The Ed Week Virginia debate goes on and on

[PAVURSOL@aol.com]

Now former Board of Ed president Schroder weighs in to the serial letter to 
the editor. 

Mickey

<A HREF="http://edweek.org/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=40letter.h22";>http://edweek.org/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=40letter.h22</A>

Virginians Debate
Standards, ExamTo the Editor:I read with amusement and disbelief the letter <A HREF="http://edweek.org/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=37letter.h22#va";>
"Virginia's Test Gives No Aid to At-Risk,"</A> published in your May 21, 2003 
issue, from Mickey VanDerwerker, a member of the Bedford County, Va., school board 
and an education consultant. The letter alleged that Virginia's strong 
continued gain in its Standards of Learning program is not supported by other 
student- achievement indicators, such as national test results. 

Ms. VanDerwerker has worked hard to gain media attention as someone with 
seemingly no professional ties to the public education system. She frequently 
criticizes Virginia's SOL program. (<A HREF="http://edweek.org/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=18sol.h22";>"As Scores Rise, Virginia Ponders Future of 
Accountability,"</A> Jan. 15, 2003.) Unfortunately, her allegations in her recent 
letter represent either gross distortions of the data or are simply wrong. Here 
are the facts.

On the SAT I, since Virginia's SOL program began in 1995, our students' 
verbal scores are up 6 points and math scores are up 12 points, for a combined gain 
of 18 points. Ms. VanDerwerker's claim in her letter that Virginia's 
participation rate has declined is simply wrong. The facts show that the participation 
rate on our most recent year (2002) was 68 percent, more than 20 percentage 
points above the national average and higher—not lower—than Virginia's 
participation rate a decade ago or in 1995. The state's relatively high participation 
rate makes our students' significant SAT score gains even more noteworthy.

On the National Assessment of Educational Progress, on Virginia's most recent 
NAEP math test, our 4th graders made the second-highest gain in the nation, 
and our 8th graders made the third-highest gain.

On the Stanford Achievement Test-9th Edition, over the five years of testing 
since the SOL program began, Virginia students have shown gains at every grade 
level tested (grades 4, 6, 9) in every academic- skills category tested 
(reading, writing, math).

Interestingly, Ms. VanDerwerker chooses to ignore the situation prior to the 
launch of Virginia's SOL program in 1995, even though she was a professional 
educator during this period. She ignores the pre-SOL period because it 
represents such a stark contrast to the gains post-SOL. 

Virginia's students suffered one of the nation's worst declines on the NAEP 
reading test in 1994. During the decade prior to the launch of the SOL effort, 
on Virginia's own state Literacy Passport Test, one out of three children 
failed to pass in any given year, and there was no improvement whatsoever over 10 
years' time. Combined SAT scores gained little from 1991 to 1995.

Knowledgeable educators well know that test scores will fluctuate in any 
given year, and no doubt Virginia's will continue to fluctuate on various tests in 
the future, up some years, down in others. What is important is the overall 
direction that we can discern from looking at results from numerous tests over 
numerous years. The data, when looked at fairly and without ideological bias, 
clearly show that since the launch of Virginia's SOL program eight years ago, 
Virginia's students are learning more and performing better academically as 
indicated by a variety of state and national assessments.

With the exception of Ms. VanDerwerker, many early critics of Virginia's SOL 
program have changed their opinions about the program's positive impact on 
student achievement. For example, your Jan. 15 article quotes James McMillan, an 
education professor at Virginia Commonwealth University (and also an early 
critic of the SOL program) as saying: "The test scores have risen dramatically 
and have continued to rise more than I thought they would. I've seen evidence 
that particularly in low-performing schools, there have been real turnarounds."

Virginia's success in this regard is due to the tireless dedication and hard 
work of many teachers and school administrators. It is sad to see the results 
of their efforts distorted and discredited as Ms. VanDerwerker does in her 
letter.





Kirk T. Schroder
President (1998-2002)
Virginia Board of Education
Richmond, Va.