ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, January 13, 1996 TAG: 9601130002
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
A FORMER CARROLL COUNTY teacher, who left after a book controversy, helps her new school raise English scores by 12 percent.
A former Carroll County teacher has played a key role in putting Mount Airy High School on North Carolina's educational map.
Marion Goldwasser taught five of the six sections of Mount Airy's 10th-grade English students who outscored their peers in all other North Carolina school systems in statewide testing in English.
In 1994, after 24 years with the Carroll County system, Goldwasser accepted a job with the Mount Airy schools. She had been the focal point of a book controversy in Carroll County during the previous school year.
"I was thrilled for the students, of course," said Goldwasser, who still lives in Carroll County. "I knew my students did well, but it turned out they were the best in the state. ... It made me feel very good."
Gloria Bunn, Mount Airy's curriculum coordinator, said scoring is from 1 to 6 points with 3.5 considered as meeting the standard. She said nearly 44 percent of Mount Airy's students exceeded that standard, up nearly 12 percent from last year. Statewide, 12 percent of students exceeded the standard.
The testing last March had essay questions on world literature, such as the role a secondary character plays in a particular novel or how the setting affected a character's actions. Students had to use works other than American or English in answering. Test scores came back last month.
Goldwasser was named Carroll County's Teacher of the Year in 1991. But the following year, some parents and a Hillsville radio evangelist objected to her use of a particular novel in 11th-grade honors English.
The novel was "The Floatplane Notebooks" by North Carolina author Clyde Edgerton. The objections centered on a few pages with sexual content.
The School Board ordered the book removed; Goldwasser filed a grievance, arguing that the board had not followed its own procedures for making such a decision. A hearing and study by a textbook committee followed, as called for in the procedures, and the decision was to allow the book to be used in senior honors English classes only.
Gary York, a Mount Airy School Board member, said the school system had set up a writing laboratory in recent years and others were involved in the effort to improve literature test scores. But he said Goldwasser was a major part of that success.
Some of the works read by Goldwasser's students were "A Doll's House," a play by Norwegian Henrik Ibsen; "Metamorphosis," a short story by Czechoslovakian Franz Kafka; "All Quiet on the Western Front," a novel by German writer Erich Maria Remarque; and "Oedipus Rex" and "Antigone" by the Greek playwright Sophocles.
LENGTH: Medium: 54 linesby CNB