the city's 10 majority-black community schools. Some educators argue that whole language doesn't work for these students, many of whom are from disadvantaged backgrounds and begin school academically behind their middle-class peers.
Most school administrators defend the whole language approach. But they acknowledge that some teachers did not receive adequate training before whole language was introduced into schools.
Colwell argues that whole language taught properly does not exclude phonics. To a certain extent, the debate will become moot in Virginia: The new state Standards of Learning adopted by the Virginia Board of Education last summer require that elementary teachers use some phonics techniques. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
LITERACY PASSPORT TEST RESULTS
The percentage of sixth-graders who passed all three sections of
the state Literacy Passport Test increased this school year at all
of Norfolk's middle schools. Below is the percentage of
sixth-graders passing at each school for the past three years.
(Note: All numbers are rounded to the nearest whole number. Source:
Norfolk schools)
1996 1995 1994
Blair 67% 62% 64%
Northside 60% 52% 58%
Azalea Gardens 57% 44% 51%
Lake Taylor 53% 42% 55%
Rosemont 51% 44% 53%
Lafayette-Winona 50% 40% 51%
Norview 47% 39% 50%
Ruffner 40% 33% 45%
Citywide 53% 44% 53%
The following is a more detailed look at the 2,479 sixth-graders
in Norfolk who took the Literacy Passport Test last spring.
Sex
1,285 were girls: 58 percent passed
1,190 were boys: 48 percent passed
(Four students gave no response)
Ethnicity
1,483 were African-American: 41 percent passed
830 were white: 73 percent passed
61 were Hispanic: 64 percent passed
59 were Asian or Pacific Islander: 78 percent passed
24 were American Indian or Alaskan native: 42 percent passed
22 gave no response: 59 percent passed
Special education
94 were special education students: 16 percent passed
Of the 94:
- 64 had learning disabilities: 19 percent passed
- 14 were classified as emotionally disturbed: none passed
- Six had visual or hearing impairments: 33 percent passed
- Three were mentally retarded: none passed
- Four had ``other health'' impairment: none passed
- Three were ``504'' disabled students: 33 percent passed
School-by-school results
Azalea Gardens and Lake Taylor had the highest percentage of
black students passing: 47 percent. Ruffner had the lowest
percentage of blacks passing: 32 percent.
Blair had the highest percentage of white students passing: 93
percent. Norview had the lowest percentage of whites passing: 54
percent.
Excluding disabled students, 55 percent of sixth-graders citywide
passed
Citywide, 71 percent of sixth-graders passed reading, 70 percent
passed writing and 75 percent passed math.
Reading: Blair had the highest percentage passing the reading
section: 78 percent. Lafayette-Winona and Lake Taylor tied for the
lowest percentage passing: 67 percent. Norview was most improved
over 1995: a rise of 15 percentage points, from 53 percent passing
to 68 percent.
Writing: Blair had the highest percentage passing the writing
section: 79 percent. Ruffner had the lowest percentage passing: 56
percent. Lake Taylor was most improved over 1995: a rise of 15
percentage points, from 57 percent passing to 72 percent.
Math: Northside had the highest percentage passing the math
section: 83 percent. Ruffner had the lowest percentage passing: 66
percent. Norview was most improved over 1995: a rise of 11
percentage points, from 65 percent passing to 76 percent.
KEYWORDS: LITERACY PASSPORT TEST RESULTS NORFOLK SCHOOLS by CNB