More minority students in Montgomery County Public Schools failed the Maryland exit exams than in 2009, instead completing projects to secure diplomas.
About 10 percent of both black and Hispanic students qualified to graduate through the Bridge Plan for Academic Validation, an alternative project meant to demonstrate subject mastery. Students must fail the Maryland High School Assessments, or HSAs, at least twice before being eligible for the Bridge Plan. In 2009, less than 5 percent of Hispanic students and 7.6 percent of black students required the alternative.
Just 1.3 percent of white students and 2.5 percent of Asian students took this route in 2010, compared to 0.2 percent and 1.7 percent in 2009, respectively.
Graduation rates increased for both Montgomery and Fairfax schools, with Fairfax watching 91.2 percent of students cross the platform, up from 90.4 percent in 2009. Hispanic students, who have consistently graduated at lower rates in Northern Virginia, increased their rate by more than 2 percent to 75.3 percent.
Montgomery’s rate swelled 2.5 percentage points to 90.2 percent, an increase school officials attributed to gains among black students, whose rate rose 5 percent to 85.8 percent.
Much of Montgomery County Superintendent Jerry Weast’s 11-year tenure has focused on closing the “achievement gap” between black and Hispanic students and their higher-performing white and Asian peers.
“We have a firm commitment to a vision that race, ethnicity and poverty will not be predictors of academic success,” said Weast, who is retiring in June.
But more minority students failed the HSAs: 88.5 percent of black students passed, down from 90.1 in 2009; meanwhile, 88.2 percent of Hispanic students passed, down from 91.4 percent. Nearly 99 percent of white students passed the HSAs, as did 97 percent of Asian students, for drops of less than 1 percentage point from 2009. (The pass rate includes multiple attempts.)
Lesli Maxwell, spokeswoman for Montgomery schools, said officials are “more focused on getting all of our kids ready for college. We’re aiming higher than what the state tests ask for.”
On Virginia’s Standards of Learning Exams, both black and Hispanic students posted gains of 4 percentage points in math; black students’ reading performance increased by 1 point, and Hispanic students fell by 1 point.
Jane Strauss, a Fairfax school board member, said eCard, a student tracking system implemented in 2007, has helped monitor students’ progress toward a diploma.
“We have become very strategic in how we help kids who are struggling,” Strauss said.
