Schools Await Final Grade

Photos
Twenty-Nine Days and Counting
With 29 days left until the Maryland School Assessments in reading in math, Charles Carroll Middle School is at the end of the line. But what happens next?

Two last-stage schools in Prince George's met state standards last year and can leave the watch list with a repeat performance: Stephen Decatur Middle in Clinton and Thurgood G. Marshall Middle in Temple Hills. Three fell just short: Bladensburg Elementary, Gaywood Elementary in Seabrook and Overlook Elementary in Temple Hills.

The county's other three last-stage schools face a steeper climb: Nicholas Orem Middle in Hyattsville, G. Gardner Shugart Middle in Temple Hills and Charles Carroll Middle.

The typical Prince George's plan calls for a turnaround specialist from a regional office to work with a principal. Wood, 32, whose mother is also a Prince George's principal, consults with his specialist about 10 hours a week. He has after-school and Saturday enrichment programs for several dozen targeted students. And he has goodwill from teachers and parents who want him to succeed. They credit him for bringing calm to a chaotic campus.

Last school year, teacher Ricardo Navas recalled, "you'd have stampedes, running in the hallway, fights breaking out. Sometimes there'd be waves of stampedes."

Jesse Sharpe, father of an eighth-grader and leader of a parent-teacher organization, said: "We were about to send our daughter somewhere else. But on day one, Principal Wood said, 'Give me a chance.' I can tell you, my daughter feels so much better now coming to this school than last year."

Turning goodwill into adequate yearly progress -- the currency of public education these days -- is another matter. Wood is drilling his students on the stakes of the coming Maryland School Assessments in reading and math. He recently ventured into a seventh-grade math class and asked, "Who knows how many days there are until the MSA?"

"Twenty-nine!" the students sang out in unison.

In a seventh-grade morning homeroom, others echoed the school line.

"We need to get our grades up and be ready for the MSA," said LaShawnda Walker, 12, "because in the past, the test scores were low."

DeAngelo Belton, 12, said: "They always say it's so important that we need to study. It's the biggest test."