DATE: Thursday, September 11, 1997          TAG: 9709110667

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY NIA NGINA MEEKS, STAFF WRITER  

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   59 lines

LOOKING FOR ANSWERS PARENTS, TEACHERS AND THE NAACP ARE WORRIED ABOUT LOW TEST SCORES AT BAYSIDE HIGH, AND THEY'LL BE WORKING TOGETHER TO BRING THEM UP.

Like many black students around the Beach and the nation, those at Bayside High School did not fare well on the recent battery of standardized tests.

Last spring, black 11th-graders at Bayside ranked in the bottom third among like students around the nation on the Stanford 9 test, which measures reading, math, language and social science skills. Their white classmates at Bayside, who historically rank higher on such tests, came in slightly below average - among the lowest rankings at the Beach.

That led the Beach chapter of the NAACP to start looking for answers. The group found others searching, too. Parents. Teachers. Administrators. School Board members.

They all crammed into a tiny conference room at Bayside High Wednesday to talk about change. Men and women. Black and white.

``This is a national issue, but we need to deal with the local issue,'' said Ed Brown, head of the school district's department of accountability, monitoring and analyzing test results.

``Over time you can close any gap,'' he said. ``I hope all who are around this table believe that and hope we can make the difference.''

Sandra Smith-Jones, president of the Beach NAACP, pledged that her members would pitch in and volunteer. They just needed to know when and where. She passed out brochures on the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's latest initiative, the ``Back-to-School/Stay-In-School'' program.

Talk floated to tutorials among civic leagues and in recreation centers. Mentors from Norfolk State and Hampton universities came up.

Most scribbled notes as colleagues spoke of partnerships with bookstores and in-house programs there to improve reading scores. Some talked about making schools more comfortable and accessible for parents, adding incentives such as lounge areas and adult education to entice them.

Attitude adjustments are just as important, Alexander Saulsberry said. He's principal at Newtown Road Elementary School.

``We need teachers who aren't going to feel sorry for their kids because of their neighborhoods,'' Saulsberry said.

The key, everyone agreed, is parental involvement. But with some moms and dads working two and three jobs to survive, the group said, shorter-term answers are needed.

The reasons that some black students score lower include cultural experiences for some and socio-economic conditions for others. It is a historical debate among sociologists and educators.

``I think we should all put on robes because we're preaching to the choir,'' School Board Vice-Chair Delceno C. Miles said. ``We all know what the problems are, but I'm much more interested in what the solutions will be.''

They didn't leave with a lot of solutions; no one expected to, not yet. Still, they did leave the two-hour session with phone numbers and ideas on getting things going.

By meeting's end, they decided to write down their individual strategies, perceptions and suggestions. Brown's office will distribute them. Another meeting will be held, though no one was sure when. They just knew it was definite.

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