78-06-B2

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Greensville County Elections

Transcript Most of us have little or no reason to know anything about little Greensville County, Virginia. It has only 17,000 inhabitants and none of them is famous, except maybe Sam Owen. Sam is the county superintendent of schools. His fame comes from the fact that he is one of the first superintendent of schools in the country to put an end to social promotions. Ever since the one-room, upgraded country school gave way to the graded school concept, the idea of the social promotion has been flourishing. According to that concept, each year every child moves on to the next grade unless he or she is hopelessly behind his or her classmates. The older idea of promotion as a reward for achievement is no longer in fashion. Promotion today, in most schools, means the child has completed another year of attendance without being conspicuously retarded compared to the rest of the class. Five years ago Sam Owen began to balk at this practice. Sam recognized that in his county schools--and in schools all over the country--merit had disappeared as a justification for promotion. The children were moving steadily up and out, alright, but hardly anyone was stopping to ask just what it was those children had learned to do year by year. So, Sam Owen took a drastic step. He ordered an end to social promotions. He installed an achievement testing program to help him, the teachers, parents and students, to find out whether eighth graders were really doing eighth grade work. And, at the end of the school year 1300 of Greensville County's 3750 pupils learned that they would not be promoted to the next grade. There was an uproar. Parents and students screamed for Sam's head. But he held his ground. In fact, he went on the offensive. When the noise level had subsided to a clamor, Sam Owen told the people of Greensville County that the 60cial promotion system was a vicious system. It was a system which deluded schoolchildren into believing they were acquiring real skills, when many of them simply were not. It was a system that encouraged teachers to believe they were doing their job, even as many students were falling further behind. Sam Owen told the people of his county that as long as he was to be their superintendent of schools, he would demand of their children the best that was in each of them. And he led the way for a complete redesign of the county school system to focus on achievement and excellence. It is now in its fifth year, and here's what Sam Owen says about the results: QUOTE--"Students now manifest an increased interest in learning. Parents have become more concerned about their children's skills, and the cooperation of many parents has had a helpful effect on our program. Their involvement has made our task easier. Teachers are experiencing a renewed pride and sense of professional accomplishment in seeing outstanding achievement gains by their students." --UNQUOTE And in the five years of the county's Minimal Competency program, achievement scores have climbed steadily, and pupil retentions: have declined sharply. Sam Owen and the people of Greensville County believe their program may be the trend of tomorrow in public education. I hope they're right. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening.		Details Batch Number 78-06-B2 Production Date 03/13/1978 Book/Page Online PDF Audio Youtube? No
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