A Deep Breath as Class Starts

Montgomery Faces Challenges Including Higher Enrollment, Md. Exit Exams

Thomas Anderson stood yesterday at an intersection of freshly polished linoleum hallways at John F. Kennedy High School in Silver Spring, fulfilling one of the simplest of a principal's duties on the first day of school: helping freshmen find their way to class. Room 273? "Around the corner and to the left," he said with the dispatch of a traffic officer. Room 261? "That way."

He and the Kennedy faculty now face a more daunting task: helping seniors find their way to diplomas.

The Class of 2009 is the first in Maryland that must pass four end-of-course exams or complete alternative academic projects to graduate. With the mandate, Maryland joins 22 states, including Virginia, that require seniors to show what they have learned before they can cross the stage. D.C. public schools do not have high-stakes exit exams.

Maryland's High School Assessments might be the defining issue of the 2008-09 year, which began this week, for schools in Montgomery and Prince George's counties and elsewhere. But the tests are hardly the only issue confronting the Montgomery school system, the state's largest. Montgomery schools face an unusually bleak budget year, coupled with an unexpected enrollment surge. Superintendent Jerry D. Weast projected an increase of at least 1,200 students over last year's enrollment of 137,717, breaking a five-year cycle of stagnant growth. The gains are coming in unexpected places: Bethesda, where cash-crunched families are switching from private schools, and Silver Spring, which has an influx of young children.

"Well over a thousand students already this morning," Weast said at Shady Grove Middle School in Gaithersburg.

Weast is an outspoken critic of Maryland's exit exams. He says they are too easy and force teachers to dwell on remedial skills instead of more rigorous fare. Other critics say the tests are too difficult, at least for some, and will probably derail graduation prospects of otherwise capable and diligent teens. Particular concern has been raised about students who are learning English or have disabilities.

State education leaders, and others who support the national trend toward exit exams, say the tests ensure no one will graduate without documented skills in algebra, biology, government and 10th-grade English. The tests measure students on material "that every student should be able to get," said Ronald Peiffer, deputy superintendent of Maryland schools.

Anderson, at Kennedy High, said he would prefer to set loftier goals for his students than passing the exit exams: getting more students to take the SAT or ACT college-admissions exam or elevating Advanced Placement performance. Kennedy's last graduating class was given a 1.53 on the Post's Challenge Index, a measure of AP and other college-level testing that placed the school among the top 5 percent in the nation -- a notable feat for a school in which 31 percent of students come from families poor enough to qualify for federal meal subsidies.

"Those college entrance exams: to me, that's where the bar is," Anderson said as he made the rounds at school. "We don't do pep rallies; we don't sing and dance for the HSA."

But Anderson knows he cannot ignore the exit exams. Pass rates at Kennedy last year ranged from 60 percent in English to 80 percent in government. For some students, passing all four has posed a significant challenge.

Trey Tyiska, 17, a senior, had to take the English exam twice. He passed the second time and is on track to graduate.

"It was because of all the writing and the reading and the time that they gave you for the test," he said.