Elementary and Middle MSA Results Are Up

Anne Arundel elementary and middle schools improved in both reading and math at every grade level tested this spring, according to 2006 Maryland School Assessment results released this week.

The best results, as in past years, were in the elementary schools. The countywide proficiency rate climbed to 88 percent in both third-grade reading and math. Performance was consistently high: All but eight of the 76 elementary schools tested showed proficiency of 75 percent or better in third-grade reading.

Middle school performance was better than last year, but results from school to school were less consistent. Five middle schools -- Central, Crofton, Magothy River, Severn River and Severna Park -- reported overall student proficiency well above 80 percent across the board. But at 10 other middle schools, average proficiency in reading and math fell below 70 percent.

On average, 87 percent of the county's elementary students earned proficiency, which means they rated either "proficient" or "advanced" on tests in reading and math. Students rated "basic," the lowest of three levels, are considered to lack proficiency. The proficiency rate in middle schools was 73 percent, 14 points below the elementary average.

Duane Arbogast, a testing specialist in the Anne Arundel schools, said that MSA test questions tend to become markedly more difficult as a student moves from the fifth grade into middle schools, which may go toward explaining why proficiency rates drop off notably between elementary schools and the middle schools they feed.

"I think the expectation is higher at sixth and seventh grade for performance," he said.

One big gainer among middle schools was Severn River in Arnold. There, proficiency in eighth-grade math has increased from 56 percent in 2003 to 87 percent this year.

"We focus on MSA-type questions a lot in the classroom," said Judy Maisel, the math department chair. "Our curriculum is designed so that we have covered all the things that the kids will see on the MSA before the MSA is given."

Another middle school that rated above average was Chesapeake Science Point Charter School in Hanover. One of two newly opened charter schools in Anne Arundel, Chesapeake Science Point was taken over by county school administrators in March after months of allegations that the school was being mismanaged. School founders had hoped that strong test scores might silence critics. The school's average proficiency rate in reading and math was about 78 percent, ahead of the rates of 15 other middle schools.

The other new charter school, KIPP, came to Anne Arundel as part of a successful operation that has produced dramatic gains with low-income students in Baltimore and Washington. But KIPP's first MSA scores in Anne Arundel were the lowest among all elementary schools tested in fifth-grade reading and math, with proficiency below 45 percent.

KIPP officials cited other statistics that indicate students made strong gains over the course of the 2005-06 academic year, and they noted that the company's reputation is built upon improvement across multiple years, not immediate results.

"The average KIPP Harbor Academy fifth-grade student began the year at the 10th percentile in reading and ended the year at the 24th," wrote Steve Mancini, a KIPP spokesman, in an e-mail. "If this rate of growth continues, we are confident KIPP Harbor Academy students will be achieving at high levels by eighth grade."

North Glen Elementary, the Glen Burnie campus whose efforts at narrowing a racial achievement gap merited a visit from President Bush in the past academic year, continued its upward progress on the MSA. The school's proficiency rate in third-grade reading reached 100 percent in 2006 for black students and 93 percent for white students. Scores improved in fifth grade, which was the school's sole weak spot on the 2005 MSA, with both blacks and whites showing better than 90 percent proficiency in fifth-grade math and about 80 percent in reading.

Did the staff feel any obligation to keep scores up at a school singled out by the president for closing the gap?

"Yes, there was a little pressure," laughed Julie Little McVearry, the new principal of North Glen. Students, for their efforts, will be rewarded in the fall with an opportunity to cover their principal with green Silly String and her hair with green spray paint.

Among the most improved elementary schools was Linthicum Elementary, near Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. Third-grade reading proficiency at the school has increased from 87 percent to 99 percent since 2004. The school now ranks fourth among the county's elementary schools, up from 18th in 2004.

"We think we've been top of the heap for a long time. But now our scores" reflect that, said Maureen Irion, who was principal at Linthicum until the end of the academic year. Irion is moving to Overlook Elementary, a neighboring campus that ranked fifth in the county this year in third-grade reading, to replace retiring principal Betty Freeland.