THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 22, 1996 TAG: 9608220362
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 87 lines
Students and parents at Bowling Park and Tarrallton elementary schools said Wednesday there's nothing secret about why their schools' test scores were among the best citywide: They studied hard, tried to do their best and had teachers who cared.
``I wanted to pass into the fifth-grade, and I wanted to get good grades and learn something to go to college,'' said 10-year-old Christopher McInnis, a Bowling Park student. ``If you need any help, the teachers always help you. They teach you until you get it. They pay attention to you.''
Christopher was one of about 50 kids and as many parents from the two schools who turned out Wednesday at the Virginia Zoo for a ``celebration of learning'' to recognize the children's high test scores on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, a national standardized test that measures students' knowledge of math, science, social studies, language and reading skills.
Shanelle Agee-Coleman, 10, of Tarrallton, said, ``I made a promise this year to my mom that I would make good grades, and I made the B honor roll all year.''
At the zoo, the children chowed down on a picnic lunch and cavorted with face-painting clowns. They had close encounters with some ``petting'' animals, including a Mexican milksnake and a tenrec, a furry insectivore from Madagascar.
Any resentment that parents and children had harbored when school district officials in May asked the students to retake the Iowa test seemed forgotten.
The students, who enter fifth-grade next month, had to take a different version of the Iowa after school district administrators raised questions about higher than expected scores on the initial testing in March.
On the first test, Bowling Park fourth-graders had a combined average score in math and reading in the 90th percentile, putting them in the top 10 percent nationwide. Tarrallton scored in the 79th percentile.
Results on the second testing, while lower, confirmed the earlier high scores, school officials revealed earlier this month.
On Wednesday, the kids sported blue and yellow T-shirts handed out by school officials that proclaimed ``Twice As Smart,'' a play on having to retake the test.
``You tested well, and you did it twice, and I am proud of you,'' Superintendent Roy D. Nichols Jr. told the children.
Nichols said the district plans to study what the two schools did to raise student achievement and ``transplant'' that success to other schools.
Many parents and school officials place a symbolic value on the performance of students at majority-black Bowling Park, which has gained national attention for its work with urban children.
The high test scores, they say, offer proof that disadvantaged black children in the city's 10 community schools can compete academically with more affluent white children who live and attend school across town.
Bowling Park, with a large population of students from public housing, placed among the top three elementary schools citywide on the Iowa, equalling Taylor and Larchmont, which draw a majority of kids from white, middle-class neighborhoods and for years have been the top performers in Norfolk.
Parents at Bowling Park and Tarrallton attribute the high test scores to the attitude of the teachers and principals toward the children.
``When everybody helps one another and makes children feel special, it works,'' said Bowling Park parent Rhonda Dixon. ``These kids are just as good as anybody else. It doesn't matter where you live.''
Patte Elder, a fourth-grade Tarrallton teacher, said the school focuses on problem-solving and test-taking strategies. Teachers incorporate concepts on the Iowa tests into the curriculum and work closely with students to improve weaknesses.
At Bowling Park, fourth-grade teacher Jacqueline Whitley said teachers visit parents in their homes and find out the families' needs.
``I want parents to see me not just as a teacher but as a person,'' Whitley said.
Fred M. Oliver, charged with monitoring the achievement of the school system's poor and African-American children as an assistant to the superintendent, said: ``If you set those expectations high enough, and you instill in these kids early on that they can learn, and you work with their parents, sooner or later it's going to catch on.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
HUY NGUYEN
The Virginian-Pilot
Brittany Foster, left, chases down her sister Ashley's bubbles
during their picnic at the Virginia Zoo on Tuesday.
HUY NGUYEN
The Virginian-Pilot
Jason Morissette, left, Brittany Petry, center, and others from
Tarrallton Elementary School check out a tenrec, a furry insectivore
from Madagascar, at the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk on Wednesday.
KEYWORDS: NORFOLK SCHOOLS by CNB