Germantown Middle Schools, Many Elementary Schools Fall Short of Academic Goals

School may be out for summer break, but report cards for schools show that nearly half of all Germantown elementary schools and all middle schools did not meet their academic goals in the prior year.

Academic Yearly Progress (AYP) results for Montgomery County’s public schools were released by the Maryland State Department of Education in late June.

The results show that six of the 13 elementary schools in Germantown did not meet their AYP goals. At Lake Seneca Elementary School students who qualified for free or reduced meals struggled in math, the only area in which that the school failed to meet its target. Waters Landing Elementary School had the most areas in need of improvement with students lacking proficiency in eight categories.

According to the documents none of the three area middle schools met their AYP goals. Kingsview students missed target in only one area where students qualifying for free or reduced meal lacked proficiency in math and Roberto Clemente missed the target in 10 areas.

Results also show that Neelsville Middle School did not meet its goals in eight areas. Although the school met all its targets last year, it remained under corrective action because NCLB provisions require that schools in this category meet all targets for two consecutive years.

Deputy Superintendent of MCPS Frieda Lacey said schools in the corrective action category are subject to staff restructuring, a process where principals and staff at under performing have to reapply for their positions.

As part of the federal program No Child Left Behind (NCLB), AYP measures the yearly progress of students at the school, district and state levels in reading, language arts and math through standardized testing. A 95 percent participation rate is required in nine categories:all students, students who are receiving free or reduced price meals, students receiving special education services, students who know little to no English, and five racial/ethnic groups.

NCLB requires that 100-percent of students enrolled be proficient or above proficient in reading/language arts and mathematics by the end of the school year 2013-14. States set yearly targets or Annual Measurable Objectives (AMO), which increase over time to meet that goal.

Schools not meeting their AYP goals become subject to tighter regulations and may lose federal funding.

Lacey, who oversees the office of school performance, said that schools not meeting AYP goals did not necessarily mean that they were failing. She explained that rising annual measurable objectives posed a challenge for teachers by setting “unrealistic” targets.

“The good news however is the fact that students have made progress,” Lacey said. “All the arrows are going up so while we have schools not making AYP individual student progress is going up.”

Patrick Dunn, the parent of a rising eight grader at Roberto Clemente and a PTSA member said while he was concerned that his school did not make the cut, he was more interested in the progress of individual students and AYP did not chart the progress of individual students well. He added student’s background affected performance.

“If you look at the Clemente scores I think the (free and reduced lunch meals) scores and the (limited English proficient) scores have a big impact on the total school performance,” Dunn explained. “I think that socio-economic status as represented by FRM explains a significant portion of the less than stellar AYP scores of Clemente and other schools.”

Board of education president Chris Barclay said he was pleased with the steady growth in proficiency particularly by African American and Latino students and students receiving special services, but he said there was room for improvement and was concerned that many excellent, high-performing schools would be labeled failing unless there was a change in the NCLB requirements.

“While I look forward to needed changes in the law, the data show that MCPS has room for improvement,” Barclay said. “We must continue to focus on ways to help schools meet current federal standards and ensure that students are prepared for college and the workplace. 

High school AYP results are expected later this summer.