THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 29, 1994 TAG: 9409270246
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: E10 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Long : 126 lines
A program to teach ``at-risk'' first-graders to read, introduced last year in four of Norfolk's majority-black community elementary schools, has gotten high marks from parents.
Asked to rate the Reading Recovery program on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being ``very good,'' 88 percent of parents responding to a recent questionnaire gave it a 5, while the rest rated it as a 4. The program reached 32 first-graders during the first year.
``Seldom in our experience do we see a program so uniformly embraced by parents,'' Clyde Colwell, communication skills coordinator for Norfolk schools, told the School Board.
This year, Reading Recovery was expanded to include seven of the majority-black community schools, which draw many students from the city's public housing neighborhoods.
Norfolk relied on a Reading Recovery ``teacher leader'' employed by Portsmouth schools to train its first six teachers. But Norfolk now has hired its own teacher leader and is paying to have a second leader trained.
Norfolk has 14 Reading Recovery teachers. A child participating in the program receives an hour of one-on-one attention each school day.
Colwell said he hopes the program will be available in all 10 of Norfolk's elementary community schools by 1995-96. Strategy to meet goals unveiled
Superintendent Roy D. Nichols Jr. last week unveiled more than 60 strategies he hopes to put in place this year to meet the three goals adopted by the School Board for 1994-95.
The goals are to improve school discipline and safety, improve academic performance and increase community involvement in the schools.
Strategies are wide-ranging and include adding Saturday detention hall in the high schools, developing a plan to eliminate the general studies diploma and conducting public ``customer satisfaction'' surveys to improve performance.
At the urging of member Joe Waldo, the School Board unanimously approved creation of a committee to study improving discipline in schools as a way to help students achieve.
The committee would consist of two School Board members, parents, teachers, principals and community leaders.
``I think this is the way board committees should function,'' Nichols said. ``Your job is to find out what the public wants from its schools, and this is the perfect vehicle to do this.'' Willard tops in technology
Willard Model Elementary School has won the 1994 Virginia Elementary School Technology Program Excellence award.
Principal Lillian Brinkley and teachers Sarah Peoples and Donna Weaver recently were honored at a banquet of the Virginia Technology Education Association, which presented the award.
Brinkley began integrating technology into the school in the early 1990s after involving teachers in a program called Mission 21, sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and developed at Virginia Tech. The program taught students problem-solving skills and science and technology themes involving communications, space colonization, inventions and energy and power.
Now, students make everyday use of computers; network with kids across the country via a telecommunications-based teaching program; produce newsletters; write, illustrate and publish stories; and operate a closed-circuit video television station. Norview teachers win award
Two former 10th-grade team teachers at Norview High School, Cathy Lassiter and Carolyn Sale, recently were named grand-prize winners in the third Teacher Grant awards sponsored by Black Entertainment Television.
The teachers won $2,500 for a lesson plan based on BET's Teen Summit show called ``Black History.'' They used the old Crispus Attucks Theater in the Huntersville section of Norfolk as a model to teach the significance of preserving and learning from history.
The theater, designed by black architect Harvey Johnson, was built in 1919 to provide a place of entertainment for blacks in the still segregated South. The theater came to be known as the ``Apollo of the South.''
The school received a television and VCR. Lassiter is now dean of students at Norview. Sale no longer teaches there. More than 100 schools entered the BET competition. NPS employees honored
The school system's plant facilities recently recognized custodial employees for outstanding accomplishments:
Supportive Staff Award - Marie Collins, Harriet Dowe and Johnny Harris Jr.
Staff Development Award - Cecil Jenkins.
Quality Standard Award - elementary school: St. Helena; secondary school: Ruffner Middle.
Employee of the Year: Ronald Richardson. Teachers turn scribes
A new education book published by D.C. Heath and Co. will feature articles on ``whole language'' written by three Norfolk teachers.
Because of their contributions, the firm will provide a free copy of the book, ``Teacher to Teacher: A Professional Handbook for the Intermediate Classroom,'' to each of Norfolk's elementary schools.
The local authors are:
Jim Craft, a teacher at W.H. Taylor Elementary, who wrote an article called ``Balancing the Reading Diet: Reader's Workshop.''
Chris Kouzis, a sixth-grade teacher at Blair Middle, who wrote a piece called ``Whole Language Teaching: Integrated Curriculum.''
Tracy Jones, former communication skills specialist at Bowling Park Elementary and now training to become a Reading Recovery teacher leader, who wrote an article called ``Using Higher-Order Thinking Skills - Thinking Skills Every Day, for Every Student.'' More than a number cruncher
The lead article in the September issue of ``Kappan'' was written by Forrest ``Hap'' White, budget director for Norfolk schools. The article, called ``Brown Revisited,'' is based on the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that desegregated public schools. Scholarship semifinalists
Three African-American students in Norfolk have been named semifinalists in the National Achievement Scholarship Program.
Named were seniors Lesha S. Cowell of Booker T. Washington High, and Carita V. Banks and Jeannine D. Johnson, both of Norfolk Academy.
They were among 1,500 out of 95,000 black students nationwide who entered the program by requesting consideration when they took the 1993 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.
KEYWORDS: EDUCATION by CNB