Arundel Middle, Seven Oaks Elementary Don't Meet State Targets

Four Odenton schools met targets in all areas on the 2011 Maryland School Assessment (MSA) test, but two did not. missed a target for the first time, while will remain in the School Improvement Process.

Dr. Shawn W. Ashworth, principal of Arundel Middle School, told Patch that the news was "bittersweet" because the school did show improvement in some areas.

"[T]eachers worked very hard this year. We implemented several instructional activities, remediation and interventions to address student achievement," Ashworth said in an email.

Given annually to students in grades three through eight, the MSA test is designed to measure a student’s proficiency in reading and math. The MSA was created to line up with federal guidelines for the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act and all schools are expected to be 100 percent proficient by 2014. Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) data for high schools will be released this fall.

Odenton elementary and middle schools that met 2011 AYP targets, according to the state department of education's Maryland Report Card website, include:

is now in the local monitoring phase after missing the target for only one student group—those with limited English proficiency—in reading. Although 97.2 percent of all students at the school were proficient in reading, there were five test takers with limited English proficiency and only two of them (40 percent) passed. See more data on the state department of education's Maryland Report Card website.

will stay in school improvement I phase after missing AYP targets this year for the free and reduced-price meals services student group in reading and math.

"Although we did not earn AYP according to state expectations, I am happy that overall our school showed growth and we made it in the two subgroups that we focused on this year: special education and African-American students," said Ashworth. "I am very excited about that accomplishment." 

For a school to make AYP, it must meet annual measurable objectives (AMO) for proficiency in reading and math in every group: The numbers to hit this year were 85.6 percent in reading and 78.6 percent in math. For students in the free and reduced-price meals services group, they tested 77.4 percent proficient in reading and 66.1 percent proficient in math. See more data on the state department of education's Maryland Report Card website.

"We will continue to develop, organize learning with students so that we are addressing the individual needs of all subgroups at Arundel Middle School," said Ashworth.

Throughout the county, schools saw MSA scores rise across student groups, but the number of elementary and middle schools meeting state AYP targets fell for the second year in a row, according a press release from Anne Arundel County Public Schools (AACPS). The release is based on data from the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) that was made available Wednesday.

Twenty-four of the 100 elementary, middle, charter and alternative learning schools in Anne Arundel County did not make AYP this year. Seven of the county’s 19 middle schools made AYP this year, which is an increase of two more schools than in 2010. However, only 67 of the county’s 78 elementary schools made AYP in 2011—five fewer than last year.

“The standards continue to rise, and as the proficiency standard approaches 100 percent, we are seeing schools that had long been above the bar fall below it,” AACPS Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell said in the release. “That is the case not just in our county, but across the state. The challenge for us, and for all districts, is to address the individual issues that exist at schools quickly so that our schools do not move into the School Improvement Process, but rather move above the bar for good.”

Thirteen schools have been placed in a local monitoring phase in the process. It is the first time many of these schools have not made AYP but all of them have made AYP for at least the last two years, said schools spokesman Bob Mosier.

In addition to , the schools in the local monitoring phase are Broadneck, George T. Cromwell, Glen Burnie Park, Hebron-Harman, High Point, Jacobsville, Maryland City, Oakwood, Rippling Woods, and Van Bokkelen elementary schools and Magothy River and Old Mill South middle schools.

If schools continue to miss targets, they advance to other phases of the process until they make AYP two years in a row. The final phase, after two levels of school improvement and corrective action, is restructuring.

Eleven schools that did not make AYP this year are in various phases of the School Improvement Process: , Chesapeake Bay, MacArthur, Meade, George Fox, Marley, Corkran, Old Mill North, Annapolis and Brooklyn Park middle schools and the J. Albert Adams Academy special school.

Southern and Wiley H. Bates middle schools are in different phases of school improvement but made AYP this year. If they make AYP again next year, they will no longer be in the School Improvement Process.

According to the release, there were sharp gains among special education students with middle school passing scores rising 5.7 points in reading and 5.3 points in math, and elementary school passing scores rising by 3.4 points in math and 2 points in reading.

"Our school system's dedication to maximizing meaningful access and promoting accelerated learning through differentiated instruction is evident in these assessment results," said AACPS Director of Special Education Mary Tillar. "Our educators and employees should be commended for their efforts in promoting educational excellence by believing in the unlimited potential of every single child.”