By Beth Berselli
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 10, 1998; Page M1

Public school systems in Charles and St. Mary's counties this week reported higher scores on the state skills assessment tests taken last spring, while Calvert County had a slight decline in its score.

Charles County schools posted a composite score of 41.9 percent, up 3.5 percentage points from the previous year. St. Mary's composite climbed 2.5 percentage points to 48.8 percent, while Calvert's score, still the highest in the region, dropped 0.5 percentage point to 53.8 percent.

The marks are for the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program (MSPAP), a battery of tests given each spring to third-, fifth- and eighth-graders across the state. The tests measure student proficiency in such basic skills as reading, writing, language usage, math, science and social studies. The state Department of Education released the MSPAP results on Tuesday.

Statewide, 44.1 percent of students earned a satisfactory score on tests given during the 1997-98 school year. That was 2.3 percentage points higher than the previous year, but it leaves most Maryland students far below the state's goal of 70 percent reaching satisfactory scores by 2000.

The much anticipated scores can bring extra state money to schools that show improvement, while poor-performing schools can be "reconstituted," losing self-governance to the state.

With their higher scores, Charles and St. Mary's counties improved their rankings among the state's 24 school systems. St. Mary's moved up to 10th place, from 13th last year, and Charles advanced one place to No. 19 this year. Calvert slipped in the rankings from the third best-performing school system to the sixth best this year.

St. Mary's stands out among the three school systems for having one school that already meets the state's 70 percent satisfactory standard. Town Creek Elementary School in Lexington Park posted a composite score of 75.5 percent, one of only 80 schools statewide to achieve the standard. The elementary school also qualified as an "excellent" school because at least 25 percent of students achieved the excellent level, in addition to at least 70 percent who scored satisfactorily.

"We think that's pretty remarkable," said Patricia M. Richardson, the superintendent for the St. Mary's schools. "That's a signal that we do have the right programs in place."

Richardson also said the school system is among Maryland's most improved performers since 1993, when the state first reported test scores. St. Mary's has boosted its composite by 21.1 percentage points from its original score of 27.7 percent. That's the second-biggest jump in the state, behind the Eastern Shore's Kent County.

Education Department officials this week also recognized the county's Banneker-Loveville Elementary School for its progress since 1993. The school's average score climbed to 61.3 percent this year, from 32.5 percent in 1993.

In Charles County, school officials said the largest improvements this year were in reading scores. Students posted a 17.6-point gain in reading across all three grades, which officials attributed to a new countywide reading program that has brought specially trained teachers into classrooms. The school system also has instituted summer reading workshops for below-average and advanced readers.

"There are some good signs here," said James E. Richmond, the Charles schools' superintendent. "We have not yet reached our goals, but the improvement in the reading scores and the overall county average shows we are moving in the right direction."

Also behind the increase, he said, is a new emphasis on training teachers for MSPAP. Charles teachers now receive between 24 and 32 hours of MSPAP training each school year, compared with virtually no training two years ago.

In Calvert County, schools' superintendent James R. Hook said he was disappointed that the system's scores dropped slightly. State officials, however, said they don't consider a half-point decline to be statistically significant. They also noted that several high-performing systems, including Howard County, have seen their scores plateau over the years.

"We're certainly not pleased because we had very ambitious goals," Hook said. "Last year was so good, we thought we might be able to push up to first or second place in the state."

He said growth in student population might be one possible reason for the lower scores. The extra students have necessitated redistricting, and that disruption might have had some effect, he said.

"But we're not going to make excuses," Hook said. "We're not going to be satisfied until we meet the 70 percent standard."

Hook also pointed out that Calvert schools achieved the state's satisfactory and excellent standards in the eighth-grade science test, a rarity among Maryland's school systems.

State officials recognized Calvert's Southern Middle School for its MSPAP improvements. The school's composite score was 55.7 percent this year, compared with 32 percent in 1993.