Most Schools Failed, But Experts Call Va. Tests Fair

By Jessica Portner

A panel of testing experts has declared Virginia's new state exams fair and accurate a month after students' high failure rates on the high-stakes assessment were announced.

Virginia officials said last month that 97 percent of the state's schools had flunked the exams that eventually will determine whether schools are accredited and students graduate. Some district leaders immediately questioned whether the exams were a good measure of student achievement. ( "Massive Failure Rates on New Tests Daze Va.," Jan. 20, 1999.)

Only 39 of Virginia's 1,800 public schools--or 2.2 percent--met the performance goals, which are linked to the state's Standards of Learning, in the first round of tests students took last spring. Though admired for their rigor and copied by other states, Virginia's new standards have been criticized as relying too heavily...