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KLMNO Va. schools fall short of new benchmarks
‘Aggressive’ goals cited as test scores rise slightly or hold steady
by Michael Alison Chandler
Average scores on Virginia’s Standards of Learning math exams rose slightly and reading performance remained static in the 2009-10 school year, but the vast majority of public schools across the state failed to meet new performance benchmarks for graduation rates and for students with disabilities, according to re- sults released Thursday by the state Department of Education. Fairfax County was the only school division in Northern Vir- ginia and one of only 12 across the state — out of 132 — that met all benchmarks, compared with 60 across the state last year. The por- tion of schools that met state test- ing goals dropped from 71 percent to 60 percent. The dramatic declines were due largely to changes in how suc-
cess or failure is calculated in the state. “We had some big changes in the rules of the game,” said Charles Pyle, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Educa- tion. Forty-one high schools, includ- ing about a dozen in Northern Virginia, and nine school systems missed the mark because of a new requirement that at least 80 per- cent of students graduate with an advanced or standard diploma within four or five years. The pre- vious target was 61 percent, and graduation rates were calculated differently.
Superintendent of Public In-
struction Patricia I. Wright said in a statement that Virginia’s goals for graduation are “aggressive” and that the initial results “send a clear message about the impor- tance of graduating more stu- dents.” A federal policy that allowed schools to bolster the passing rates for students with disabilities was discontinued this year, also leading to a drop in performance. Without the bump, 87 schools and 15 school divisions, including Prince William County, missed
targets. No Child Left Behind, the land- mark 2002 federal education law, was created with the goal that all students be proficient in math and reading by 2014. Schools face sanctions if they miss increasing targets for subgroups based on race, ethnicity, socioeconomic sta- tus and disabilities. In Virginia and many other
states, performance has risen steadily in recent years, and it has become more difficult to achieve year-over-year gains. The Virginia Board of Education received per- mission from the U.S. Education Department to keep the target passing rates steady at 81 percent for reading and 79 percent in math, with the stipulation that schools must exceed those goals. Pressure is mounting for all
states to show progress on tough- er-to-reach students, by reducing dropout rates and improving gains for students with disabili- ties, said Jack Jennings, president of the Washington-based Center on Education Policy. “Virginia has made substantial progress on goals that were con- sidered highly ambitious years
PETULA DVORAK Try being a parent flying with kids; then you’ll know real hostility dvorak from B1
and passengers has been souring for years, and that’s especially true for people traveling with children. “They act like they hate us,” said a mother of four very well-behaved kids who’d been scattered across three rows on a flight I was on earlier this week. The flight attendant had refused to help the family sit together. I couldn’t agree more. Passengers are shelling out hundreds of dollars to be crammed into ever-smaller rows. We are nicked for every move we make (Did you hear about one airline’s idea to start charging passengers to use the toilet? Or the fact that the airline industry collected $8 billion in extra fees alone last year?). We are humiliated during invasive and unfriendly searches (Did you
know that snow globes are the new evil? My mom had one that my boys gave her confiscated at an airport here, and I saw a big sign at an airport security line Monday warning passengers that these sinister tchotchkes are now verboten.) But why should we have to endure a nasty attitude on top of feeling totally violated? No, flight attendants are not responsible for all the abuse that the airlines are committing against the people they call their “customers” (“captives” is more like it). But they are getting a paycheck to be on these flights, and part of their job is to be nice to the people who are buying the tickets and trying to play by the crazy, constantly morphing rules. As one flight attendant rolled
his eyes at the sight of those four children boarding my plane the other day and another snapped
at a 3-year-old who put down his tray table before we were up in the air, the parents on board told me that families are generally those who incite the most ire when it comes to flying. Not just from flight attendants but from other passengers, too. Have you ever heard a rant about flying that didn’t include a variation on the phrase “a kid was screaming the entire flight”? Well, have you ever sat next to
a freakishly geeky and lonely business dude who won’t stop talking to you about the state of the sheets of his budget hotel rooms? Or the loud, foul- mouthed bachelorettes sucking down chardonnay in the row behind you en route to their girl getaway?
Give me the fussy baby any
day. There are still a few true angels in the sky: those flight attendants who are friendly, compassionate and understanding. Thank you. You have no idea how much a small gesture — a blanket, a hand, help with a bag — means. But, really, they’ve become the
exceptions. My kids and I have already been on six flights this year, three of them cross-country. And just about every time I’ve come home recently, I’m burning up, steamed at the lack of plain old humanity during that expensive experience.
A master’s mission
Michael Coles used tae kwon do to escape a difficult childhood. At his Bethesda academy, now he’s helping others do the same. In The Magazine.
Business
Rigs and tankers: The U.S. government, and others the world over, rely on private firms to inspect oil rigs, tankers and other commercial ships. How much confidence should the world have in these maritime watchdogs?
Travel
Eat, pray, explore: Rome, India and Bali form the luscious backdrops of the best-selling book and new movie, “Eat Pray Love.” Travel clichés or accurate portrayals?
Arts & Style
Summer reading: Kathryn Stockett’s debut novel, “The Help,” celebrates a full year on The Washington Post bestseller list. Meet the author and find out about her surprising success.
Outlook
Wonder about bread? Wheat bread sales in the U.S. topped those of white bread for the first time this year. How? It’s a triumph of all-American marketing savvy.
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once they are out of listening range. Helloooo! The rest of us can hear you! Then there was the flight
LOUIS LANZANO/ASSOCIATED PRESS
JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater leaves a correctional facility after posting bail.
I’ll never forget the flight
attendant who told me to “deal with it yourself” when my 3-year-old and my 5-year-old were seated in separate rows from me.
Or the one who snapped at me
to “hurry it up” while I tried to juggle a sleeping infant, click in a car seat according to airline regulations and settle in a dazed toddler by myself. He offered not a hand, but a glare. This was on an airline (like most of them) that just eliminated pre-boarding for families — you know, that time that gets us and all our stupid gear in place so we’re not in the way of the sleeker, faster passengers.
And countless times, I’ve heard
flight attendants sneer at and or curse about other passengers
E-mail me your passenger horror stories at
dvorakp@washpost.com.
Man charged before shooting The arrest warrant, issued a
Pr. George’s warrant on alleged threat against girlfriend was misfiled
by Ruben Castaneda
A Seat Pleasant man accused of shooting his girlfriend in the head Monday was charged two weeks earlier with threatening her with a handgun, but Prince George’s County sheriff’s deputies never tried to arrest him on that war- rant, according to court records and officials. On July 25, Marcus D. Shipman, 23, allegedly yelled at the girl- friend, LaCole Hines, 17, to come outside her apartment. Shipman pointed a handgun at another person in the apartment stairwell, according to police charging documents.
day later, accuses Shipman of first-degree assault, a felony, and other counts. But the warrant was never en- tered into the sheriff depart- ment’s computer system, said Sgt. Lakeisha Hines, a spokeswoman for the sheriff. Warrants involving the use of guns and violence are supposed to be prioritized, but the warrant for Shipman was in- advertently placed in a misde- meanor file, she said. The civilian employee who mis- placed the warrant faces disci- plinary action, Sgt. Hines said. It was not entered in the sheriff’s of- fice computer system until Mon- day, after Shipman was charged with shooting LaCole Hines. In Prince George’s, deputies
have the primary responsibility for serving arrest warrants. In a statement, Sheriff Michael Jack- son, a candidate in the Demo-
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cratic primary for county exec- utive, said the mistake was “an isolated incident.” “My heart goes out to the 17- year-old girl who was injured dur- ing a shooting for which Shipman is accused,” the statement said. Jackson said he considered the episode “a very serious lapse in my agency.”
Shipman is charged with shoot-
ing LaCole Hines in the head Monday afternoon in a liquor store in the 2600 block of Bright- seat Road, in the Landover area. Hines remained on life support
Thursday afternoon, police said. According to charging docu- ments, she has a month-old in- fant, and Shipman is the father. Hines was shot by a masked gunman who ran to a car and sped away, charging documents say. Officers on patrol quickly chased the car, and the Chrysler crashed a few blocks away, the charging documents say. Officers apprehended Shipman and Carl Andre Jones, 16. Jones admitted to driving Shipman to the liquor store and said Shipman put on a mask and left the car with a handgun, according to the documents. Jones said he heard one shot before Shipman ran back to the car, the charging docu- ments said.
Shipman is charged with first- degree attempted murder, and Jones is charged as an adult with the same count. Both have been ordered held without bond. The mistake in filing the war-
rant is the second time in recent weeks the sheriff’s department has found itself in controversy. Two weeks ago, Wendy Tyler,
the acting captain in charge of the sheriff’s domestic violence unit, and Nancy Ridgely, a captain who helped supervise the depart- ment’s public information office, were indicted on charges of steal- ing more than $20,000 from the union that represents deputies.
castanedar@washpost.com
attendant who famously spiked one kid’s apple juice with Benadryl and another who stirred a nationwide debate on discipline after she kicked off an entire family because the 3-year-old was having a tantrum at takeoff. I’m not alone in feeling like
this.
“I have found some airlines to be quite insensitive, unhelpful and outright antagonistic toward parents with small children,” one local mom wrote on a D.C. Urban Moms forum on traveling. “I definitely got the feeling that the attendants (on some airlines) would rather not have to deal with us.”
Or this one: “Do not expect the
flight attendants to help you or have pity on you at all,” another mom wrote. I’m sure that all of these passengers had fantasies about deploying that slide, leaving the juice boxes behind and wishing hasta la vista to the flavorless pretzel packs. But if passengers ever pulled a stunt like that, we’d get an air marshal, not airtime.
ago, but the question now is how to move on to the next stage,” he said. How to most accurately test students with disabilities remains a key question for policymakers in Virginia and nationwide as they shape the future of the edu- cation accountability system. Finding the right test for students with widely different learning im- pediments is a challenge. Virginia officials last year began scrutiniz- ing school systems’ use of an al- ternative, portfolio-style test that they said has been over-used for special education students. They plan to begin phasing in a more objective online exam starting in 2011-12. The state did not disclose on
Thursday how many portfolios, or packages of student worksheets, quizzes and activities, were given this year. But in Fairfax, just over 10,758 portfolios were adminis- tered, mostly in English and math, up from 9,439 the previous year. Portfolios tend to have high- er passing rates than multiple- choice tests. Average math scores continued to rise in Fairfax, the state’s larg-
est jurisdiction, across all sub- groups, while passing rates in English remained steady, drop- ping slightly for Hispanic stu- dents and those still learning English. Alexandria and Arlington missed the 80 percent graduation rate goal. Alexandria improved average math scores, while Eng- lish performance dipped for some groups. Average scores in Arling- ton County were static in English and up in math but fell short of the state goals for many groups. In Loudoun County, math and reading scores rose slightly, with overall passing rates exceeding 90 percent for each. But for the first time in at least three years, the district missed targets in reading for English learners and in math for some groups, including stu- dents with disabilities. Wayde Byard, spokesman for
Loudoun schools, said scores im- proved in many areas, so it seemed strange to fall short of state standards. But he knows the county is in good company. “This leaves us scratching our head a lit- tle bit,” he said.
chandlerm@washpost.com
FRIDAY, AUGUST 13, 2010 DIGEST THE DISTRICT
NW man dies of gunshot wounds A man shot Wednesday night
in Northwest Washington has died, authorities said, and police are investigating the incident as a homicide. The man, identified as Sean Robinson, 19, of the 1600 block of Euclid Street, was found shot in the 2500 block of Mozart Place west of 16th Street, a police spokesman said. Police found Robinson at 16th
and Mozart after receiving a call about 9:15 p.m., according to Hugh Carew, a police spokesman. Robinson was unconscious and not breathing when he was found, Carew said. — Mary Pat Flaherty
Ex-postal worker sentenced in thefts
A former U.S. Postal Service employee was sentenced Thurs- day to 25 months in prison and ordered to repay $134,417 that she stole from more than 50 Northeast Washington residents and businesses, authorities said Thursday.
Shareen Wilson, 42, pleaded
guilty June 2 to one count of mail theft and one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud as part of a ring that relied on her to steal federal income tax refund, Social Security and payroll checks as well as District payments to fos- ter parents. The thefts started in May 2008 and continued through February.
— Spencer S. Hsu VIRGINIA
False tipster guilty of obstruction
An Alexandria man who called in a false tip to Virginia State Po- lice in which he accused another man of kidnapping Morgan Har- rington from a Charlottesville rock concert last fall has been convicted of obstruction of jus- tice, police said Thursday. Police set up a tip line after
Harrington’s disappearance Oct. 17. State Police said Alvin T. Dan- iels, 51, called the tip line Nov. 11 and anonymously provided the name of a 34-year-old Prince Wil- liam County man he said was re- sponsible. Investigators checked out the tip, promptly determined that the Prince William man was not involved with Harrington, and soon after determined the identi- ty of the caller. The false accusa- tion was “an act of vengeance on the part of Daniels,” State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said Thursday.
Daniels was arrested in June and charged with a misdemeanor in Appomattox County, where the tip line was manned. Harrington’s body was found on a farm outside Charlottesville in January. No one has been charged in that case.
— Tom Jackman
Immigration powers urged for State Police
Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) sent a letter this week officially asking Homeland Security Secre- tary Janet Napolitano to allow state troopers to act as immigra- tion and customs agents. McDonnell has spent months behind the scenes trying to reach an agreement with the federal government to train and deputize troopers so they can make legal status checks and refer individu- als for deportation. McDonnell, a former state at-
torney general, helped several lo- calities, including Prince William County, enter into similar agree- ments. The Obama administration has declined to issue the so-called 287g agreements to some states in the past.
Richard Rocha, a spokesman
for U.S. Immigration and Cus- toms Enforcement, has said he could not comment on pending applications.
— Anita Kumar MARYLAND
Juvenile center may lose federal oversight Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) said
Thursday that federal monitors have decided to end oversight of the Baltimore City Juvenile Jus- tice Center. Courts are not expected to fi- nalize the decision for months, but it could spell the end of feder- al monitoring of juvenile facil- ities in Maryland for the first time in more than four years. The state’s juvenile justice sys- tem came under federal scrutiny during former governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr.’s (R) administration. — Aaron C. Davis
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