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| TOO TOUGH A TEST? | |
 September 2, 1999 
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JIM LEHRER: Now high stakes testing in the schools. Betty Ann Bowser has our report. LENORE BURGER: If you're in school, and you're starting to take a test, and you're feeling a little worried about it, you can just picture that worry as a blue diamond in your head.
LENORE BURGER: Use all your imagination. BETTY ANN BOWSER: Psychologist Lenore Burger has taught the youngster to close her eyes and pretend to bulldoze all the bad feelings away. LENORE BURGER: Can you point to where the anxiety is? GENNY MILLER: Um... (pointing) LENORE BURGER: In your head. Okay -- right up there, sort of between your eye and your ear. Okay. So think about the anxiety as a shape and a color. BETTY ANN BOWSER: But this spring, Genny wasn't the only Virginia public school student who was having problems with anxiety.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: She and her classmates were worried about a new battery of very challenging achievement tests now required by the State of Virginia. BETTY ANN BOWSER: Are you worried because you think you might not do well? GENNY MILLER: Yes. BETTY ANN BOWSER: Why is it so important? GENNY MILLER: It's a really big test, 'cause if you fail, you'll have to repeat the third grade. I want to go on to the fourth grade with my friends, and... I just want to pass it so it will be over with and I won't have to take it again. INSTRUCTOR: All that I'm doing is trying to teach you in case whatever writing problem comes up... |
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| Testing the system | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Starting in 2004, seniors who don't pass won't get a diploma; and in 2007, schools that flunk will lose their state accreditation. Genny Miller's psychologist says she's seeing an increasing number of children with anxiety over the SOL's.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: Last year when the SOL's were given for the first time, 98 percent of the state's schools failed. Even Northern Virginia's Fairfax County, considered one of the top public school systems, did poorly. KIRK SCHROEDER, Chairman, Virginia Board of Education: We're just visiting your school and observing. BETTY ANN BOWSER: Still, Virginia Board of Education Chairman Kirk Schroeder was not unhappy.
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| Teaching to the test | ||||||||||||||||||||
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BETTY ANN BOWSER: Statewide, the lowest scores on the SOL's were posted by poor minority children, like kids at Cameron Elementary in Fairfax County. Nearly 70 percent of the children here are poor enough to qualify for the federal free lunch program. (Whistle blows) And when they enter school for the first time, they're often at a disadvantage. Dr. Dan Domenech is superintendent of Fairfax County Public Schools.
KATHY SLATE: What is one branch of the Virginia House of General Assembly? BETTY ANN BOWSER: Because Cameron flunked the SOL's last year, this year teachers paid a lot of attention to the new curriculum. They frantically did something called teaching to the test. KATHY SLATE: Highlight "house of delegates." Let's just highlight "assigning bills." Highlight, please, "clerk of the house." BETTY ANN BOWSER: Fourth-grade teacher Kathy Slate spent weeks drilling her kids on potential history questions. KATHY SLATE: Right? This is really important. Who can call this special session? How many members does the House of Delegates have? Who elects these two people? BETTY ANN BOWSER: Slate thinks the SOL's require kids to know too many unimportant facts.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: Still, she was trying to wade through all the material. KATHY SLATE: And there's over a thousand pages here, front and back, and, you know, for a fourth-grader to know this much information I think is kind of... wild. The pace that we have to go at is mind-blowing to us, you know, and we're adults. I'm sure that a lot of them aren't even processing it because there's so much to do. |
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| Unfairly punishing poor and minority schools? | ||||||||||||||||||||
BETTY ANN BOWSER: This spring, after weeks of teaching
to the test, Cameron students once again failed to pass all the SOL's.
Countywide, Fairfax County Schools went from 7 percent passing to  20
percent passing; and statewide, only 7 percent of the state's schools
met accreditation standards-93 percent failed. Educator Domenech says
asking for accountability isn't enough. He thinks poor kids will never
make it unless the state pours millions of dolls into programs specifically
targeted for their needs.
DAN DOMENECH: The kids that are not going to get the diplomas are the poor, primarily; the minorities who are poor; our African American children; our Latino children. Those are the ones that will not get the diplomas because those are the ones that currently are failing, and those are the children that are in the schools now that are failing these exams. KIRK SCHROEDER: Who else wants to tell me where they're from, what other country? BETTY ANN BOWSER: State Board Chairman Schroeder says Virginia is already spending millions of extra dollars on public schools, and on this year's SOL's, he says the biggest improvement was made by minority students.
GEORGE TOWERY: I'll see you in a little while. Bye, Steven. BETTY ANN BOWSER: George Towery wouldn't argue with that. He's been principal at Cameron Elementary for 19 years. GEORGE TOWERY: There did seem to be something on his hand. BETTY ANN BOWSER: He's seen his kids improve on standardized tests through the years, but he questions whether they can make the grade on the state's ambitious timetable.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: Richmond, Virginia, School Superintendent Albert Williams disagrees. TEACHER: Anastasia's ready. BETTY ANN BOWSER: He has almost an entire system full of poor and at-risk kids. 79 percent of the city's elementary children are on the federal lunch program. Only one school in Richmond passed the SOL tests last year, and this spring not a single school in the city passed. TEACHER: Negative two... BETTY ANN BOWSER: But Williams thinks his kids can make the grade if everybody works hard enough.
TEACHER: Did you do your homework? BETTY ANN BOWSER: The verdict on Virginia's tough SOL's is still out. Board Chairman Schroeder says some of the rules may have to change if it really does look like massive numbers of minority kids won't graduate in 2004, but for now the state's official position is that kids who don't pass then won't get a diploma. KIRK SCHROEDER: I wish you well, and just gonna wave good-bye. |
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BETTY
ANN BOWSER: Nine-year old Genny Miller has had to learn how to deal
with a very grown-up problem: Anxiety. 
GENNY
MILLER: Ten times twelve.
BETTY
ANN BOWSER: The tests are called the Standards Of Learning Tests, or
SOL's for short. They represent the State of Virginia's effort to improve
the performance of all public schoolchildren at a time when critics
say American kids are falling behind other industrialized nations. In
1997, the Virginia Board of Education set accreditation standards for
schools, some of the highest standards in the country. The next year,
it established passing scores for students to meet, and the board said
there would be serious consequences for not doing well. 
LENORE
BURGER: I think the pressure is just there all the time. It's just always
in the back of their minds. Even if they're not daily talking about
testing, they know that it's there. 
KIRK
SCHROEDER: It didn't surprise me, 'cause we had said all along that
on the first exam that that figure was going to be very low, given that
some schools have not adjusted their curriculums, others are, you know,
just getting accustomed to this process. For a first-time exam, I think,
in terms of the liability and validity, that we're where we need to
be. 
DAN
DOMENECH, Superintendent, Fairfax County Public Schools: These are children
that come to us with experiences that are far different from the experiences
of middle-class children. They have not read books. They have not gone
to the zoo. They have not traveled beyond the neighborhood where they
were born. So when they come to us, they're not as articulate. They
don't have the same vocabulary. They don't have the reading skills and
ability. So they're already starting out behind the eight ball.
KATHY
SLATE: We really are taking this test in a few weeks, so let's really
try and remember what we're doing here, okay? 
KIRK
SCHROEDER: The scores were excellent this second time around. In 16
out of 27 exams, African Americans scored better than white students,
which they may not have been major gains or, you know, really big gains,
but it was a step in the right direction in terms of closing the gap.
GEORGE
TOWERY, Principal, Cameron Elementary School: To suspect that we're
all going to move by the year 2004 to 80 - 70 or 80 percent passing,
that seems a little far-fetched to a lot of us. I worry about youngsters
and families that will give up, that take a look around and say, "we
have a hard time, and this isn't for us-- we can't do this." 
ALBERT
WILLIAMS, Superintendent, Richmond Schools: The days of excuses are
over. And we can all come up with an excuse as to why we didn't do well,
and then sometimes we begin to believe that, and that puts us in the
position that we don't have to do as much because we already have a
ready-made excuse-- we can talk about poverty, and we can talk about
the absent fathers, and we can talk about a multitude of things. But
to suggest that would say to us, "well, you might as well forget
it already." And I don't believe that.