The pressure from federal mandates on schools in Montgomery County to improve the performance of struggling students may lift next year as Maryland likely begins a program to focus resources on the state’s lowest-performing schools.
The new program, developed by the U.S. Department of Education, would offer states more flexibility under No Child Left Behind, the sweeping federal law aimed at closing the racial and economic achievement gap, with the hope schools will develop creative means for saving schools in direst need.
A school such as Montgomery Blair High in Silver Spring, where only English-language learners failed to meet certain achievement goals for 2007, would not necessarily be treated the same under the law as the district’s Mark Twain School in Rockville, a special-needs school where students have failed to meet state goals in reading and math since 2005. Bill Reinhard, spokesman for the Maryland State Department of Education, said some schools need greater intervention at earlier times than others.
“This would allow us to bend the rules a little on how schools are looked at,” Reinhard said.
Kate Harrison, spokeswoman for Montgomery County schools, said it appears the program would be good for the district. Officials at the Department of Education, however, cautioned states will need to prove successful districts can’t be allowed to brush aside poorly performing groups of students.
Neighboring Prince George’s County has 68 schools in need of improvement, compared to 23 in Montgomery County, but fewer financial resources to address the mounting problems.
Under the new program, schools such as perpetually troubled Greenbelt Middle could attract resources, while overall high performers such as Beacon Hill Elementary could hone in on its two categories in need of improvement.
“This is long-overdue flexibility,” said Superintendent John Deasy. He said, however, that it “cannot to be used as license to stop being focused on an all-kids agenda.”
