THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 25, 1994 TAG: 9409230237
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 20 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
Beach school officials are nearing the final stages of developing new citywide tests for third-, fifth-, eighth- and 10th-graders.
Administrators are negotiating prices with five companies that submitted proposals for how to develop the tests, which will measure English/language arts and math skills for all four grades, and social studies and science knowledge for eighth- and 10th-graders.
Pilot tests are expected to be administered this spring. The real tests will be phased in from spring 1997 to spring 1999.
The idea for the tests took hold a little more than a year ago at a School Board retreat. Board members decided they wanted new ``gateway'' exams to show whether children are mastering skills they are expected to have at certain stages of their schooling.
Over the past year, school officials convened committees of teachers to come up with standards for what students should know in English/language arts, math, social studies and science at designated grade levels.
At third grade, for example, students are expected to show certain reading comprehension skills, such as drawing conclusions about characters and events in a text or summarizing information from reading a passage.
By eighth grade, students are expected to show more sophisticated reading skills, such as comparing the use of figurative language in two pieces of literature, or discerning an author's purpose by analyzing tone, diction and structural patterns.
The School Board approved the standards in concept Tuesday night. Standards will be refined as the tests are developed.
The Beach's efforts come as debate over testing continues on the state and national level. Educators have long complained that traditional standardized tests, like those used in Virginia for decades, are too basic and do not measure what students learn in school.
State officials took up the issue five years ago when they began administering the sixth-grade Literacy Passport Test, designed to ensure that students do not leave elementary school without basic reading, writing and math skills. This year, the state will review its other standardized tests and decide whether to revise them or drop them in favor of a new testing system.
In Virginia Beach, school officials have talked about using results from the new tests to help schools improve their lessons, and to hold schools accountable for their performance.
Officials have not yet discussed what will happen to children who do not perform well on the new tests.
The intent, said Assistant Superintendent K. Edwin Brown, was ``that if you can't meet the standards for the third grade, you can't progress to the fourth grade until you do.''
Holding children back would be controversial, however.
Another big question is cost.
Nancy Jones, director of the school system's Educational Planning Center, estimated Tuesday that it could cost $1.5 million over the next five years to develop the tests and begin administering them.
Jones said it could cost several hundred thousand dollars every year thereafter just to give the tests.
``The reason we can't be more firm is that we're negotiating to get the best price we can,'' Jones said. MEMO: Copies of the standards _ for reading, writing and math from
kindergarten through 10th grade, for social studies and science in
grades six through eight and for certain science and social studies
courses from grades nine and 10 _ are available in city schools or at
the school system's Educational Planning Center, 427-4381.
by CNB