By Katherine Shaver
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 14, 1997; Page B01

For seven straight years, Howard County has ranked first on the Maryland Department of Education's annual "report card" on school districts, based largely on the superior testing performance of schoolchildren in the central Maryland suburb.

Those top scores are Howard County's pride and joy. Published every fall, they are touted frequently by school board members, real estate agents and politicians, and by many parents who say the school system's state test scores attracted them to Howard County over other Washington suburbs.

But some Howard parents and teachers have begun to question whether their bragging rights have come at a price. Those top scores, critics say, may reflect the fact that some Howard schools are spending too much valuable class and homework time – up to one month of the nine-month school year – simply preparing students for a week-long series of standardized tests.

"The truth is, they live and die for these test scores," said Mimi Owens, of Columbia, who believes her seventh-grade daughter spent too much time preparing for the tests two years ago. "Everything is tied to how well those kids do."

Concern over whether the push to excel on exams is shortchanging children comes at a time when politicians across the country, from President Clinton to members of Congress, are calling for more standardized tests as a way to hold schools accountable for their students' learning.

Every school district in the Washington area is paying more attention to the testing performance of its students, in part because the stakes are high. In Virginia, where new standardized tests will be given next spring, schools eventually could lose accreditation if they do not reach at least a 70 percent passing rate. For the first time in the District, children who fail new standardized tests in reading may be held back.

Some Virginia teachers have criticized the state's forthcoming tests as too fact-based, saying they worry they will be forced to turn from creative teaching to more rote memorization.

"It's a tremendous amount of pressure coming from administrators saying, `These students have got to pass, they have to pass,' " said Meg Gruber, president of the Prince William Education Association. "How do you ensure someone passes a certain test? You drill and drill and drill what you know is supposed to be on that test."

In Maryland, the state's Department of Education uses test scores from third-, fifth- and eighth-graders, among other criteria, to grade each school system on a statewide "report card" as part of its Maryland School Performance Assessment Program (MSPAP). Schools with the most improved test results are rewarded with thousands of dollars in extra state funding. Those with dwindling scores can become candidates for state takeover. The state is now considering making end-of-course standardized tests a graduation requirement for high school students.

"People are so concerned about how their schools will score, they've gotten away from some of the fun and creative things teachers used to do with children," said Janette Bell, president of the Prince George's County Educators' Association. " . . . People talk about weeks and weeks of either preparing for the MSPAP test or doing pre-test kinds of things."

Even school districts like Howard's that produce relatively high scores still have not met all the standards set by the state, forcing educators to continue pushing students to do better. Maryland wants 70 percent of all schoolchildren to pass the state tests by the turn of the century. In Howard, 57 percent of all students have reached that point, tops in a state where just 41 percent of all students are passing.

Tom Spriesterbach, of Ellicott City, said he worries that teachers are prepping his third-grade son for the higher-level thinking skills required to do well on state tests before making sure he has a firm grasp of the basics.

"I see it when [he] brings work home," said Spriesterbach, 36, an engineer. "It doesn't seem like they're teaching them the curriculum as much as the skills to get through the MSPAP."

Howard School Superintendent Michael E. Hickey said his teachers should prepare students "a week or two" before the test by teaching basic test-taking skills, such as how to follow directions carefully. That way, he said, scores aren't artificially low simply because children got confused or frightened by the test format.

Beyond that, Hickey said, he actually likes to hear that his teachers "teach to the test." They should, he said, all year long.

The state designed the MSPAP to assess more than which facts students have learned. It measures whether they can work alone and in groups to apply what they know to solve real-life problems. And that, Hickey said, is a valuable skill for teachers to teach.

Ellen Hennessy, a fifth-grade teacher at Lisbon Elementary in Howard, said teachers face "a lot of pressure" for their students to perform. But, she said, colleagues who complain about having to spend too much time preparing students may simply dislike the new teaching methods the test requires.

Before the Maryland testing began, she said, her students might have read a textbook and answered questions at the end of the chapter. Last year, keeping the format of test questions in mind, she had her class read articles about a proposed rating system for television shows. Students were then assigned to write a letter to the president or a member of Congress arguing why they agreed or disagreed with the proposal.

Some of her colleagues may call that kind of lesson "preparing for the test." Hennessy calls it better teaching.

But many Howard teachers disagree. Some eighth-grade teachers said they lose eight days to one month a year preparing and testing students, according to interviews conducted by a panel of parents that examined Howard middle schools two years ago.

A Howard teachers union survey found in February that about 60 percent of teachers said they spent too much time on standardized tests. In another survey, by the parents panel, 60 percent of teachers said the state scores did not provide a "good indication" of their students' performances.

Twenty-five percent of Howard middle school parents, the survey said, agreed that too much time was spent preparing for testing. Also, members of the parents panel who sat in on Howard middle school classes said that preparation didn't always lead to improved teaching.

"Kids were being sat down in class and told, `This is the kind of question being asked on the test, this is how you need to answer,' " said Sheri Fanaroff, of Ellicott City, who served on the parents panel and whose sixth-grade son took the MSPAP last year. "That to me is not the same as teaching a child the general principles of math and science."

Owens, the Columbia parent, said she believes that her daughter Julia spent too much class time preparing for the Maryland assessment tests two years ago as a fifth-grader. Julia, 11, said it initially "felt like a waste of time." One month before the test, Julia said, teachers told her class when giving certain assignments, "Here's the MSPAP writing prompt. This is the exact kind of thing you'll find on the test."

When testing week came, she said, "we knew exactly what to do."

In Prince George's, where schools are trying to bolster some of the lowest test scores in Maryland, anticipation of the MSPAP drives everything from the curriculum to classroom decor.

Charlene Ivy, principal of Apple Grove Elementary in Fort Washington, said her staff builds a theme around the state test and decorates classrooms and hallways to motivate students. Last year, the staff chose the theme "Home of the MSPAP Stars," laminated stars with the names of each of the 300 test-takers and rolled out the carpet of stars before students headed to their classrooms to take the test.

"You create the theme, and everybody buys into it," Ivy said. "It keeps us pumped up."

Howard school officials say the debate over test preparations may boil down to better public relations among principals, teachers and parents. Teachers trying to make class work seem relevant to students may be telling them, "You need to know this for the MSPAP," when it's really part of the regular curriculum, said Leslie Wilson, testing supervisor for Howard schools.

And parents need to understand how Maryland's spring tests differ from the fill-in-the-bubble tests they took in school, Wilson said. Meanwhile, Ron Peiffer, spokesman for the Maryland Department of Education, said some schools give parents the wrong message by teaching an "MSPAP Word of the Day" or holding pre-test pep rallies during class time.

"We're trying to help principals understand they don't need to focus on MSPAP the event," he said, "but rather on good instruction every day."

Staff writer Lisa Frazier contributed to this report.