A New Year, a Great Many Changes
County Faces Transition To Bolster Education

By Nelson Hernandez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 16, 2007

When the 133,000 students and 10,000 teachers of Prince George's County set out for the first day of school Monday, they will enter a system in the middle of a transformation.

This year, there are 91 new pre-kindergarten classes, at least 36 new principals and one new school, Northview Elementary in Bowie. Every middle school will have a new program intended to bolster student achievement. Every high school will offer at least eight Advanced Placement courses, and school administrators expect the largest increase in the number of students taking the challenging AP tests in the county's history.

In the pipeline are even larger changes, which are in their formative stages this year. Superintendent John E. Deasy has far-reaching plans: to create high school academies that will provide students with specialized content, to open dozens of small "contract schools" that will use a variety of educational methods and to test a voluntary program that would pay teachers more for solid performance.

The county Board of Education has ideas, too, such as increasing the amount of time students spend on physical exercise and organizing a bilingual "parent summit" to mobilize support for the school system and engage the county's growing Latino community.

Asked about the purpose of the changes, Deasy answered: "To continue to substantially increase student achievement and to close the gaps in student achievement. That's the goal. That's why we do everything."

Arnold and Shelley Kee of Bowie said they find many reasons to be optimistic about the upcoming school year as they prepare to send their sons, Spencer, 8, and Sterling, 6, to Heather Hills Elementary School.

"First, we see how the county is trying to infuse more academic rigor throughout the system," the couple wrote in an e-mail. "Second, we see -- at last -- a school CEO and an elected school board working together. Third, our own school has done everything it could to work with us last year, and we believe the same will happen this year. By working in partnership with our school, we saw our sons thrive academically and socially."

The Kees said they hope an organization they founded, Expanding the Circle of Excellence, will help increase parental involvement and support changes aimed at raising academic standards across the county.

Deasy has been laying the groundwork for the changes implemented this year since May 2006, when he came from the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District in California to take over the much larger Prince George's school system. A man of restless energy, Deasy has acted quickly. He said he has been driven by the urgency of the situation facing Prince George's schools, which the state placed in "corrective action" last year despite steadily improving test scores. Moreover, by 2009, all Maryland high school students will be required to pass a set of four exams to graduate.

Deasy's proposals tackle every level of the school system, from the moment students enter a school building to the day they graduate. In the long run, the proposals also aim to change how parents and teachers work with the school system. Deasy plans to have a PTA and a parent liaison in every school to help parents get involved and get their questions answered.

"The plans are huge," school board member Rosalind A. Johnson (District 1) said.

Johnson said she was especially proud of the pre-kindergarten program, which is meant to prepare children from poor families for the rigors of the classroom.

The additional pre-kindergarten classes have made the program available to all children who turn 4 by Sept. 1, who live within school district boundaries (or are homeless) and whose families meet state income guidelines.

Deasy has presented a plan to open dozens of small, specialized schools over several years; the school system is still determining how those schools would work. The schools would be part of an effort to improve academic performance, give parents choices in their children's education, lure students from private schools to the public school system and keep others from leaving or dropping out.

The schools would offer pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade education, and each would have no more than 300 to 400 students. Located in nontraditional settings or unused wings of schools, they would use a variety of education methods: single-sex instruction, language immersion, specialized courses in different fields.

This year, there also will be an intensified focus on middle school, viewed by educators as the critical link between the very different environments of elementary and high school. In June, Deasy presented a plan to have each of the county's 30 middle schools offer a "signature program" that would bolster academic rigor. Although some of the programs will be familiar -- such as the French immersion, Montessori method and fine arts programs -- others will be new, such as a mid-level International Baccalaureate program and lesser-known programs called Achievement Via Individual Determination and America's Choice.

Finally, the effects of Deasy's reorganization of high school education will begin to be seen this year. High schools thus far were distributed into five geographic regions along with the rest of the county's schools, but this year they will be in a group of their own called the "high school consortium," which will allow closer coordination among the schools.

Deasy's plan to have academies at each high school offering specialized programs -- in science, business, the arts and other fields -- is still in the works, but the expanded AP courses will be on offer starting Monday.

Although this school year will be marked by several differences, many things will remain the same. Deasy said the school system has followed a "massive internal checklist" to get prepared: The books are in, the bus routes have been tested, the teachers trained, and every cafeteria is ready to serve students.

"This is more of a stressful and busy time for us, just making sure that everything is ready to go," said John C. White, a school system spokesman. "But I think everybody's getting excited."