Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 23, 1990 TAG: 9005230192
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARGIE FISHER RICHMOND BUREAU
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
The county got the award for having the highest kindergarten failure rate of any school division in the state.
Marshall, a veteran Democratic lawmaker, announced last year that she was going to start pointing the finger at Virginia school divisions that have a record of failing children at the kindergarten level.
Marshall cited research studies that indicate that nearly half of those who fail kindergarten will drop out of school before they graduate. If they are failed a second time, the chance that they will drop out increases to 90 percent, she said.
Marshall blamed the high percentage of kindergarten failures in some school divisions on educators who try to "cram these kids into a rigid structure where they can't learn."
Procrustes, incidentally, was a villain in Greek mythology who measured his victims on an iron bed. If they were too long for the bed, he lopped them off at either end. If they were too short, he stretched them.
Thus, Marshall said she considered Procrustes "the appropriate symbol for the effect of rigid curricula on the education of very young children."
Essex County's kindergarten failure rate was 21.4 percent for the 1988-1989 school year.
Statewide, the failure rate was 6.8 percent, with 5,524 kindergarteners not making the cut for promotion to the first grade.
Here are kindergarten failure rates, supplied by Marshall, for some school divisions in Southwest Virginia:
Bedford, 5.9 percent; Botetourt, 4.3 percent; Craig, 9.8 percent; Floyd, 9.9 percent; Franklin, 2.3 percent; Henry, 9.7 percent; Montgomery, 7.1 percent; Roanoke County, 8.7 percent; Galax, 15.3 percent; Martinsville, 16.1 percent; Radford, 7.8 percent; Roanoke, 6.7 percent; and Salem, 5.0 per cent.
Covington had what Marshall considered a perfect score. It's kindergarten failing rate was 0 percent.
by CNB