Dear George,

Did you attend the Democrats rally on education yesterday? Two reporters called me after hearing the candidates take credit for rising SOL scores in the city. While some went up, almost as many went down or remained the same. I have the scores for all city schools for 98 and 99 and it ain't pretty. My own figures are 17 went up and 4 went down while 15 remained the same.

Here are some statistics from a report prepared on February 14 by Arleta Dimberg who is an assistant Superintendent for Instruction.

There are nine city schools. There are test for English, Mathematics, History and Social Science, and Science. 4 SOL tests for each school gives us a total of 36 tests. Between 98 and 99 26 test scores went up and 10 went down. Changes of 5 percentage points or less are statistically insignificant. Of the 26 scores that went up, 9 went up fewer than 5 percentage points. Increases greater than 5 percentage points occured in 17 of the 36 tests. 10 of the scores actually dropped with 6 of those being less than a 5% drop. Esentially, 17 test scores went up, 4 went down, and 15 remained the same.

Some of the increases were very impressive and some of the decreases were very disturbing. At Clark for example the passing rate on the History and Social Science test went from 8% to 27%, an increase of 19%. Even so, no more than 30% of the students at Clark passed any of the 4 tests. At Venable, Math scores went from 67% passing in 1998 to 81% passing in 1999. On the other hand, Greenbrier's scores went down in three of the four areas. Math scores at Greenbrier went from 65% passing in 1998 to 47% passing in 1999. English scores at Greenbrier went from 61% passing in 1998 to 39% passing in 1999.

In order for schools to be Fully Accredited at least 70% of the students must pass each of the four tests in each school. In Charlottesville in 1999 a 70% pass rate was acheived in only 3 of the tests. They were: 85% in Science and 81% in Math, both at Venable, and 71% in Science at Burnley-Moran.

If there is improvement in all four core academic areas, the school is Provisionally Accredited. If there is no improvement in one or more of the core academic areas, the school is Accredited with Warning. In 1999 3 of the 9 schools in Charlottesville were Provisionally Accredited and 6 were Accredited with Warning. None were Fully Accredited.

I do believe that the scores will go up even more. There is much work yet to be done.

Cordially,

Kevin Cox (electronic mail, April 22, 2000).