Maryland students will soon be able to dodge failing marks on state proficiency tests required for graduation. The schools they leave behind, though, will still suffer the consequences.
Administrators fear a Maryland State Board of Education effort to help low-performing high schoolers graduate ends up putting schools at risk of failing to meet the demands of No Child Left Behind.
The so-called Bridge Plan for Academic Validation, to begin this summer, offers students who have twice failed their required standardizedtests in algebra, biology, English or government to complete projects in the subject area as a substitute. Schools, however, depend on test scores to show the federal government they’re meeting standards for yearly progress.
Schools that fail to meet No Child Left Behind standards are subject to loss of local control and even closure.
“Students will complete the graduation requirements but the system could still be negatively impacted,” said John Deasy, superintendent of Prince George’s County schools, at a school board meeting this week.
Deasy said the district “hasn’t seen money to support what will be a fairly massive endeavor,” referring to hours and resources spent instructing and evaluating the projects.
The project loophole, Deasy said, could affect thousands of students and their teachers. In Prince George’s, 2,327 students in the class of 2009 have yet to pass the state Algebra test. In neighboring Montgomery County, 1,251 students are at risk.
The Bridge Plan “doesn’t meet all of the exacting controls you need in place to meet NCLB testing standards,” said Ron Peiffer, the state’s deputy superintendent. “But as far as we’re concerned, it’s equally rigorous, so you take the good with the bad.”
Peiffer said his office is in the process of allowing schools additionalways to avoid federal sanctions, but offered little financial solace, saying districts will be expected to redirect money used for other forms of remediation.
Ron Watson, vice chair of Prince George’s Board of Education, said state regulators “put a band-aid fix on a serious problem.”
