Bates Middle Rebounds
By ELISABETH HULETTE Staff Writer
The city’s two middle schools, which long have struggled on state standardized tests, went in different directions this year.
Bates Middle School met targets while Annapolis Middle School, like Annapolis High last year, missed them for a fifth year and fell into the state’s final testing phase – restructuring.
“We talked to Bates, and we did pretty much the same things,” said Carolyn Burton-Page, principal at Annapolis Middle School. “But we still didn’t do well enough.”
The teachers were disappointed, she said. “We thought we’d do better than that.”
According to data released yesterday, 10 out of 98 county schools didn’t meet the standards set for Annual Yearly Progress, a measure of their progress toward meeting the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind law. That’s better than last year, when 12 schools didn’t make the mark.
In Maryland, targets are based on attendance and students’ performance in reading and math on the Maryland School Assessment. High schools are assessed with a different test; those results will be reported by the state in the fall.
To reach the yearly progress goals, schools need to meet standards overall and in groups designated by race, special education, poverty and limited proficiency in English. If schools don’t meet certain proficiency rates, they’re given a series of warnings that eventually could lead to major restructuring, like the staffing overhaul that in 2007 replaced more than half the teachers at Annapolis High.
Annapolis Middle will have to make sweeping changes, but they’re not likely to include a move as radical as what happened at the high school, schools Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell said yesterday. Annapolis Middle already loses staff frequently and, if anything, that’s a problem that needs to be fixed, he said.
“With the amount of turnover there, I’m not sure what we’d gain by zero-basing,” he said.
Annapolis Middle will have to choose one of three restructuring options offered by the state: replacing all or most of the staff, reopening as a charter school or bringing in an educational management team, said Marti Pogonowski, director of the school system’s Office of School Improvement. There’s a range of changes they can make within those options, she said.
Dr. Maxwell said it’s too early to tell what that plan will entail.
Changes to the system
This year, the state changed the way it looks at schools failing to meet targets.
In July, the U.S. Department of Education approved Maryland and five other states for a pilot program that distinguishes between schools missing the yearly progress goals because they need minor adjustments and schools falling short because of widespread problems.
The change is expected to address one of the primary complaints made by educators about No Child Left Behind: That when students failed to meet targets in just one difficult category, like special education or limited-English proficiency, the whole school was labeled failing and could have to undergo major restructuring.
Now, a school like Southern Middle, which only missed the target for low-income students in reading, will be able to focus its attention on fixing that problem.
But some organizations that have watched the progress of the No Child Left Behind law aren’t so sure the change will make a difference.
“It’s a Band-Aid on a fundamentally flawed law,” said Robert Schaeffer, a spokesman for the National Center for Fair and Open Testing. “The only positive aspect is it moves slightly away from the one-size-fits-all approach of No Child Left Behind.”
Just two of the 10 county schools that missed targets were identified as having overall problems under the new system – Annapolis Middle School and J. Albert Adams Academy, an alternative school.
One city, two schools
Both Bates and Annapolis Middle struggle with the problems typical of urban schools – high poverty, loss of students to private schools and large populations of special-education and non-English- speaking students. At both schools, about 12 percent of students are in special education and about 66 percent are black or Hispanic.
State schools Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick said similar schools statewide struggle with standardized tests.
“We’ve had a concern in the past about middle schools,” she said. “We know there are greater challenges for students who come from circumstances of disadvantage. There needs to be more support, more interventions for those children.”
Dr. Maxwell said he plans to start rolling out recommendations this fall to improve the county’s middle schools.
Bates and Annapolis Middle tried in different ways to raise achievement this year. Annapolis Middle School opened its Middle Years Programme, a middle-school version of the prestigious International Baccalaureate Programme at Annapolis High, while Bates pushed its use of technology like computers and SMART boards, which work like large, interactive computer screens and help engage students in their lessons.
Parents of Bates students said they’re pleased with their experience at the school. Jeannie Bullen, secretary of the Parent- Teacher-Student Foundation, said she likes how teachers look at students’ individual progress.
“The teachers are terrific; they’re dedicated and they seem to be very attentive to what different kids’ needs are, which has been terrific for us,” she said.
Ms. Burton-Page pointed out that Annapolis Middle missed the yearly progress goal by just eight students this year, and, in particular, it was non-English-speaking students who had trouble.
“It was shocking because our (English language) teacher had spent time after school with kids on reading and math,” she said. This year, more time will be spent working with those students, she said.
She’s also hoping a few changes already in the works will turn Annapolis Middle around. The school will get its own full-time social worker, pupil personnel worker, mentor for new teachers and data analyst this year. — {Corrections:} {Status:}
ANNAPOLIS MIDDLE STILL STRUGGLING WITH STATE TEST STANDARDS
(c) 2008 Capital (Annapolis). Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.