DATE: Monday, June 16, 1997                 TAG: 9706140019

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   61 lines

A STEP CLOSER: WITH THE EXCEPTION OF LAST-MINUTE IDEOLOGICAL ADDITIONS, NEW ACCREDITATION STANDARDS ARE WELCOME

Grading schools on the basis of test results is an imperfect way of assessing educational merit. But so are most other methods of judging the worth of a teacher or a classroom.

In an era when almost everyone wants better public schools, setting concrete learning goals and testing to see if they are being achieved is a reasonable way to seek improvement.

The State Board of Education this week gave tentative approval to standards that will speed Virginia down that road. Not only are course requirements for graduation being beefed up, but children will be expected to pass a series of tests if they hope to proceed on to graduation.

Schools will also be accredited based on how their children perform on those tests. Seventy percent of students will have to achieve a passing score before a school can be fully accredited. If a school misses that mark for three years running, despite corrective action, accreditation will be denied.

While the 70 percent cutoff is arbitrary, and while Virginia may find that the standard unfairly penalizes schools with poor or transient populations, the plan is - again - a reasonable approach.

The state board has not committed to provide extra help to those schools that perform poorly. But Virginians should hope and expect that extra assistance will be the result when tests uncover major problems. It is easier to start coalescing around solutions if everyone first agrees that something is wrong.

The process that the state board followed in revising the proposed standards is instructive. Public hearings throughout the spring uncovered several holes in the original plan, and the board wisely responded to requests for change.

Decisions to delay implementation of some parts of the plan and to make more room in students' schedules for vocational and other classes are among the improvements that grew out of the public comment.

Unfortunately, the board made several uncalled for last-minute changes to the standards. It chose to make elementary guidance counselors and family life education optional. There had been no public demand for these shifts, and their ideological nature detracts from the other accomplishments of the education board. It should again heed public sentiment and drop these provisions.

Fortunately, the board has already dropped another controversial provision, a move to add permission to implement charter schools to the standards. While properly structured charter schools have merit, this was not the time or place for waging that fight.

The only member voting against the accreditation standards, which will be up for a final vote in September, was Richmond attorney Robert H. Patterson Jr. Patterson did a disservice to both the board and to Virginians by refusing to explain his opposition.

As someone who has agreed to serve on a policy-making, citizen board, Patterson owes the public an explanation. If he is skeptical about the plan, he should give the public the benefit of his thinking.

Meanwhile, the long process of setting accreditation standards nears completion. The end result holds promise for better Virginia schools. Test results should never be taken as the full measure of a school, a teacher, or a child. But tests that provide more information about performance can be an important tool in the ongoing quest for a better educated citizenry.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu