DATE: Friday, March 28, 1997                TAG: 9703270385
SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Education 
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  119 lines

VIRGINIA AND THE U.S. ARE IMPROVING SLIGHLY AT MATH, BUT WE LAG BEHIND OUR ECONOMIC COMPETITORS IN THE DEVELOPED WORLD.

When it comes to the ability to work with numbers, students in Virginia and across the United States are headed in the right direction: up.

But they're still far from the promised land of math proficiency - about four out of five haven't mastered all of the computing skills for their grade levels.

That's the word from the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress, a periodic nationwide sampling sponsored by the U. S. Department of Education. Known as ``the nation's report card,'' the tests showed math scores in 1996 continuing an upward creep that began in 1992. The tests are given to fourth-, eighth- and 12-graders.

Virginia fourth-graders, for instance, increased their average score since that last test by two points, to 223 out of a maximum of 500. The national average was 224, an increase of four points since 1992 and of 11 points since 1990.

Virginia eighth-graders averaged 270, up two points from 1992 and up five points from 1990. Nationally, the average was 272, four points higher than in 1992 and nine points better than in 1990.

Virginia's 12th-graders weren't tested in 1996, but the country's average was 304, up five and 10 points respectively from 1992 and 1990.

Still, just 19 percent of Virginia's fourth-graders were considered proficient at math for their grade level, the same as four years earlier. For eighth-graders, the percentage is similar: 21, an increase of four percentage points since 1990.

``Proficient'' indicates the students have shown they are competent to handle challenging subject matter for their grade, and are ready to move on to the next level of schooling. One of the federal government's eight National Education Goals is to have all students scoring at the proficient or advanced level by 2000.

Nationally, the students proficient or better for their grade levels were 21 percent of fourth-graders, 24 percent of eighth-graders and 16 percent of 12th-graders, all slight increases over previous years.

In Virginia and the United States as a whole, the percentage of students scoring below the basic level - meaning they don't have even the fundamental skills or knowledge to do grade-level work - is decreasing, but still ranges from three to four out of every 10 students.

``Virginia has shown continuous improvement, but the rate of improvement has not been as good as we would like,'' Richard T. La Pointe, the state's superintendent of public instruction, said in a statement released by his office.

``While we have shown gradual improvement, our greatest improvements have tended to be at the basic levels. The same level of improvement should be reflected at all levels.''

The country's biggest scoring increase came in neighboring North Carolina, where eighth-grade scores jumped 17 points since 1990, to 268. North Dakota had the nation's highest state average for eight-graders, at 284; Washington, D. C. was lowest, at 233.

For fourth-graders, Maine was tops at 232, and the District of Columbia again was low with 187.

Richard W. Riley, the U.S. secretary of education, called the higher national scores the ``best news'' from the NAEP tests ``in a very long time.'' He credited the increase to more states raising their academic standards, but noted in a written statement that it wasn't good enough.

The United States still lags behind much of the developed world, Riley warned. Only 20 percent of American children take algebra by the end of the eighth grade, while in the rest of the developed world, most if not all have studied the subject.

Teaching all children algebra at least by eighth grade should be a goal of every school district in the United States, Riley said.

``We need to notch our standards higher,'' Riley said. ``If students in other countries are ready for algebra by the eighth grade, why not our students?''

That goal is near reach locally. The five South Hampton Roads cities all offer algebra to at least some eighth graders and some offer it to even younger students.

Portsmouth and Suffolk eighth-graders are offered it, although not all take it; Suffolk students must first pass a readiness test. Some seventh-graders are offered the class in Virginia Beach, Norfolk and Chesapeake.

Teaching all students - not just high-ability ones - pre-algebra in seventh grade was a success as a limited pilot program in Chesapeake these past two years, and next year it will be offered citywide, said Daniel F. Mulligan, the city's supervisor of math. After the pre-algebra course, students can move to a regular one-year algebra class in eighth grade, or take two years to complete algebra, before moving to geometry or computer math, moving as fast as they are capable. ``It's so logical, it's scary,'' Mulligan said.

Hearing ``algebra,'' long considered a high-school course in America, was scary to some of the students, at first.

``I was nervous,'' said Cameron C. Head, 14, an eighth-grader at Oscar F. Smith Middle School, who took pre-algebra last year and this year is taking the first of the two-year algebra program. ``I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know if it'd be hard.''

Most of the students found, as educators in Chesapeake and other cities already concluded, that the children can handle the tougher material.

``Algebra isn't hard,'' said April A. Rhodes, 13, an eighth-grader in the school's one-year class.

``The hardest part is convincing the children they can learn it,'' said Paula B. Abbott, who taught in the pilot program.

Under Virginia's proposed new Standards of Accreditations, which set out requirements for operation of its public schools and for high-school graduation, algebra will be required for all graduates beginning with this fall's freshmen, whether they're earning standard or advanced diplomas. Algebra and geometry would be required beginning in two years, for freshman in the fall of 1999.

``The academic rigor inherent in Virginia's newly revised Standards of Learning, which were not in place at the time of the NAEP tests, and our current efforts to raise the academic standards for public schools, should lead to an improvement in achievement for our students at all levels in Virginia's public schools,'' La Pointe said. ILLUSTRATION: JOHN EARLE

The Virginian-Pilot

NATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS

SOURCES: U.S. Department of Education; Virignia Department of

Education; Education Week

The Virginian-Pilot

GRAPHIC

[For a copy of the graphic, see microfilm for this date.] KEYWORDS: STANDARDIZED TESTING ASSESSMENT

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