DATE: Thursday, April 24, 1997              TAG: 9704240393

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   59 lines

EDUCATORS ASK STATE PANEL TO WAIT TO RAISE STANDARDS PROPOSED TOUGHER GUIDELINES HAILED, BUT TIME IS NEEDED TO IMPLEMENT THEM.

Educators invited to discuss higher school standards with the state Board of Education had lots of comments and advice Wednesday, most revolving around one word: wait.

Proposed tougher guidelines for Virginia's public schools are good, but students, teachers and schools need time to revamp curriculum, get used to new standardized tests and even find space for more science labs so students can meet increased graduation requirements, said principals and superintendents in a daylong work session with board members that will continue today.

The board is spending most of its annual two-day retreat at the Ramada Plaza Resort Oceanfront discussing its proposed Standards of Accreditation. These are the rules governing how public schools in Virginia are supposed to operate, from what flags should fly out front to what courses are required for high-school diplomas.

``Wait'' also has been the message at public hearings around the state, from educators, parents and students. The new standards are scheduled to be implemented this summer; new graduation requirements requiring two to four more classes would take effect with this fall's freshman class, the class of 2001, although schools could obtain automatic waivers for a year.

With board members asking questions and taking notes, it was suggested that they:

Phase in the new requirements over a period of years, beginning with the lower grades. This will give teachers more time to align the new Standards of Learning - guidelines for what should be taught at each grade level across the state - with new state tests showing whether the material was learned. Results from the tests would be used to evaluate how well schools were doing their jobs, and bar high-schoolers from graduating until they passed the 11th-grade test.

Move some courses into the middle schools - such as algebra and Earth science - to leave more room for taking required classes and optional electives in high school.

``We need to allow space for our students to elect courses that will help them in whatever they're going to do,'' said George E. McGovern, principal of Landstown Middle School in Virginia Beach. ``And they're not all in core courses.''

Take account of how transient some student populations are - perhaps by reporting two scores, one just for students who have been in a system for awhile - so schools aren't penalized for bad teaching jobs by the new students' old schools.

Make schools accountable only for performance on the state's test of its own Standards of Learning, not the national-comparison test the state also administers to students. Board member Cheri P. Yecke said that's how the board was leaning.

Judge schools by their achievement, not just their test scores - a school raising its scores a bunch shows it's being successful, even though it might still score less than another school.

``We have some schools, no matter who's in there (teaching), the kids are going to look good. If looking good is high test scores,'' said Richard B. Trumble, Portsmouth's schools superintendent.

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