DATE: Friday, August 8, 1997                TAG: 9708080006

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B11  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Opinion 

SOURCE: Keith Monroe 

                                            LENGTH:   86 lines

READING, READING AND READINGA FEW SPORTS STARS, RECORDING ARTISTS AND SUPERMODELS MAY MAKE MILLIONS WHILE DUMB AS STUMPS, BUT AS A RULE THE BETTER EDUCATED AND MORE LITERATE HAVE THE SUCCESS IN OUR SOCIETY.

Alarming school test scores were reported recently. They showed that some students persistently lag in all Hampton Roads cities. Which students?

As reported, black students. But that way of slicing the data conceals as much as it reveals. It's true that black students on average do worse than white students on average on the standardized tests in question.

But similar deficits can be shown for children from low income homes and homes where parents have little education. Since average African Americans are still less affluent and less educated than average whites, the appearance of black school underperformance may mask a different reality - lagging performance for those from disadvantaged homes headed by poorly educated parents. Data suggesting that blacks from middle-class homes headed by educated parents perform more like average whites tends to reinforce this view.

The trouble with being bogged down on race in this case is that it solves nothing. It wastes time on political and sociological questions that concern people in groups. But education isn't about groups; it is about individuals and how best to prepare them to lead productive, independent lives.

So, what can be done to help students succeed and to raise test scores for those - black or white, low income or high, with educated parents or illiterate - who are now lagging?

First, take cognizance of some known facts. Those who start school behind, stay behind. Those who don't live in a language-rich preschool environment, start behind. Reading is the essential skill. Master it, and all doors open. Fail to master it, and all subsequent progress is blocked.

Yet, many children come from language-poor environments where reading is not practiced. Furthermore, according to recent research, as many as one in five students have more or less severe reading disabilities. Only 10 percent of those with identified reading disabilities get appropriate remedial help in public schools. More than two-thirds of those who are not treated drop out without finishing high school.

Those realities imply certain steps that need to be taken if children now lagging are to have a better chance at succeeding in school.

Start earlier. Children who arrive at school at 5 or 6 language-deprived never catch up.

Teach parents. Children from language-impoverished environments can't get the immersion in language they need from schools alone. Their parents must begin doing the job the day they are born. That means educating parents and parents-to-be about the importance of language. And in the case of parents who don't read and write, teaching them.

Emphasize reading. Trendy topics, like computers in the classroom and diverse learning styles, distract attention from the central issue - reading, reading and more reading instruction in the early grades.

Remediate. Learning-disabled students can be helped, but it is labor-intensive, often one-on-one work that requires special knowledge and skills in teachers. But the alternative is to write off such students. They won't catch up by themselves. They don't respond to the same methods that work with average students. They can't be taught by teachers who lack special training.

Demand a lot. Of students and of schools. Don't lower standards, raise the bar. But then give all the help children need to clear it. And insist on literacy. Turn off the TV. Hit the books.

Provide a lot. It won't be cheap. Treating individual needs is a lot more costly than mass production, but there are few better investments than in an educated work force.

Start talking straight. Our culture actually rewards education while pretending not to value it. It's time to quit pretending. A few sports stars, recording artists and supermodels may make millions while dumb as stumps, but as a rule the better educated and more literate have the success in our society. Children must understand that those who run the country, produce its goods and services, appear on TV, interpret laws, invent computers, cure diseases and manage money were good in school, can read and write and manipulate mathematical data.

It's time to stop paying lip service. We say improved educational performance is a top national priority, but little happens. Yet for individuals, improvement is the difference between marginal lives of dependency and productive self-sufficiency. For the country, it's much the same - the difference between a competitve work force able to pay taxes for needed projects and an increasingly unemployable work force that is a drain on public funds. To put it at its crassest, the children we fail to educate today will fail to pay for our Social Security and Medicare tomorrow. MEMO: Mr. Monroe is editor of the editorial page of The Virginian-Pilot.

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