DATE: Friday, July 18, 1997                 TAG: 9707180652

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B9   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: SUFFOLK                           LENGTH:   66 lines

ONLY 64% OF SUFFOLK 6TH-GRADERS PASS WRITING PART OF PASSPORT TEST AND ONLY 51% - DOWN FROM 58% - PASSED ALL THREE PARTS OF THE TEST.

It was a dark and stormy year for city sixth-graders wrestling with the writing portion of the state Literacy Passport Test: Preliminary results showed that only 64 percent passed it this past spring, down from 74 percent a year earlier.

The writing difficulties resulted in an overall drop - to 51 percent - in first-time takers passing all three parts of the 1997 test, the School Board was told Thursday night.

The three-part exam of basic competency in writing, reading and math is first given in sixth grade; any or all parts can be retaken through middle and high school, and must be conquered before students can graduate.

In 1996, 58 percent of Suffolk sixth-graders passed all three parts on their first try.

In past years, only a handful of students across Virginia have finished their high-school courses but not passed all of the Literacy Passport Test and not been allowed to graduate. One Suffolk senior was denied a diploma this year for not having passed one portion of the test.

Statewide results won't be available until next week, when they're presented to the state Board of Education in Richmond. But the first-time pass rate statewide usually has been a little higher than 60 percent, said Melinda J. Boone, coordinator of pupil personnel and testing.

Suffolk's kids this year performed the best on the math part of the test, with 81 percent passing. The reading pass rate also remained stable from recent years, at 73 percent.

``We will continue to analyze our writing scores to see which domains were giving our students problems,'' Boone told the board.

``It's a concern,'' board member William L. Whitley said. ``We need to strengthen our middle-school instructional program.''

Superintendent Joyce H. Trump, while echoing the concern, noted that the students tested have been in middle school less than a year, and school officials need also to look at the six years of elementary-school writing instruction that's supposed to prepare them for the Literacy Passport Test.

Complete results, including those for older students retaking the tests and transfer students taking them for the first time, will be available in the fall.

The state Board of Education has preliminarily approved new test requirements for high-school graduation, but the Literacy Passport Test also lives until the General Assembly repeals the law creating it.

John F. Kennedy Middle School had 54 percent of its sixth-graders pass all three parts, and 72 percent pass the writing part, the highest of the three city middle schools. John Yeates Middle School had 53 percent pass all - a drop of 13 percentage points - and had the highest pass rates for reading, 78 percent, and math, 87 percent.

Forest Glen Middle School saw 44 percent of its own pass all three, down 15 percentage points from last year. This includes a city low of 56 percent passing writing, a dropoff of 19 percentage points in one year.

In other business, the School Board:

Bought more than 29 acres on Nansemond Parkway just north of Portsmouth Boulevard - the business route of U. S. 58 - for $276,650 for the new central elementary school scheduled to open in September 1998.

Hired Janice B. Holland as the assistant superintendent for administration, to replace retired Parris D. Carson.

Approved making Lybi Gittens, assistant principal of Northern Shores Elementary, principal of Florence Bowser Elementary. KEYWORDS: SUFFOLK SCHOOLS STANDARDIZED TESTING

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