Pr. George's Cheers Gains In Test Scores

County Schools Still Rank Near Bottom Statewide

A year ago, Dodge Park Elementary in Landover was nobody's poster school. Three quarters of its third- and fifth-graders failed to show proficiency on state reading and mathematics tests. Stagnant scores landed the school on a state watch list.

Yesterday, Prince George's County school and elected officials converged on the modest hilltop campus to give its rookie principal, Judith White, a standing ovation for a breakthrough. More than half of Dodge Park's students reached proficiency in reading and math, according to Maryland School Assessment test data made public this week.

In practical terms, that means a student's grade level within the school now stands for something other than mere age.

"Reform doesn't happen unless it happens at the schoolhouse level," said Leroy Tompkins, the school system's chief accountability officer, as he highlighted Dodge Park and other testing bright spots in a news conference that had the air of a pep rally.

Rising scores at Dodge Park, a high-poverty school with predominantly black students, fit a larger pattern in which the county's test results rose overall at a faster clip than the state average, helping to narrow a stubborn black-white achievement gap statewide and buff, a bit, the image of a suburban Washington school system that has long had a lackluster reputation.

The developments were a welcome change of topic for officials who have had to respond to the May 27 resignation of schools chief Andre J. Hornsby amid an FBI investigation and ethics controversy.

"This news today will elevate us, perception-wise and in reality," said County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D). "We're on the right track."

With school test scores, achievement is always relative. All school systems face pressure under the federal No Child Left Behind law to raise minority student performance. Montgomery County's black and Hispanic students made major strides this year. So did black students in Anne Arundel County.

Caveats abound for the Prince George's scores. The 2005 tests, taken in March in elementary and middle schools, still show the system near the bottom of the pack, far trailing others in the percentage of students reaching advanced performance. Of 24 systems statewide, data seem to show that only Baltimore city schools scored lower than Prince George's overall.

Dorchester County schools, on the lower Eastern Shore, ranked behind Prince George's in eighth-grade math and third-grade reading. So did Somerset County schools, also on the Eastern Shore, in fifth-grade reading.

When compared with its Maryland neighbors, Prince George's still scores lower, well behind Howard, Calvert, Anne Arundel and Montgomery counties and somewhat behind Charles County.

In addition, Prince George's has more schools on the state watch list -- 73 -- than any system except Baltimore City. When the state releases new ratings in coming days that show how many schools made adequate yearly progress according to federal law, Prince George's might have to do more explaining than boasting. A school could be considered failing if just one group, such as special education students, do not show sufficient improvement. Dodge Park, for instance, is thought to be just on the cusp of making adequate progress.