
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 16, 1990                   TAG: 9005160175
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: MARGARET CAMLIN NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: DUBLIN                                LENGTH: Medium

LIVELIER CLASSES ARE GOAL OF PULASKI PLAN

The classroom scenario is as old as the hills: students sitting passively at their desks while a teacher tells them what to learn and when to learn it.

This dreary scene will soon be history in Pulaski County High School's English department.

Students instead will begin spending most of their time in writing workshops, reading labs and literature discussion groups.

The new approach - to be launched this fall - follows national trends toward restructuring and revitalizing education. The purpose?

To guarantee that all graduates meet national standards in reading and writing.

To boost achievement for all students - from the least ambitious to the college-bound.

To fight the teen-age dropout rate by changing attitudes and structural problems in the schools that can discourage students and cause them to drop out.

"Our whole philosophy is geared toward . . . a more active involvement in learning," said Joy Colbert, head of the Pulaski County schools' gifted programs. Colbert wrote a grant proposal to the U.S. Department of Education for $200,000 to be spent on teacher training.

"The program is about excellence, about higher standards for all students, and about empowering teachers to make it all happen," Colbert said in the grant proposal. She expects a response in August.

The program is called "performance-based" education. The emphasis is on results - on knowledge and skills students need to learn in a rapidly changing economy.

And it may be the only plan of its kind in Virginia, according to Callie Shingleton, assistant superintendent for general and vocational education for the state Department of Education.

"I haven't heard about any kind of program quite like this," she said. In particular, she saluted the full involvement of Pulaski's English teachers in restructuring the curriculum.

The teachers have full authority over the structure of the curriculum and standards. Students will not be allowed to graduate until they meet these standards.

Teachers will also have full control over the flexible grouping of students, scheduling, teaching methods and materials.

Colbert said an integral part of the plan is helping the underachieving student meet higher standards. This is where computer-assisted instruction will be especially valuable.

The English department will have a 64-terminal computer lab, where students will learn reading and writing skills at their own pace. Once a student masters a certain skill, the computer will "praise" the student and automatically advance to the next level of challenge.

Underachievers will not be "tracked" in basic or remedial courses and segregated from the college-bound. In the computer lab, all students will work together.

Often when underachievers are tracked into basic courses, they get caught in a vicious cycle of low self-esteem and poor achievement. Colbert said the program will allow these students to see higher standards and see themselves as capable of meeting them.

Underachievers will also learn math, science and social studies by computer, along with three vocational classes and a peer counseling group each semester.

At graduation, the so-called underachiever will be certified in a marketable skill through the vocational program and will also have a solid education, Colbert said.

Colbert and Superintendent James Burns believe the performance-based program will keep more students in school. The county's drop-out rate is 23 percent. The statewide average is 28 percent.

"These data are disappointing," Burns said at Thursday's School Board meeting. "Again, it points out the need for some program changes." Burns told the board there will be a performance-based program presentation its next meeting.

Colbert says she and other school administrators had thought before about implementing a performance-based program "but I doubt if we would've taken such bold steps without Dr. Burns."

Performance-based instruction will come to the high school, whether or not Burns remains with the school system, Colbert said, because teachers and the School Board want to see it happen. (Burns is a finalist for a superintendent post in Muskogee County, Ga.)

by CNB