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By Jan LaValley
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
Testing results for the new Standards of Learning tests came back last week and school administrators and personnel are looking at how Rappahannock shapes up compared to the state percentages. So far, tests results look pretty good for students here overall although there are some weak areas.
Dr. David Gangel, superintendent, presented the information on the SOL results to the school board at last night’s meeting. Rappahannock students scored better than the state average on 16 out of 26 categories spread over the four grade levels tested — third grade, fifth grade, eighth grade and end of course (juniors). Generally 70 percent of all students in all categories have to pass the tests for the school to be accredited, Gangel said, with the exception of the science and social studies areas of the third grade tests where only 50 percent of all third graders must pass. If the scores are below 70 percent the school could lose its accreditation.
The third graders, he said, have done a marvelous job. They were quite a bit above the state level for science and social studies with 60.9 to the state’s 49 and 74.7 to the state’s 63, respectively. They scored very well in mathematics with 82 percent to the state’s 63 and out scored the state percentage of 53 on English with a 66.6 — only a bit shy of the 70 percent.
The fifth grade level scored better than the state average in all areas and passed for English (reading and literature), English (writing* and math but will need work in the areas of social studies and science. They scored 35.5 percent to the state's 33 percent in social studies and 66.6 percent to the state’s 59 percent in science. And, they were slightly behind the state in computer science, 67 percent to 72 percent.
The eighth grade level scored even with the state for science at 71 percent but were below the state average and passing level on all other areas: English (reading and literature), 57.6 to 64; English (writing), 63.3 to 67; math, 35.3 to 47; history and social science, 16.6 to 35; and computer technology, 48.2 to 63.
The end of course level students scored below the state average in only two areas — English (writing), 1 with 64.9 to: 71 and Algebra I, with 34.6 to 40. In all other areas Rappahannock scored above the state average but passed the 70 percent mark only in English (reading and literature), 85.9 to 72 and biology, 87.8 to 72. The percentages for the other subjects were: Algebra II, 63.6 to 31; geometry, 59.5 to 52; earth science, 64.9 to 58; chemistry, 64.8 to 54; world geography, 25.8 to 62; and U.S. history, 27 to 30.
Gangel cautioned the board and those in attendance at the meeting not to read too much into the scores as yet because the Virginia Department of Education has still not determined variation in pass scores as yet based on different test versions and so the results will most likely change. He said, though, based on the results the schools here can see where our strengths and weaknesses lie and can work on those areas in which improvement is needed.
See SCHOOLS, Page A6
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