THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 8, 1996 TAG: 9606080271
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 101 lines
Fourth-graders at Bowling Park and Tarrallton elementary schools scored so high on a national standardized test this year that city school officials made students retake another version of the test to ensure the scores can be trusted.
Deputy Superintendent J. Frank Sellew said this week that officials have no evidence of cheating or wrongdoing, noting that student performance at the two schools has ``traditionally exceeded expectations.''
The decision to retest students on various sections of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, he said, was made because of dramatic increases in student scores. In some cases, the students scored almost twice as high - from the 40th to 90th percentile - as last year. Sellew said the retesting was part of a periodic ``audit'' the district has conducted at various schools over the years to ``determine if everything is as it should be.''
Students were retested over several days last week and this week. They initially took the test in March.
Virginia requires fourth- and eighth-graders to take the Iowa test, which measures students' skills in math, reading, language, social studies and work study. Norfolk also administers a third-grade-level Iowa test.
But the move has offended some parents. A few parents refused to allow their children to retake the test, keeping them at home instead.
At Bowling Park, one of the district's 10 majority-black community schools, angry parents said they resented the suggestion that their children aren't capable of scoring high on the achievement test. Some charged that the retesting was racially motivated.
``We know our children can learn and don't have to take a back seat to anybody,'' said Bowling Park PTA president Yvonn Hardy. ``It's brought up a lot of questions in our minds, whether this was racially or politically motivated.''
Administrators said the race of students was not a factor. At Tarrallton, where fourth-graders over the past few years consistently have scored among the top districtwide on the Iowa test, the student population is majority white.
Bowling Park has gained national acclaim for its successes in boosting the performance of disadvantaged inner-city children. Time magazine featured the school last week in a story about how it had raised achievement by building community support.
``There are so many wonderful programs at Bowling Park that eventually the children are going to do well,'' said Carlton McIntosh, mother of a fourth-grader at Bowling Park. ``It's unfair to challenge them when you know they are being put in a program that'll make them better than what they were.''
Sellew said that results of the retesting probably will not be available until midsummer. If the scores are significantly lower, Sellew said, ``we'd have reason to investigate further.''
Allegations of schools cheating on standardized tests have surfaced across the nation this year, including at a Portsmouth high school, at a time when schools are under growing pressure to improve test scores. Those cases factored into Norfolk's decision to retest the two schools, officials said.
Norfolk administrators decided to double-check the test scores after reviewing districtwide results from the March testing. Scores at the two schools had increased ``dramatically'' - much higher than would be expected based on the students' past performance, Sellew said.
Fourth-graders at Bowling Park, for example, scored above the 75th percentile in every category tested, according to results obtained from the district. In several categories, they scored above the 90th percentile, meaning they scored in the top 10 percent of students nationwide.
Last year, as third-graders, the Bowling Park students had scored significantly lower: mostly within the 40th and 50th percentiles.
The gains at Tarrallton were similar: Students who had scored mainly within the 40th and 50th percentiles as third-graders last year placed within the 70th and 80th percentiles this year.
``In some cases, the increase was so dramatically different that it didn't make any difference if they were white kids or black kids or rich kids or poor kids,'' Sellew said. ``My guess is that they've done a really good job preparing these students . . . but these scores exceed what statisticians tell us is predicted.''
At Portsmouth's I.C. Norcom High, juniors retook portions of an achievement test this spring after allegations that four teachers shared test questions with students before the testing. In a memo to the state Department of Education, Portsmouth administrators indicated that the teachers thought they were using a ``practice'' test and were unaware that they might be giving students actual test questions.
In Norfolk, the Bowling Park and Tarrallton principals were adamant that cheating could not have occurred.
``Absolutely not,'' said Charles W. Clay, principal of Tarrallton. ``The procedures for test security were strictly followed.''
``No grounds whatsoever,'' said Bowling Park Principal Herman D. Clark Jr., who called the decision to retest ``a slap in the face.''
Both principals said the high test scores resulted from extensive preparation. For example, Clark said, teachers and parents worked with children after school and on Saturdays for eight weeks before the testing.
``We did things like showing them how to make best guesses on multiple-choice questions and helped them with test-taking skills,'' Clark said.
Added Bowling Park parent McIntosh: ``I know the teachers, I know the children, and I know how hard they practiced for this test. I don't think it was cheating; I just think it was hard work.''
KEYWORDS: STANDARDIZED TESTING CHEATING NORFOLK SCHOOLS
TEST SCORES by CNB