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

DATE: SUNDAY, August 22, 1993                   TAG: 9312300002
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: F2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

RATE IS UP

MORE THAN two-thirds of Virginia's sixth-graders passed the Literacy Passport Test last spring, according to the state Department of Education. That's not good enough, but better than it might have been.

The bad news, of course, is that nearly one-third of the sixth-graders didn't pass at least one of the test's three sections (reading comprehension, writing and mathematics). That 30.7 percent of students must retake and pass the test at some point in the next two years, if they are to enter the ninth grade on schedule. Moreover, the percentage this past spring who passed on their first try is lower than two years ago.

The good news is that this year's pass rate of 69.3 percent is up from last year's 63.6 percent. The turnaround suggests that the dip in the pass rate in 1991-92 may have been a temporary anomaly.

With the newly reported scores, the long-term trend in the first-time pass rate again shows a generally upward climb: 54.1 percent in 1988-89 (the first year of the tests); 65 percent in 1989-90; 72 percent in 1990-91; 63.6 percent in 1991-92 (the perhaps anomalous year); 69.3 percent in 1992-93.

The Literacy Passport program is intended to ensure that all Virginia youngsters entering the ninth grade have achieved a mimimum academic-skill level; its purpose is not, say, to see how far students can exceed the minimum. And like any test, it can provide only an approximation of the underlying reality on which it is attempting to shed light.

Those are observations, not criticisms. Encouraging students to go as far beyond the minimum as they can, and trying to ensure that all students entering the ninth grade have met a minimum standard, are not mutually exclusive goals. And testing, while not properly the be-all and end-all of education, is one means by which Virginia's schools can be held accountable for their performance. This is crucial.

Even if the upward trend in first-time pass rates on the Literacy Passport Test continues, it won't prove that Virginia schools are getting better. The trend suggests, however, that a number of otherwise marginal students are getting the message, and are rising to meet rising expectations. It is evidence that, on this score anyway, the schools are moving in the right direction.

by CNB