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Competency Testing
Questioned .Board member Robert Eastham won support from his fellow board members on suggestions for changes in the state’s competency testing program. J . . Hour years ago, Virginia's jGeneral Assembly—deceived by complaints that the state’s high school graduates were earning “rubber diplomas"—instituted a requirement that students demonstrate minimum competencies in math, reading and civics in order to graduate, Eastham said.
Of the 62,203 nonhandicapped students tested in the class of 1980, the first to be affected by the new requirement, only 33 seniors didn't pass, Eastham reported. Those 33 students who failed to demonstrate minimum competency comprised 99.92 percent of seniors in Virginia’s public schools who completed the course units necessary for graduation, he noted.
"Rappahannock did even better. We were perfect” with all graduating seniors passing the minimum competency tests in reading and math, the Wakefield representative said.
According to Eastham, the state board of education’s reaction to having 99.92 percent pass the competency exams was “Something is rotten in the state ot Virginia!”
In turn, the state
91.5%