THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 23, 1995 TAG: 9503230550
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: RATING VIRGINIA SCHOOLS
SOURCE: BY VANEE VINES, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 219 lines
Granby High School reflects much of what makes Norfolk a leader among Virginia's urban school districts and a little of what still gives Norfolk public schools a black eye:
Its advanced, college-track courses attract students and keep them hooked on learning. On the other hand, its attendance rate lagged last school year and its dropout rate was the worst among South Hampton Roads high schools.
``Obviously, kids cannot excel if they're not in school,'' said Ulysses Turner, Norfolk's School Board chairman. The pattern isn't unique to Granby High or the Norfolk district, however.
The state Education Department's annual report card on schools showed that several area districts, especially Suffolk and Norfolk, are making notable gains in preparing students for college. Even so, low attendance and high drop-out rates are persistent problems in many parts of the region.
In both Norfolk and Virginia Beach, for instance, the state reported a 3 percentage point increase in the overall high school dropout rate and a 4-point increase among minority students from 1990-91 to 1993-94.
About one in every five Norfolk eighth-graders last year had flunked a grade at least once. One in every 10 Suffolk fourth-graders had done so.
Both trends contribute to disciplinary problems and school failure down the road.
The Education Department released its annual academic barometer, officially called the Outcome Accountability Project, on Wednesday. The report, which gauges achievement from 1990-91 through 1993-94, sizes up school districts and individual schools in a host of areas - such as college and workplace preparation, graduation rates and physical fitness.
The state's findings took few educators by surprise.
Virginia Beach, for example, had planned to scrutinize its alternative education programs, officials there said.
Norfolk has begun to address nagging attendance problems. Districtwide, attendance is up 2 percent so far this school year, officials said. Administrators are reviewing middle school offerings to see how kids could be better supported before they're trapped in a web of failure.
Superintendent Roy D. Nichols Jr. said Tuesday that he would urge the School Board to apply for a federal magnet grant this spring - as one way to get more parents and students to buy into education by giving them more choices.
All South Hampton Roads districts showed improvement from 1990-91 to last school year, either in steering high school students to advanced diplomas or helping more of them master college-level work as measured by their performance on ``Advanced Placement'' tests.
Ultimately, those gains may reverse previous trends that showed area districts to be relatively weak in college prep but strong in vocational education.
Several area school officials said the Tech Prep initiative has made a difference. The program guides students from minimally fulfilling general-track requirements by urging them to take tougher academic courses or to seek a more focused vocational diploma.
``The message is trickling down that those harder academic classes are necessary for success later in life, whether the teaching is traditional or more hands-on in Tech Prep,'' said Isaac Williams, senior-class guidance counselor at Suffolk's Nansemond River High.
``I think students want to be better prepared,'' said Nansemond River junior Kristi Mizelle, a college-bound, advanced placement chemistry student. ``They know it's going to be competitive out there.''
Still, South Hampton Roads hardly closed the performance gap between regional achievement and that in more-affluent, less-transient districts like Fairfax County.
Last school year, for example, Virginia Beach was the only local district where the percentage of high school graduates who earned advanced-studies diplomas, 49 percent, was better than the state average, 46 percent.
Norfolk saw an increase of 6 percentage points in that category from 1990-91 to 1993-94. Nevertheless, its overall showing was only 31 percent last school year, among the lowest in the state.
If the latest report card on school performance contained letter grades, every local district would get an A for improvement in one area or another.
In Chesapeake, test scores went up almost across the board - although slightly - and Virginia Beach students collectively continue to outperform local peers on standardized tests.
Increasingly, though, signs of academic excellence are being found in what some consider unlikely places: in inner-city schools serving disadvantaged children and in rural districts; or in benchmarks often viewed as tough to improve, like the number of minority students earning advanced-studies diplomas.
Take Portsmouth's Highland Biltmore Elementary, where 85 percent of the students are black and more than 80 percent of the kids are poor enough to qualify for free- or reduced-price lunch.
There, 85 percent of fourth-graders scored better than the majority of their peers on standardized tests last school year, placing it among the top-performing elementary schools in that category locally and in Western Tidewater. The feat is notable for a school serving such disadvantaged youngsters.
``Everyone at the school expects all kids to achieve, regardless of the background,'' said PTA president Ruth Edwards.
The city's high school dropout rate, 4 percent last school year, also is among the lowest in the state.
In Suffolk, about one out of three students earned advanced-studies diplomas in 1993-94, placing the district beneath the state's 46 percent average. But compared to other local districts, Suffolk saw the biggest percentage increase in that category - to 37 percent from 29 percent in 1990-91.
Comparing the same two school years, more Norfolk students taking college-level, ``advanced placement'' courses scored high enough on AP exams to earn college credit - a sign that city schools are giving students a strenuous academic workout.
``We know that now you need much more than a high school education to really perform in the workplace,'' said Althea Joyner, an AP English teacher at Granby.
``Teachers are urging more students to participate in those classes because of that.''
Getting kids to come to school every day and keeping them there until graduation remains a challenge.
In Norfolk and Virginia Beach - and to a lesser degree in Chesapeake - the overall high school dropout rate as well as the minority dropout rate increased from 1990-91 to 1993-94, the state report showed. The Beach's high school attendance rate slid 7 percentage points over the four school years, the largest high school attendance rate drop in South Hampton Roads.
School officials in Norfolk and Virginia Beach pointed to crackdowns on disciplinary violations as a possible cause for the increased dropout rate.
Educators' biggest complaint about the state's method of measuring the dropout rate was that schools may be forced to count as dropouts students who moved or transferred to private schools but forgot to request copies of school records.
Tracking down students is especially burdensome in Hampton Roads because student turnover is high, administrators said.
The potential for dropping out may begin showing up as early as the fourth grade.
In Norfolk, for example, the percentage of fourth-graders who have been held back at least once has steadily decreased. But eighth-graders have posed a tougher challenge. Things haven't worsened since 1990-91, but the problem persists: In 1993-94, 21 percent of eighth-graders had failed at least once.
Such students are more likely to drop out or cause classroom disruptions out of frustration.
Thomas B. Lockamy Jr., an administrator in charge of school governance, said in its push to make academics more rigorous, the district may not have focused equal attention on students who would have trouble clearing higher hurdles.
At Bayside High in Virginia Beach, Principal Michael Debranski, teachers and parents have taken steps to keep students connected to school.
Bayside's safety net includes a mentoring program, required study hall for students who fail more than two subjects in a grading period, and a system of organizing ninth-graders into smaller clusters and then assigning teams of teachers to those groups.
``What we're trying to do is provide a stop-gap measure when they get here,'' Debranski said.
``But you really have to find an opportunity for them to achieve much earlier'' than high school.
Nichols, Norfolk's superintendent, said less-flattering district news from the state report card didn't overshadow advances in college prep areas.
``I don't think it's outweighed,'' he said.
``We've got kids succeeding and more of them in higher-level courses than ever before. But there are still kids whose problems we aren't solving. And we're working on that.''
He's confident that further progress is around the corner. He points out, for example, that Granby High's attendance rate has risen by about 5 percent each month so far this school year. MEMO: [For a related story, see microfilm on page A11 for this date.]
ILLUSTRATION: MOTOYA NAKAMURA
Staff
Susan Boroughs teaches ninth-graders in an honors-level world
history class at Norfolk's Granby High School.
HOW CITIES FARED
Chesapeake: Scores up, but fewer get advanced diplomas, compared
with state average.
Norfolk: Strides in college preparation, but highest dropout rate in
the state.
Portsmouth: Fourth-grade scores up dramatically, but setbacks in
vocational ed.
Suffolk: More in advanced studies, but large number of "over-age"
fourth-graders.
Virginia Beach: Strong on literacy tests, but rising dropout rate.
SCHOOLS SCORES/A10-11
MOTOYA NAKAMURA
Staff
A student asks for a paper during Phyllis John's business class at
Granby High School. Classes that push students to excel are one of
the reasons why Norfolk scored well on the stae's annual report
card.
MORE DETAILS
Future issues of the Beacon, Clipper, Currents, Compass and Sun will
have added details on the state's report card.
REGIONAL REPORT CARD
Threats for South Hampton Roads Schools
Opportunities for South Hampton Roads Schools
SCHOOL SNAPSHOTS
Indicators shown below are only a sampling of those tracked by the
state Department of Education. A school's total performance cannot
be judged by any individual indicator, and social and economic
factors also need to be taken into account. Information is from the
state's report card on Virginia schools. If your school is missing,
data was not available. Change represents improvement or decline
from 1990-91 to 1993-94 school years.
ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
MIDDLE SCHOOLS
HIGH SCHOOLS
[For these related charts and graphics, see microfilm on page A10
and A11 for this date.]
MOTOYA NAKAMURA/Staff
Granby High School freshman Edmer Martinez discusses the Industrial
Revolution with teacher Susan Boroughs in an honors world history
class.
KEYWORDS: REPORT CARD EDUCATION DROPOUT RATE TEST SCORES OUTCOME
ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT SCHOOLS STANDARDIZED TESTING LITERACY
PASSPORT by CNB