Education - Part 2
Author: By Caren Cramer

Editor’s note: This is the second in a three-part series exploring education trends in Child Guide’s readership area. Following is an overview of the public school trends in Washington and Frederick counties in Maryland. Part one, which was published in the January/February issue, explored Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties in West Virginia. Part three, in the May/June issue, will study the trends in Clarke and Frederick counties in Virginia.

Overall, Maryland’s public schools are highly praised, thanks in large part to the vision and planning by State Schools Superintendent Nancy Grasmick. According to the Maryland State Department of Education Web site (www.marylandpublicschools.org/msde), during Grasmick’s 14-year tenure, Maryland schools have gained many distinctions, most recently including:
 For four straight years, Education Week, the nation’s leading education newspaper, has given Maryland an “A” for its kindergarten- through grade-12 standards and its system of assessing, reporting and holding schools responsible for improving achievement.
 Maryland’s verbal and math SAT scores continue to rise.
 Maryland has had more success than any other state in increasing high school students’ participation in the Advanced Placement (AP) testing program.
 Maryland continues its leadership in enrolling traditionally underrepresented students in the AP program.
 In 2003, the Education Commission of the States gave Maryland its prestigious State Innovation Award for excellence in education policy development.

Both Frederick and Washington counties’ public schools helped achieve many of these successes. To read more about them, go to the school systems’ Web sites (www.fcps.org and www.wcboe.k12.md.us).
You also can check the Maryland Report Card Web site (www.mdreportcard.org), where Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goal results are charted — by county and by specific schools — for easy reference. This online reference provides the most current data on all AYP goals measured and mandated by No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation. Some of the AYP highlights include:
 Currently, there are no Washington County Public Schools (WCPS) designated as “schools in need,” while there are four designated in Frederick County Public Schools (FCPS).
 SAT scores in FCPS surpass state and national scores.
 The number of Advanced Placement (AP) tests taken by WCPS students has increased from 346 in 2000 to 1,153 in 2005.
 FCPS boasts a .73 percent dropout rate, the lowest in Maryland.

Diverse, growing enrollment
Each county shows enrollment increases from a year ago —FCPS currently has 39,500 students and WCPS has 20,000 — and enrollment likely will continue to increase over the next five years or more.
“As these enrollment figures increase, we are seeing a far more diverse state than since 1993,” says Stephen K. Hess, director of curriculum and evaluation for FCPS. “As of 2005, Maryland has no one ethnic group with a 50 percent majority any longer.”
Sharing the data to support this fact, Hess quickly adds this is not a complaint.
“It adds to the challenge,” he says.
No Child Left Behind requires that data on each of nine subgroups, as represented in each school district, be tracked and assessed. These subgroups are:
 All students
 Special-education students
 Limited English proficient students (or English Language Learners/English as Second Language
 Students receiving free/reduced-price meals
 American Indian/Native American students
 Asian/Pacific Islander students
 African-American students
 White students (not of Hispanic origin)
 Hispanic students


In FCPS, only seven of these subgroups — excluding the American Indian/Native American and Asian/Pacific Islander categories — are represented. As a result, Hess can point to the specific group with the greatest increase in Frederick County over the last two to three years: English language learners. School officials can in turn use this data as a planning tool for resource management and curriculum development to better meet the needs of a changing population.
Acknowledging “sizable achievement gaps exist” between the subgroups, Hess adds, “they are narrowing. We have yet to figure out how to be equally successful in each of the groups.”
WCPS Superintendent Elizabeth Morgan explains further that “NCLB forced (schools) to look at the individual school, individual student and individual teacher.” This has resulted in a “whole system of accountability,” she continues. “Washington County is one of a handful of systems in Maryland to meet AYP goals across all grade levels,” says Morgan, a fact also referenced by Grasmick on a late-December 2005 visit to Hagerstown. Grasmick used this local visit to commend Washington County Schools for its emphasis on student achievement — something Morgan and Grasmick indicate “sets WCPS apart from other school systems in Maryland.”

Educational intervention
Morgan describes a “big shift in the education paradigm,” in which schools offer “increasing levels of intervention — much like a medical model of intervention.”
“If your child is sick and one treatment isn’t working, a parent would say is there another treatment we can try,” explains Morgan. “Intervention programs can offer different paths of ‘treatment’ for children that need assistance,” stressing that intervention is not remediation.
“We’re stopping what we did before,” Morgan adds, “and enter (the course work) where the kids are … and go forward but (present it) differently.”
Academically, intervention can begin with prekindergarten students, a service offered at 20 schools in Washington County. State regulations mandate that within two years, pre-K classes will be available at all elementary schools. The county’s new pre-K literacy program (the Children’s Literacy Initiative began in 2004) shows signs of success in its implementation thus far.
“We’ll hit hard and hit early,” says Morgan, emphasizing the goal of reaching children earlier and with consistent curriculum. “We use the Houghton Mifflin curriculum for reading countywide now at elementary schools,” Morgan says, indicating the successes seen from students whose families might relocate within the county.

Graduation requirements
As students nears completion of their K-12 experience, meeting Maryland’s strict graduation requirements just isn’t enough.
Hess describes how all FCPS students beginning with the class of 2006 must meet all Maryland minimum graduation requirements plus four additional credits — one mathematics elective credit; one credit for a graduation project; and two credits for a student’s career pathway — in order to graduate.
Dian Nelson, director of communications for FCPS, describes the graduation project credit as a “major project produced by the student that showcases their interest/talents, enhances their lifelong learning skills, demonstrates their ability to think critically and solve real-world problems.”
Hess adds that beginning with the class of 2009, students must do more than take the state required High School Assessments (HSAs) — they must pass them each of the four years they are required to take them. This is a statewide requirement for all Maryland public school students.

Advanced Placement participation
Trends in both Frederick and Washington counties’ systems support Maryland’s claim about AP participation and this is likely to continue.
“Kids take more AP programs and those that do are scoring higher on SATs,” says Morgan. “The number of kids taking AP programs continues to rise each year.”
WCPS data supports her claims: Participation in AP courses has steadily increased from 920 students in 2000 to 1,677 students in 2005; the number of AP tests taken by students has increased from 346 in 2000 to 1,153 in 2005.
Hess offers even more specific details in the data, showing enrollment in AP course work growing in six of the seven subgroups over the past three years. Hess adds that the number of AP exams taken has increased from 3,121 in 2004 to more than 3,800 in 2005.
In each county’s master plan, increased focus on providing AP opportunities for students is a top priority.

‘Technological explosion’
Each of these school systems praises the benefits of the current “technological explosion,” as Morgan calls it. Administratively, she describes operations transitioning from one of “traditional paper” to an electronic, paperless one.
The Board of Education posts all documents from meetings —reports, notes, agendas and calendars — on an online program called BoardDocs. The public can access the information from the WCPS Web site link to “Board of Education.”
Carol Mowen, public information officer for WCPS, says that by “integrating technology into the classroom, more children are learning electronically through virtual schools,” such as online classes, and the number is growing as programs expand. At the WCPS Integrated Arts and Technology magnet school, Emma K. Doub, students complete assignments using Palm Pilots. Schools also are using a variety of all-computer-based curriculum programs as additional “intervention tools,” Morgan says.
Continuing to highlight technological enhancements, all FCPS high schools and middle schools will have online grades available this year, Nelson says.
“There’s an increased emphasis on two-way family-school communications,” Nelson continues as she points to the FCPS e-mail news service, Find Out First. This information service allows users to receive updates on specified categories of information, such as calendar changes, emergency notices and news releases.
In just more than a year since it began, more than 14,000 subscribers have signed up for the service.
Find Out First is one of the initiatives under way in FCPS aimed at involving more parents or guardians in their children’s education.
Morgan sees parents as the “partner” in education. “We’re working to get the family supporting the goals of the students, not just the task that a kid has.”
WCPS recently launched a family involvement program involving state and federal departments of education and the National Network of Partnership Schools.
Frederick and Washington counties have increasing family/community involvement as a goal in their strategic plans for the next several years.

Maintenance, construction
Both school systems face increasing challenges in alleviating the backlog of maintenance and new construction requirements needed in each county.
“The BOE, in recent years, has reduced funding for maintenance in order to address other needs across the system,” says Ray Barnes, director of facilities services for FCPS. “Major new construction projects have suffered due to lack of state funding for new construction and renovation projects.”
WCPS faces similar struggles, as years of deferred maintenance funding has taken its toll on the physical space and facilities throughout the county.
“A special state committee chaired by Maryland state treasurer Nancy Kopp estimated that the total cost to bring schools across Maryland up to reasonable standards was $3.85 billion, of which $2 billion was the state’s responsibility,” Barnes says.
That amount of funding from the state might be a bit too steep, but during Grasmick’s December trip to Washington County, she announced the “state’s funding formula for school construction dollars likely will be revised.”
Regardless, it is evident that the focus in each of these districts is to provide students with the best educational opportunities available. The successes of each school district will rest not only in all the required No Child Left Behind and AYP statistics but with the students and how they apply their education to their future endeavors.
As Nelson Mandela once said “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

< < return to article summary | archives > >