More than 70 percent of Montgomery County students in kindergarten through second grade are reading at their grade level, with black and Hispanic children making the biggest strides, according to data released yesterday by school officials.
The number of black students in second grade who passed local and national reading tests jumped to 61 percent last year, up 22 percentage points over two years. Among Hispanic children, that rate rose to 54 percent, an increase of 26 percentage points. Students who are poor, speak limited English or have disabilities also recorded double-digit increases.
Superintendent Jerry Weast says the district has work to do, "but the work is not as big as it was."
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Despite the gains, minority groups continue to lag behind their white counterparts. Eighty-three percent of white second-graders passed the reading exams.
Montgomery School Superintendent Jerry D. Weast acknowledged the persistent gap in performance even as he touted students' gains at a news conference yesterday at New Hampshire Estates Elementary School in Silver Spring, where 80 percent of students are poor and more than one-third speak English as a second language.
"The bad news is that you need to do even more," he told a crowd of teachers, parents, students and administrators. "We still got work to do, but the work is not as big as it was at one time."
Weast was hired to lead the state's largest school system six years ago on the promise that he would rebuild faltering schools and close the achievement gap. In the 2000-01 school year, he embarked on a signature initiative to boost performance in a section of the county he labeled the "red zone" -- a swath of low-income schools cutting through the center of the county -- with smaller class sizes, full-day kindergarten and increased teacher training.
County Council President Tom Perez (D-Silver Spring), whose children attend Rolling Terrace Elementary School in the red zone, said the reading reports are a testament to the success of Weast's initiative.
Students who were kindergartners when the program began -- today's fourth-graders -- have made significant gains in reading each year, county data show. Last year, 78 percent of them passed the state's reading test, which is given to students in grades 3 through 8 and in 10th grade.
"If you invest, you can get the results," Perez said.
But Weast, along with other school and local officials, has faced criticism over the program's $60 million price tag and the amount of resources devoted to students in the red zone. Average per-student spending countywide is $8,792 for kindergartners and $11,178 for elementary school students. Weast said the district has spent an additional $1,960 per child in the red zone.
Federal dollars accounted for only about a quarter of that money, he said. And Weast cautioned that more funding will be needed as the district faces a rapidly diversifying student body and strict federal performance requirements from the No Child Left Behind Act.
"It's going to take more to do the same," Weast said.
No Child Left Behind requires all students -- including those who are poor, speak limited English or are disabled -- to pass state tests in reading and math by 2014. Schools are graded each year on their performance. If students do not fare well, schools could face sanctions that include allowing students to transfer out and, eventually, being taken over by the state.
