As part of the attack on

As part of the attack on the poor reading performances by county students, Bloon^gf reported that students wil^be tested at the end of the current school year to determine exactly what progress has been made since September.

“Not projected but what has been achieved ... Then we’ll be able to determine did Johnny make a year’s progress, half a year, threequarters or whatever...Then we’ll be better able to tell how much we can really anticipate for another year.’’

Realistic Goals

“But we have to be realistic in that minimum competencies for graduation have been set for the ninth grade,” Bloomer continued. “That’s three years below grade level. There’s no way, in the opinion of the consultant, that we can take individuals that are two and three years behind and catch them up in one, two or even three years.”

“How much of this problem has been brought about by social promotion?” asked Mrs. Massie.

Bloomer answered that, in his personal opinion,- a great deal of the problem resulted from lower expectations. “We responded in terms of what is expected of us. If there’s less expected, we do less,” he maintained. By identifying a child’s progress, enlisting parental support and requiring basic skill and minimum competencies for graduation testing, expectations for students will be raised, according to Bloomer.

"It’s going to have to be a tri-pod approach,” he said. “The teachers can’t do it by themselves. The student can’t do it by himself and the parents can’t. If any of those legs break down, we’re in trouble.”

“All of the teachers who said they would teach in the summer reading program are good reading teachers that could give a great service to these students,” Mrs. Massie noted.

“Well,” Dr. Bloomer responded, "If the 350 students came and desired the reading program, the eleven teachers that we have now would not give us an adequate- pupil-teacher ratio.” Eleven teachers could serve 350 students only by having classes of 30 or more.

nm