Under the No Child Left Behind law, U.S. school districts are judged not just by overall scores on state standardized tests but by how their students within 20 "subgroups" perform. For example, most of a district's students can succeed on a particular test, but if a majority of its low-income students fail the exam, the district can be deemed failing.
The subgroups include students categorized by race, income, disability and fluency in English. Attendance and graduation rates are also taken into consideration.
State Sen. Ulysses Currie calls the local schools "the most appropriate place" for students to get tutoring.
(Courtesy of Ulysses Currie)
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Every Maryland school system failed to meet state benchmarks in at least one of those categories last year, Peiffer said. He declined to say how many again failed this year. To be removed from "in need of improvement" status, a system must meet the benchmarks for two consecutive years.
"It doesn't mean that a system is totally non-functioning," Peiffer said. "It just means that there are some areas they need to work on. Nevertheless, the [No Child Left Behind] law is structured to be all or nothing."
Prince George's educators have long struggled to improve test scores in the midst of organizational turmoil. Recent weeks have been no different. Hornsby, in his second year as chief executive of the 140,000-student district, is facing a review by the county school board's ethics panel -- and by the state prosecutor's office -- over a 10-day trip to South Africa that he accepted last year from a Minnesota-based company that does business with the school system.
The ethics panel also is looking into Hornsby's role in nearly $1 million worth of purchases that the district made from a California-based software company, LeapFrog SchoolHouse, that employs a woman with whom he lives.
In an interview last week, Hornsby said that the woman, Sienna Owens, sells the company's products in Virginia, not Maryland, and that their relationship did not influence purchasing decisions. He said the "scholarship" he accepted from Plato Learning, another software company, for the South Africa trip was related to a leadership position he held with the National Alliance of Black School Educators and also had no bearing on how the Prince George's district conducts business.
Hornsby characterized the controversy as "character assassination" by people he would not name and said he planned to keep focusing on improving the school system. Since his arrival 15 months ago from New York, Hornsby has toughened academic standards, helped erase an $82 million budget deficit and generally raised test scores -- though the scores remain among the lowest in Maryland.
For example, the percentage of Prince George's students passing the state reading and math exams increased in the past year in grades 3, 5 and 8, according to results released in June. Scores also rose among high school students.
Howard Tutman, president of the County Council of PTAs, said the inquiries into Hornsby's conduct are "another distraction." He added, "We want our children's education improved, and this is pulling the focus away from improving the county's schools."
Staff writers Ylan Q. Mui and Nurith C. Aizenman contributed to this report.
