Arthur G. Purves, president of the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance, reported today that the organizers of the Wednesday, October 11, "Town Hall" on the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) tests have told the Taxpayers Alliance to not distribute handouts at the meeting. Reasons given were that there would be "too many handouts" and that the organizers did not want "other agendas" represented at the meeting.

"The agenda of the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is to support the SOL tests," Mr. Purves affirmed. "I had thought that the purpose of the Town Hall was to allow parents to benefit from the exchange of ideas. I had also heard that the organizers had had difficulty getting supporters of the SOLs to attend, but when I offered to bring pro-SOL handouts, they told me to organize my own event"

Mr. Purves had proposed bringing a handout showing the average SAT percentiles of Fairfax County Public High Schools. The average score of Fairfax County Public Schools' students on last year's SAT test was at the 64th percentile. The top-scoring high schools were Thomas Jefferson, at the 98thpercentile, and Langley, at 76th percentile. The lowest scoring high school was at the 39th percentile.

The Fairfax County Public Schools does not publish its SAT percentiles. Mr. Purves had also proposed bringing graphs of Fairfax County Public Schools' SAT scores, minority student test scores, and per-student spending over the last 25 years. While per-student spending, adjusted for inflation, doubled, test scores remained stagnant There has been a small increase in SAT scores since 1997, but since then the percentage of students taking the SATs decreased from 89 percent to 81 percent. There has been no improvement in the minority student achievement gap since the schools started reporting test scores by ethnic group in 1983.

Mr. Purves stated, "I wanted to show that prior to the SOL tests, achievement had stagnated at the 70th percentile while spending soared. The reasons for the poor performance were that the state had absolutely no academic standards for accrediting public schools and that the only test students had to pass to get a high school diploma was a test administered in the sixth grade, the Virginia Literacy Passport Test."

Mr. Purves hopes that the organizers will still allow him to bring the pro-SOL handouts. "The free exchange of ideas is a pillar of democracy," Mr. Purves concluded. The Town Hall will be held at Luther Jackson Middle School at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Qctober 11, 2000.