By Ellen Nakashima and Victoria Benning
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, September 5, 1997; Page B01

OVERHAULING SCHOOL STANDARDS Virginia's Board of Education yesterday adopted new standards for public school accreditation that will raise graduation requirements, impose new penalties on low-performing schools and allow local districts to drop sex education. Many state lawmakers have criticized parts of the plan and vowed to try to change them. Statewide tests Students will have to pass new subject-area tests in high school to graduate. The requirement will take effect with the class of 2002. Students also will take new academic tests in the third, fifth and eighth grades. Schools will be urged, but not required, to make students repeat the grade if they fail any of those exams. School penalties Schools will receive a warning from the state if fewer than 70 percent of their students pass the new tests. In 2007, they will lose their state accreditation if they have missed that threshold for the previous three years. Schools with large numbers of transient children or students with limited English may be granted some leeway from the 70 percent rule. Course requirements Elementary schools will have to spend 75 percent of the required school day on English, math, science and social studies. Middle schools will have to spend 57 percent of the required school day on those basic subjects. High school students will have to take additional courses in math, history and science. Counseling, sex education The state no longer will require local districts to offer sex education classes or elementary school guidance counseling. Schools will be allowed to replace the guidance counselors with reading specialists.

Virginia's Board of Education adopted a plan yesterday to impose more rigorous tests on the state's 1 million public school students and tough penalties on low-performing schools, drawing criticism from many local educators and pledges from several lawmakers to undo some of the measures.

A jubilant Gov. George Allen (R) praised the board's action, which caps his four-year effort to raise school standards, and called the plan "the most enduring legacy of our administration."

"This is an exhilarating day," he said. "We finally have accountability in the schools for academic performance. We're now measuring our schools based on students actually learning the basics. They'll be the best-prepared kids in the nation."

But local school officials and several lawmakers said the plan is too punitive and does not offer enough help to struggling students and failing schools. They also criticized the state Board of Education for including measures that allow local districts to stop teaching sex education and to replace elementary school guidance counselors with reading specialists – proposals that were pushed by conservative activists.

"We ought to be in the business of educating children, not penalizing them," said Del. Kenneth R. Plum (D-Fairfax), who said he would introduce legislation next year to delay the student testing. "We know that there are schools that need additional help. But simply raising the hurdle for them to get over, without giving them adequate help, won't do the job. Kids don't get smarter because you test them more."

Under the Allen administration's program, students will take new statewide tests in basic subjects in grades 3, 5 and 8 and in high school. The tests will be based on curriculum standards that the state board adopted in 1995.

Passing the high school tests will become a graduation requirement, starting with the class of 2002. Schools will be urged, though not required, to make students repeat a grade if they fail the third-, fifth- or eighth-grade tests.

In what is perhaps the most troubling change to local educators, schools eventually will lose their state accreditation if fewer than 70 percent of their students pass the tests. That would be a scarlet letter that would drive away good students and teachers, making it hard for such schools to right themselves, some educators say.

Instead of simply decertifying a troubled school, the state should provide some way of ensuring that the school makes improvements, said Sen. Warren E. Barry (R-Fairfax). That is one of several changes that lawmakers will study when the General Assembly convenes in January, Barry said, although he added that "there is a lot of good" in the board's plan.

Board members argued that the 70 percent threshold is needed to measure whether schools are meeting the new curriculum standards. They also noted that the earliest a school could lose its accreditation is 2007, giving troubled schools a lot of time to improve.

The board's plan said allowances would be made for schools with large numbers of transient or non-English-speaking students but did not provide further details.

A bipartisan legislative commission has drafted an alternative plan that would give more leeway to failing schools and students, and senior lawmakers said they will use the plan to guide them when they review the board's action in January.

Lawmakers had urged the board to make some of those changes on its own. But board President Michelle Easton said the panel, which is made up of Allen appointees, is confident that its standards are appropriate.

The action divided the two candidates who are vying to succeed Allen.

Democratic candidate Donald S. Beyer Jr. criticized the board's move to lift the state mandates on sex education and guidance counseling, vowing to restore them if elected.

"The state Board of Education – and my opponent, who supports the decisions – are offering the wrong vision for our schools," he said.

Beyer said that although he supports higher standards, he is concerned that not all schools have sufficient resources to meet the 70 percent pass rate.

Republican gubernatorial candidate James S. Gilmore III said he backs the board's standards all the way. "I believe that this action today shows that the board is working to bring quality education to Virginia's children, and that is my goal, too," he said.

Although the board adopted the plan on a final vote of 7 to 0, some members voted against individual provisions. Robert H. Patterson Jr. voted against requiring schools to have a 70 percent pass rate on state tests, noting that the tests are still being developed. And Rayford L. Harris Sr. opposed dropping the state mandate for elementary school guidance counselors.

Conservative groups have complained about the guidance counselors, saying they give students moral advice that undermines parental authority, and have criticized the sex education curriculum taught in many schools.

George Tryfiates, executive director of the Family Foundation, said his group collected more than 10,000 signatures in support of ending the sex education and guidance counselor mandates.

But supporters of the sex education program, also known as family life education, said the board ignored the wishes of a majority of parents. Supporters of the program sent thousands of letters to the state, and many local school officials said they felt they already had the freedom to craft sex education programs amenable to their communities.