Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 10, 1994 TAG: 9404100115
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
More students are taking advanced-placement courses, foreign languages and algebra and earning advanced-studies diplomas.
And they're scoring higher on standardized tests, with many placing in the top quarter of students nationwide.
The upward trend is reflected in the state Department of Education's latest report card on nearly 1,700 schools and 134 school systems in Virginia.
The Outcome Accountability Project compares state, school division and school performance for the past three years. There is a report card for every school in the state.
It includes data on standardized test scores, attendance, dropout rates, over-age students, physical fitness and many other indicators of student performance.
This is the fourth year the state has gathered statistics on all schools.
Statewide, the report shows that many school systems have shown improvement in educating college-bound students and special-education students.
In Roanoke County, for example, 48 percent of high school seniors earned advanced-studies diplomas in 1992-93, as did 46 percent in Salem. The state average was 44 percent.
However, most other school systems in Western Virginia were below the state average in advanced-studies diplomas. Roanoke's rate, for example, was 25 percent.
There has been little improvement in preparing students for work, however. Statewide, only 71 percent of the students not planning to go to college have completed a vocational education program. But several divisions in Western Virginia are doing better than that.
Botetourt County and Bedford County rated the highest in the region, with 96 and 92 percent, respectively, of their non-college-bound graduates completing a vocational education program.
Other above-average school divisions include: Giles County, 90 percent; Montgomery County, 84 percent; Floyd County, 79 percent; Franklin County, 74 percent; and Salem, 73 percent.
Three localities in the region were below average: Roanoke, 45 percent; Roanoke County, 61 percent; and Pulaski County, 67 percent.
The report represents a change in school accountability in the state.
Historically, schools have been evaluated on such measures as student-teacher ratio and per-pupil expenditure.
But the Outcome Accountability Project measures what comes out of schools, focusing on student learning and achievements. This trend toward accountability is occuring nationwide.
"The recognized point of educational change and reform is at the school level," said William Bosher, Virginia superintendent of public instruction.
"By reporting school data, we move the level of information closer to where it can do some good."
Other highlights of the report include:
Students continue to improve on the majority of the indicators of educational performance. Of 46 indicators with data from all three years, 28 have shown statewide improvement.
The performance of minority students is improving. More minority students are taking algebra and foreign languages and earning advanced studies diplomas, and fewer are dropping out of school.
The state is improving its efforts to increase special education students' living skills. Attendance and participation in extracurricular activities have increased for special education students.
More students are taking algebra before high school, acquiring typing skills and performing better on physical fitness tests.
Based on standardized tests and other measurements, student performance is improving at the elementary, middle and high school levels.
In Western Virginia, standardized-test scores show that high school juniors in most school divisions have improved their basic math and reading skills. And a high percentage of sixth-graders in most school divisions have passed all three Literacy Passport tests of basic skills in reading, writing and math.
Statewide, 69 percent of sixth-graders passed all three tests. In Western Virginia, the rate ranged from Roanoke's 66 percent to Radford's 90 percent.
The dropout rates for about half of the school systems in Western Virginia are higher than the state average of 3 percent. Roanoke had the highest rate, 7 percent, followed by Franklin, Montgomery and Pulaski counties, all at 5 percent.
The rates for other localities were: Salem, 3 percent; Botetourt and Roanoke counties, 2 percent; and Bedford County and Radford, 1 percent.
In Western Virginia, Giles and Roanoke counties had the best attendance in the 1992-93 school year. Floyd and Franklin counties had the worst.
In Giles, 85 percent of the students were absent 10 days or fewer in 1992-93; Roanoke County was second at 78 percent. The state average was 70 percent.
Others were: Radford, 77 percent; Salem, 76 percent; Botetourt County, 76 percent; Bedford County, 73 percent; Montgomery County, 70 percent; Pulaski County, 68 percent; Roanoke, 61 percent; Franklin County, 61 percent; and Floyd County, 59 percent.
Less than one-third of the students in Western Virginia, as well as statewide, passed physical fitness tests, but the number is creeping up.
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