Students in the Maryland suburbs showed slight improvements on the most recent round of standardized tests, but persistent pockets of mediocre performance remained.
In Montgomery County, 91 percent of students in third through fifth grade scored “proficient” or “advanced” on the reading portion of the Maryland Standardized Assessment, commonly called the MSA. About 88 percent of the students scored proficient or higher on the math portion.
Those numbers are up significantly from 2003. But compared with 2007, fewer fourth-graders scored proficient in reading, and fewer fifth-graders scored proficient in math.
“We’re always looking for improvement, and we’re always careful to look at the ongoing trends,” said Shirley Brandman, president of the Montgomery County school board. “We’ve had a continual narrowing of the [achievement] gap, which is critical, and improvement at the middle school level, which is critical.”
While middle school test scores improved overall, four schools — Banneker, Forest Oak, Neelsville and Gaithersburg Middle — were singled out under the federal No Child Left Behind law for failing to meet achievement targets for two years in a row.
Eight other Montgomery middle schools and three elementary schools did not meet their targets for the first time. The district pointed out, though, that for the second year in a row, none of the 28 lowest-income schools failed to meet its targets.
“We are pleased with the progress, but know that we have much more work to do to ensure that every child is ready for college,” said Superintendent Jerry Weast.
Since he became superintendent in 1996, Weast has been vocal about eliminating the achievement gap between black and Hispanic students, and their white and Asian peers. Tuesday’s test results showed that test scores have improved more rapidly for blacks and Hispanics, but they still remain significantly behind their peers in math and reading.
Among third-graders, 77 percent of black students scored proficient or better in math, compared with 95 percent of Asian students. In eighth-grade reading, 78 percent of Hispanic students scored proficient or above, compared with 96 percent of white students.
In neighboring Prince George’s County, 46 schools have failed to meet targets for at least two consecutive years . As in Montgomery, the county’s highest levels of achievement came in elementary reading, where 81 percent of fifth-grade students earned proficiency. The lowest levels came in eighth-grade math, where only 43 percent of students scored proficient.
“While we did not see as dramatic gains as last year in our overall scores, we are still on track for improving,” said Prince George’s Superintendent William Hite.
