DATE: Wednesday, August 27, 1997            TAG: 9708270559

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  103 lines

CHESAPEAKE SCORES 12-POINT SAT GAIN

Chesapeake scored the biggest gains in the region's middling performance on the SAT exams, according to statistics released Tuesday.

The city posted a 12-point increase in its SAT average, the largest in the region. Nearly all of the gain was in the math section.

Virginia Beach was the other big winner locally: Its average rose 6 points, and that came entirely in the verbal section.

Suffolk suffered the biggest drop. Suffolk school officials said they did not have citywide averages, but the average score at one of the city's two high schools, Lakeland, plummeted 28 points. At the other, Nansemond River, the average dropped 2 points.

Norfolk's score fell 4 points, and Portsmouth was even.

Virginia Beach remained tops in the region, with a 999 average out of a possible 1,600. Chesapeake placed second, at 955. The other cities scored between 860 and 890.

The nationwide average went up 3 points, all in the math portion. Virginia's average stayed even - up 1 point in math, down 1 point in verbal - at 1003. That was lower than the nation's 1016, but still topped every school division in South Hampton Roads.

The scores represent the averages for students who graduated this year from high school. Most, but not all, high school students take the SAT, which colleges use to help decide whom to admit.

In Chesapeake, school administrators sounded like students who had just aced a final exam.

``I think any increase in test scores is definitely good news,'' said James Rayfield, director of secondary curriculum and instruction.

``Our goal is to be at the national average and above the state average, and with what we're doing with the curriculum, that will happen,'' he said.

Rayfield cited the city's 2-year-old test-improvement plan, which prods schools to look at previous scores and home in on weak spots. He also credited the state's new Standards of Learning (SOLs), which require students to get a better handle on algebra.

Richard T. La Pointe, the state's superintendent of public instruction, also said the statewide results showed the value of the new math standards.

The State Board of Education in 1995 approved new curriculum standards, from math to English, that have been phased in across the state. Math teachers ``have gotten the SOLs into place more quickly,'' La Pointe said Tuesday. ``They have really drilled (students) on the specifics of the math content changes. I'm really pleased with that.''

In Virginia Beach, Edwin Brown, assistant superintendent for accountability and technology, wasn't ready to open the champagne bottle yet: ``I am pleased that the verbal increased slightly and hope that's the beginning of an upward trend. SAT scores have been flat for some time. I would like to see us doing better in mathematics.''

Brown, like many other local educators, said it was difficult to pinpoint reasons for gains in some areas and no progress in others.

In Suffolk, where the numbers fell, Assistant Superintendent Milton Liverman said, ``The test scores themselves don't tell me anything except that there's a problem. I see a great deal of concern.''

To solve the problem, Liverman said, the school system is toughening its algebra program in middle and high schools: Students who get below a C will be required to get tutoring help. And the city will ``standardize instruction'' to make sure every student gets the same lessons in X's and Y's.

``When you teach algebra at a number of different locations,'' Liverman said, ``deviation can set in.''

In Norfolk, the averages on the math and verbal sections each slipped 2 points. ``Obviously, we would rather have a 10-point gain, but 2 points certainly falls within the realm of stable,'' said George Raiss, a spokesman for the Norfolk schools.

Raiss also noted that slightly more Norfolk seniors took the SAT; the number rose from 749 to 763. ``When you have more kids taking it and you get that rather minuscule decline, we can't be too disappointed,'' he said.

La Pointe also noted that the large numbers of Virginians taking the test could also depress the scores. Statistics from the College Board, which compiles the SAT information, show that 69 percent of Virginia seniors took the test. Only six states had larger percentage showings.

La Pointe pointed with pride to the high participation rate of African-Americans in the state. Sixteen percent of Virginia's test-takers were black, compared with 10 percent in the nation.

But that also contributed to Virginia's failure to meet the national average. In Virginia, as in the country, African-American averages were roughly 100 points lower than those of whites on each of the two sections.

In Portsmouth, which released racial comparisons in a report on the SAT scores, the gap was similar: Whites scored an average of 504 on the verbal section and 489 in math; blacks scored 410 and 392, respectively.

Some educators, including La Pointe, said they put more stock in the recently released results of the Stanford 9 tests because they are given to every Virginia student in certain elementary and secondary grades. In that test, Virginians beat the national average.

Liverman, the assistant superintendent for instruction and personnel in Suffolk, said of the SATs: ``I don't view them as the most vital measure because they're a single data measure taken at a single point in time. They don't show you how far a student was brought in a certain program.''

But he added: ``That doesn't mean we're not concerned about SAT scores.'' MEMO: PILOT ONLINE: More analysis and charts on national and state

SAT scores are available on the College Board's Web site. See the News

page:

http://www.pilotonline.com ILLUSTRATION: SAT RESULTS

GRAPHIC

SOURCE: Source: College Board, local districts

[For a copy of the chart, see microfilm for this date.] KEYWORDS: EDUCATION STANDARDIZED TESTING SAT RESULTS

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