DATE: Sunday, October 26, 1997              TAG: 9710240797

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A13  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: REAL STORIES

FOCUS: ELECTION '97

SOURCE: BY NANCY YOUNG, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   42 lines

TEACHER SAYS STATE NEEDS MORE THOUGHT ON EDUCATION

Joe Emerson is the son of a minister and of a teacher who is in turn the daughter of a teacher. It is perhaps not surprising that he feels he himself has been ``called'' to teach.

For Emerson, a seventh-grade civics and economics teacher at Grafton Middle School in Yorktown, education isn't just an election issue - it's his life. While he thinks that much of what is crucial for good education goes on among teachers, students and parents, he believes that a lot can be done at the state level to make his life easier.

Take the state's Standards of Learning, which are being implemented this year in classrooms across the state. Emerson said teachers will be held accountable for making sure students pass the state's tests based on the standards, but they haven't been given enough guidance on how to prepare their students for the tests. ``I don't think the state has thought through that,'' Emerson said.

Beyond that, the multiple choice tests measure only how well students can memorize information, he said, not whether they can apply it, something Emerson says is crucial.

Then there's the matter of helping struggling students succeed under more rigorous standards.

``I believe the state needs to be doing something about that, but the state is not,'' said Emerson, adding that the answer isn't just providing money for remediation programs.

He'd like to see more educators involved in policy-making decisions, and a state professional standards board made up of teachers. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

NHAT MEYER/The Virginian-Pilot

JOE EMERSON, 31

Joe Emerson, a seventh-grade educator, says the governor needs to

involve teachers in policy-making - and raise their pay to the

national average.

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