Effort to Stretch Curriculum Comes Up Short at Largo High

Jan Mozee has been trying to transfer her son, junior Rajon Mozee, from Largo High School because of problems in two of his classes. (By Mark Gail -- The Washington Post)
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Rajon enrolled in Chinese in August and transferred into computer graphics in October. He remained in both classes even as it became clear they were not being taught as advertised. He said he had gone through too much trouble to transfer into computer graphics to transfer out again, and transferring to Spanish, a language he had previously failed, was a bad idea.

"The first teacher actually used to give us some work," Rajon said of his Chinese class. The substitute had the students listen to tapes and gave them assignments from the Chinese workbook, Rajon and another student enrolled in the class said.

Computer graphics became a class in sketching. Rajon showed an assignment in which he drew a CD cover by hand. He described another assignment in which he was asked to describe the color of yawning.

"I don't think the color of yawning has anything to do with computers," Rajon said.

Simpson Marcus said that students were learning how to use the computers in the graphics class, and that the long-term substitute in Chinese was following a curriculum set out by the head of the foreign language department. "Teaching and learning is taking place," she said.

Jan Mozee, a self-employed bookkeeper, knew of problems with both classes by October. "To say the least, I am very frustrated with the lack of resources and response at Largo and the school system," she wrote Nov. 6 in an e-mail forwarded to several school administrators. "I hope you can help me with this matter, because no one seems to be listening."

That week, Ritter wrote Mozee a lengthy and sympathetic e-mail recommending she transfer her son into Spanish, given the "critical shortage" of Chinese teachers. He judged that "without a highly qualified instructor, I would guess there is virtually no chance of mastering this language."

The computer class, Ritter said, was missing cables and tables. "That this is holding up the set up of an expensive state of the art computer graphics lab is hard for me to fathom but should be easy to fix," he wrote.

Mozee replied Nov. 16, refusing to transfer her son into Spanish. "Rajon shouldn't be penalized because the school system can't find a qualified teacher," she wrote. She was equally upset about the computers. "It's inexcusable that my tax dollars are wasting away on expensive equipment that is not being used."

"I agree fully about the computer lab and have directed my staff to effectuate a resolution," Ritter replied. He suggested that Rajon could move to another school that offered Chinese or Japanese.

On Nov. 18, Mozee notified Ritter that she would seek a transfer out of Largo.

The school system was trying to solve the problems. Gladys Whitehead, the school system's chief academic officer, said it reached out to the Chinese Embassy to find someone suitable, to no avail.

As one week turned into another, "you get to a point in the year where you're almost past the point of no return," Ritter said.

By the time the computer lab was working, the Mozees had requested a transfer to Eleanor Roosevelt, which posts the highest test scores among Prince George's high schools. Roosevelt's reputation for quality has made it one of the most crowded high schools.

The request was denied by the office of student transfers Nov. 29. Mozee's appeals Dec. 12 and Jan. 16, the last time to the Board of Education, also were turned down. Mozee sent her final appeal to the State Board of Education on Feb. 15. It has not ruled on the case.

Meanwhile, Rajon waits. He dreams of opening a business where he can tinker with electronics. He wants to visit Japan and has been teaching himself Japanese independently. In that language, he said, he can count to 100,000; after seven months of Chinese, he can't even count to 10.

"Really, I've only memorized one word the whole year," Rajon said. "And that's 'hello.' "