Reports of faltering schools across Maryland mar the anticipation of a new school year that should be focused on positive activities like buying school supplies and meeting new teachers. These discouraging numbers should leave parents to wonder what their district school can or cannot provide for their children. Instead, the state board of education chose to highlight the four out of five elementary schools statewide that met performance benchmarks.
But what of the remaining one in five? Thousands of Maryland?s children attend the 167 schools that did not meet performance standards last year. And, 20 percent more schools failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress this year than last year.
Why aren?t taxpayers (parents) demanding the same level of quality and accountability from schools that they expect from their local Best Buy, car dealership or pizza joint? Taxpaying parents are the customers of public school districts, but where is the outrage? Parents as well as legislators, school chiefs and teachers should treat this sorry lineup of underperformers as evidence of a real emergency, whose most direct victims are our children.
In fact, three-quarters of Maryland?s elementary and middle schools in need of improvement are located in Prince George?s County and Baltimore City, the two districts with the greatest number of low-income students in the state. Therefore, in Maryland, low-income neighborhoods often have under-performing schools, although all public schools are funded by taxpayer dollars. One could then conclude that tax dollars in poorer neighborhoods buy less.
Montgomery County has its problems, too, 12 elementary and middle schools need improvement. And what of Baltimore City?s 11 worst schools, which the General Assembly allowed to sit another year without possibility of a state school board takeover? These schools don?t need another year of wait time. They need immediate attention, or should be closed.
No Child Left Behind is not and should not be a panacea, but does serve as a measure of school performance. The law makes public, in black and white, those schools that aren?t making the grade. Marylanders should consider additional options such as vouchers, transferable pupil spending or charter schools. Such parent-initiated choices are described in “School Choice in Maryland: A Guide for Families and Voters,” to be published this week by The Maryland Public Policy Institute. School choice programs are working in cities with similar demographics to Baltimore, such as Cleveland and Milwaukee. Why should Baltimore wait?
Even those who oppose “high stakes testing” and the federal requirements of NCLB cannot pretend these 167 schools are doing well. The department, however, says that AYP numbers are much more nuanced than the press has reported. State Superintendent of Schools Nancy S. Grasmick and her policy staff said they are closely monitoring the progress of the 167 schools, but that many of the remaining schools on the needs-improvement list barely missed benchmarks by a few students, usually in the limited English and special education categories. Grasmick also said that more schools are on the needs-improvement list this year because “the bar is being continually raised” for student achievement.
A more nuanced discussion of AYP numbers is definitely warranted. At the same time, we should not overlook that thousands of students are still not being educated up to the standards created by a state panel of community stakeholders and the department of education.
Education is a joint effort with many stakeholders. Parents are their children?s first teachers, but school boards, superintendents and principals in failing schools also need to step up and address this systemic lag in learning. A change in approach to education is needed ? in the General Assembly, the teachers? union, on school boards, in county and city councils and in PTAs. The charter school law needs teeth. This and other school choice measures should receive greater weight in the education discussion. Regardless of how many schools were close to meeting AYP, 167 schools are still failing. Why should so many children in schools around the state, year after year, miss the chance to acquire adequate math and reading skills?
Editor?s note: In the first version of this column Alison Lake called, in its conclusion, for Maryland State Superintendent of Schools Nancy Grasmick?s resignation. We sent Grasmick a copy and asked her to respond to Lake. Grasmick declined. But she called to talk with Lake about what she had written. Lake then called and asked us to run this column instead.
Alison Lake is managing editor at The Maryland Public Policy Institute and former evaluator of public schools for the Department of Education?s Blue Ribbon Schools program.
