DATE: Thursday, August 28, 1997             TAG: 9708260196

SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS         PAGE: 16   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: BACK TO SCHOOL 

SOURCE: BY DENISE WATSON, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   97 lines

DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH, TESTING AND STATISTICS RUFFNER'S EX AIMS TO STRENGTHEN THE DISTRICT'S ACADEMIC PROGRAM.

From her new office on the seventh-floor of the School Administration Building, former principal Pamela Hoffler-Riddick can see the top of her ``baby,'' Ruffner Middle School, peeking above the trees in the distance.

Not that she needs a daily reminder. She helped build the new Ruffner during the last three years, pushing it through controversial waters with mandatory dress codes for students and teachers, raising test scores significantly, and making Ruffner the city's technology Disneyland.

Riddick has moved this summer to director-elect of Research, Testing and Statistics where she hopes to combine national programs and strategies with some of her own to help strengthen the district's academic program.

``This will be a universal platform for allowing the district to get on the same page. Sometimes we aren't,'' Riddick said.

``I hope to use research and to have a systematic impact. Any tools I can provide, I will. We have to be smarter, and smarter means having better access to information.''

Riddick has a key role with the district's new academic improvement plan, the Norfolk Quality Schools Initiative. Schools now have specific goals to meet, such as improving test scores and attendance rates, and Riddick will help the schools track their progress as well as cull any information principals need to reach their objectives.

She plans to streamline the paperwork process at the administrative level to help schools work more efficiently.

``We don't have time to play,'' Riddick said. ``One of the most frustrating things as a principal was being asked the same information over and over again from different people in administration.

``We need some place to be a warehouse of information.''

Riddick, 35, is known for drawing on her past experiences to make things happen. Many said her success at Ruffner comes from her ``knowing'' her students; many are poor and live in public housing, a childhood similar to Riddick's.

Riddick grew up in New York City's South Bronx. She was a smart child and had a mother who saw that reached her potential. Riddick attended schools for gifted students and graduated from New York City's School for the Performing Arts as a vocal major.

She earned a biology degree from Lincoln University in 1982 and a marriage brought her to Norfolk in 1984, where she began teaching. While teaching, she received a master's degree from Old Dominion University in 1992 and eventually became an assistant principal at Cox High School in Virginia Beach in 1993. She was offered the principal seat at the just-built Ruffner in 1994.

Riddick doesn't mind a challenge and she had one with Ruffner. It has the highest concentration of poor students of the city's eight middle schools, drawing from three public housing communities and low-income neighborhoods in Ocean View and Bay View.

Economic disadvantages often mean poor classroom performance: in 1995, only 33.3 percent of sixth-graders passed all three sections of the state Literacy Passport Test, the lowest rate citywide.

During her first year, she began a mandatory uniform policy for students and dress code for teachers, drawing fire from the teacher-representative groups. While opponents argued such moves were inconsequential to academics, Riddick thought otherwise. She also stressed etiquette and manners along with schoolwork, with her students learning table manners and how to properly send and receive dinner invitations.

Her goal was to build self-esteem and respect, important components to building academics, she said.

``School climate is one of the most important factors on how a school performs,'' Riddick said. ``We were one school, one family, one purpose.''

Seventh-grader Curtis Kemp agreed that Riddick's firm hand created a solid school.

``It's a fun school,'' Kemp said, ``But you couldn't get away with a lot. (Students) didn't try to push their luck against her. Every time the bell rings, they would know to get out of the hallway or they could get detention or get a note sent home.''

Riddick's plans paid off. Ruffner's enrollment increased over the years, from below 900 to 1,150 last year, as Ruffner became a magnet school and students and parents wanted their children at Ruffner.

This year, 55.9 percent of Ruffner's sixth-graders passed all three sections of the LPT, which tests math, reading and writing skills. The 22.1 percent increase from 1995 is one the largest jumps in the city.

``We have all the barriers, and people said we couldn't do it,'' Riddick said. ``But we're doing it.''

Riddick has received several awards for her efforts and earlier this year was recognized by the Civitan Club as Norfolk's Most Outstanding Employee.

``She's a consumate professional and role model,'' said Carol Hanna Branch, the district's public relations manager. ``Not just in education, as a working wife and mother . . . She's so committed and she works so very hard.''

Riddick said she does what she does - working, caring for two daughters and a husband, teaching classes at ODU and Norfolk State University, studying for a doctorate degree, and doing civic work - with a lot of support and prayer.

She'll rely on both to make her mark while on the seventh floor.

``I'll miss the kids and that fervor,'' Riddick said. ``But somehow I'm touching 36,000 students as opposed to 1,100, which is more powerful.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by L. TODD SPENCER

Pamela Riddick instituted mandatory uniforms and helped raise test

scores significantly as principal at Ruffner Middle Schoo.

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