Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 26, 1992 TAG: 9203260129
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Preliminary results show that 14 percent of the more than 70,000 eighth-graders who must take the test have yet to pass at least one of its three parts - reading, writing and math.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joseph Spagnolo reported the survey results to the state Board of Education.
In Roanoke, 116 of the 950 eighth-graders had not passed all three tests - about 12 percent - said Norman Michaels, assistant superintendent for instruction.
"The state department has never had anything as stringent as this," Michaels said. "I like it."
Roanoke County's exact figures were not available Wednesday night, but Assistant Superintendent Deanna Gordon estimated that between 3 percent and 4 percent of the county's eighth-graders had not passed.
Gordon said the tests are a better assessment of reading; math; and, especially, writing, than previous standardized tests.
But Michaels and Gordon said the 3-year-old testing program needs some refining. Transfer students from other states now need to pass the three tests. That may inflate the failure rate because a pupil who transfers in eighth grade only has one year to pass all three tests, instead of three.
And foreign-transfer pupils in English as a Second Language programs also are required to take the tests. That, too, inflates the failure rate, Gordon said.
All Virginia eighth-graders will get another chance to pass the test when it is given next month. Those who fail cannot advance to the ninth grade, although they can take high school courses for credit as an ungraded student and can keep trying to pass the test. Once they pass, credit is given retroactively for the high school courses.
Spagnolo said he was not alarmed about the failure rate because he had expected as many as 30 percent of the eighth-graders to fail.
"We're still talking about 8,000 children who haven't passed it. That's a lot of kids," responded James P. Jones, the board chairman.
Pupils who are scheduled to graduate from high school in 1996 are the first Virginia pupils required to pass the literacy tests in reading, writing and mathematics.
The tests first were administered during the 1989-90 school year, when current eighth-graders were in sixth grade. Those who failed got another chance last year in seventh grade.
Amid concern that large numbers of pupils have been unable to pass the test, Spagnolo ordered a survey of school divisions to determine the number of eighth-graders without passports.
He got responses from 86 percent of school divisions, representing 90 percent of the 74,400 eighth-graders statewide. About 3 percent of eighth-graders are not required to take the test because of learning disabilities.
Spagnolo said as many as one-third of eighth-graders without a passport do not have one because they had not taken all three portions of the test. The reasons include absenteeism or transfers.
Others who have yet to pass have difficulty understanding English, he said.
Spagnolo said he would report spring testing results to the board in May and suggest policy changes to improve the success rate.
The board could require that the test be given more than once a year or that a preliminary test be given in the fourth grade to identify pupils who need remedial help.
The board also could consider whether pupils who fail the test should be allowed to participate in high school sports. The Virginia High School League, which sets school sports policy, makes the passport a requirement for sports participation.
Staff writer Neal Thompson contributed to this story.
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.