Baltimore City?s middle and high school students aren?t on track to meet federal requirements that all students reach proficiency in reading and math in six years, a new report shows.
“Academic achievement improved among Baltimore City high school students, but improved too little to close the difference between them and Maryland students as a whole, or to be on pace to achieve the [No Child Left Behind] goal by 2014,” according to a report written every five years to evaluate the effects of a 1997 reform.
That year, the school system changed from a city department to an independent agency, and the school board became jointly appointed by the mayor and governor.
Since then, elementary school students have shown the most progress, resulting in the expectation that as they grow older, scores will improve, the report says.
The graduation rate of students improved to 60 percent in 2006-2007 from 54percent in 2003-2004, but that?s still the lowest in Maryland and lags behind the state average of 85 percent, the report states.
Parents can comment on the report at four public hearings this week, and many are watching as a sweeping overhaul by schools chief Andres Alonso unfolds.
Under his plan, principals are creating school-based budgets tailored to their students? needs instead of relying on cookie-cutter central office programs.
“We should really start letting principals have a say on what should go on during school hours,” Ashani Johnson, a fifth-grader at Leith Walk Elementary, wrote to Alonso and the school board.
“So this will be a good idea to restructure schools.”
Sound off
» 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Dr. Samuel Banks Professional Development Center, 2500 E. Northern Parkway
» 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Edmondson-Westside High School, 501 Athol Ave.
» 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, 1400 W. Cold Spring Lane
» 7 to 9 p.m. April 7, Southside Academy, 2700 Seamon Ave.
» The report is at bcps.k12.md.us/school_board/evaluation.asp
