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Vigrinia Board of Ed Wants Power to Sue Districts For Not Improving Test Scores

Virginia's Board of Education wants the power to sue school districts that are slow to improve chronically low test scores.

Board members voted unanimously yesterday to ask the General Assembly for legislation that would allow the board to take districts to court if they fail to take steps to bring schools up to state and federal standards.

In the spring, the board will issue a list of districts that face academic review because they have too many schools that are not fully accredited -- that is, schools in which fewer than 70 percent of students passed state Standards of Learning exams.

The reviews will result in plans for improvement, and under the requested legislation, school districts that fail to cooperate with the reviews or to follow the plans could face legal action.

"We have realized that there are a few [districts] that are educationally bankrupt," board President Thomas M. Jackson Jr. said. "We are unwilling to let that situation continue, so we felt it necessary to ask the General Assembly for additional powers."

Jackson would not name the districts, but he said that they are "obvious to those folks who have looked at this" -- and that none of them is in Northern Virginia.

The number of fully accredited schools in Virginia has risen steadily since 1998, when students started taking SOL tests in third, fifth and eighth grade and in high school. Last year, 1,414 of Virginia's 1,823 schools reached the mark. Some were provisionally accredited, but 51 schools in 24 districts were warned about low performance.

Richmond, with nine of those 51 schools, has more than any other district, followed by Petersburg, with five.

Larry Olanrewaju, chairman of the Richmond School Board, said he doesn't see the legislation as a threat but as "a good tool" for local officials to use.

"It communicates to everybody that this is a new day: You're either for change, or maybe you should go somewhere else to look for employment," Olanrewaju said. He added that he believes court action will not be needed in Richmond because the district is committed to improving troubled schools.

But Frank E. Barham, executive director of the Virginia School Boards Association, said his group probably would oppose the legislation. He said the state cannot tell local school boards how to go about improving test scores. "They can establish goals and require us to meet them," he said. "They can take action if we don't. But they don't have the authority to take action if we don't meet them the way they want us to meet them."

For the last four years, the state board has ordered academic reviews for low-performing schools but not for entire districts. The proposal adopted yesterday would empower the board to force school districts to comply with detailed remedial plans, which could include curriculum or staffing changes.

The proposal also would give teeth to the accreditation program, which for years has carried few penalties -- beyond public embarrassment -- for failing to measure up.

The pressure to raise SOL scores is already high and has increased since passage of the federal No Child Left Behind law. The federal law requires schools to show annual progress on test scores, with a goal of 100 percent proficiency in math and reading by 2014.

Virginia law prohibits the state from taking over schools or school districts, an option other states have pursued as they work to raise test scores.

Board members emphasized that school districts making determined efforts to improve will not face reviews or court action.

"A majority of schools in the state are now passing state standardized tests," board member Mark E. Emblidge said.

"We still have a number that are struggling. Most struggle for good reasons. Some are not for good reasons."

Emblidge said only school districts that "are either incapable of making progress or unwilling to make the tough decisions to make progress" will face legal action.

Jackson, a former state delegate, said the board is looking for a sponsor for the proposal during this year's legislative session, which will begin Wednesday.



— Rosalind S. Helderman
Va. Panel Targets Students' Scores
Washington Post
2004-01-08
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63323-2004Jan7.html

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