THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 31, 1995 TAG: 9503310002
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: By BEVERLY H. SGRO
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
While traveling over Virginia during the past year, I have talked with many parents, teachers, principals, students and other citizens and taxpayers. Clearly, the great need for higher standards in our schools and higher expectations for our students are the most important issues in education that they have expressed to me.
Since last summer, Superintendent of Public Instruction William C. Bosher Jr. has worked with countless teachers, parents and others to revise English, math, science and social studies. The goal has been to develop new academic standards in those basic subjects that are more rigorous, more specific and more measurable. These new standards are written in jargon-free, plain English so that they are more understandable to parents, students and the teachers in the classroom than the current Standards of Learning.
Parents and teachers then will know exactly what Johnny is supposed to be learning - and whether he has learned it. The result should be to promote real accountability in our schools.
Businessmen tell us that far too many high-school graduates require extensive (and expensive) remediation in order merely to hold down the jobs they are hired for after graduation. College professors tell us that far too few students come to college able to write clearly or persuasively. In fact, one in four of Virginia's 1993 high-school graduates who entered college (both two-year and four-year colleges) required remedial courses once they were there - at a cost of millions of dollars to Virginia's taxpayers.
Thousands of high-school students who are functionally illiterates graduate each year. While many schools are doing a good job, many others are graduating future citizens and employees who cannot even read a bus schedule, write a letter of complaint or balance a checkbook. Certainly, instilling rigor in Virginia's classrooms by setting higher expectations for our student's and schools is a concept that is long overdue.
The revised, more challenging Standards of Learning that the Allen administration has recommended to the State Board of Education are one facet of a four-part vision to bring real accountability to Virginia's public schools. This four-part system consists of (1) more challenging Standards of Learning; (2) testing to determine if Virginia's students are learning what the standards require; (3) a ``report card'' on every school that will show what results each school is getting for its students; and (4) accreditation of schools based on student academic performance rather than on other factors, such as how many books are in the school library.
Schools that produce positive academic results for their students (or, at least, show that they are improving) would get greater flexibility and freedom in spending state funds. Schools that over time continued to get miserable or mediocre results for their students would have greater state oversight.
Finally, let me emphasize these Standards of Learning do not state what Virginia's children should aspire to know in each grade; they state the minimum they should know. We hope that local school divisions and the teachers in the classroom will require even more of their students. However, it is crucial to have statewide standards that set a minimum of what all students in every school in Virginia should know and be able to do. Without those minimum standards, we risk even further erosion in the value of the high-school diploma received by all students, especially those whose education otherwise could easily be shortchanged in a mediocre school without any consequences to that school.
The State Board of Education is currently considering the revised Standards of Learning and has been holding public hearings across Virginia since March 27. These hearings will continue until April 6. Those who believe in higher expectation for our students and challenging our children should come to the public hearing in their area and show support for higher standards.
We are all proud to be Virginians, so let's make Virginia a leader in the nation in education. The best place to start is by setting high standards in our schools. MEMO: Beverly Sgro is Virginia's secretary of education. by CNB