Howard County community leaders said they were elated to hear about the test score gains of minority students on the 2006 Maryland School Assessments.
“We are very happy to see the improvement, and we?re working to continue this effort by working with the Board of Education and the superintendent,” said Jenkins Odoms, president of the Howard County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and president of the Maryland State Conference of the NAACP.
The Howard County branch of the NAACP annually publishes an education report card analyzing black student achievement. The group also meets regularly with the School Board to develop ways to improve academic achievement among black students.
The MSAs measures student proficiency in reading and math for grades 3 through 8. Black and Hispanic students have long lagged behind their Caucasian and Asian counterparts on the tests.
The 2006 results show the students making improvement. The percent of proficient black students in math jumped 4 percentage points from the 2005 MSAs, and the percent of proficient Hispanic students jumped 5 percentage points.
In reading, black students remained at 74 proficient, while Hispanic students increased 3 percentage points.
Murray Simon, president of Conexiones, an organization which strives to ensure that all Hispanic students in the countygraduate from high school, said, “The scores are increasing, and that?s very good. We?d like to see a continuous trend.”
At a glance
» Black students
Percent proficient in reading: 74
Percent proficient in math: 64
» Hispanic students
Percent proficient in reading: 74
Percent proficient in math: 67
? Source: 2006 MSA results via Howard County Public School System
