Release Asked Of School Scores On State Test

LANSING- The vice president of the State Board of Education plans to push for public release of building-bybuilding scores on the controversial statewide assessment tests. Dr. Michael J. Deeb, D-Mt. Clemens, saidthat contrary to some criticism he does have high faith in the value of the tests, but that the public should know exactly how pupils in a particular building do, nöt just an average for an entire school district. The State Board has released statewide results of how all 4th and 7th graders did on the tests on reading, arithimetic and written English, but district-by-district. Individual pupil and buildingby-building breakdowns are furnished to local school boards, but only a few have reported those results to the public. Dr. John W. Porter, superintendent of public instruction and chairman of the State Board, has agreed that some of the criticisms may be legitímate and that precautionary statements about use of the test results are necessary. But Deeb insists that Porter and other Department of Education officials needn't be so timid in explaining what the tests show. Releasing building-bybuilding scores would remove the complaint of educators and parents who say many individual students may do well even in a district which overall compares very poorly with other school systems, Deeb said. ____iJ