Weak performances among special education students on the Maryland School Assessment tests continues to be a challenge for Howard County school officials.
This week's release of preliminary data indicating whether schools met state standards in reading and math showed that special education pupils at three schools - Phelps Luck Elementary, Cradlerock School and Patuxent Valley Middle School - did not perform well enough on the high-stakes exam to make adequate progress this year.
"We're going to look at the data and find out what we need to do differently and get the job done," said Sterlind S. Burke, principal at Patuxent Valley.
At a fourth school, Wilde Lake Middle, pupils with limited English skills failed to make sufficient strides on the reading test; two of 13 pupils passed.
Meanwhile, special education pupils at two middle schools - Murray Hill and Elkridge Landing - who did not make adequate progress in reading last year met targets this year.
Schools that do not meet academic standards for two consecutive years are added to the state's list of failing schools.
State education officials added Homewood School, an alternative learning program for middle and high school students who have difficulty in traditional classroom settings, to the list for the second year - a mistake Howard administrators attributed to coding errors.
Homewood students who are at the center temporarily should have been accountable to their home schools, Howard officials say. An appeal was filed last week, and state officials said it likely will be accepted.
In suburban school systems around the Baltimore region, the poor performance among special education students was the culprit in many schools not making adequate progress.
Terry Alban, Howard's director of student assessment and program evaluation, said students with disabilities are making strides, though not as quickly as the state exam demands under the federal No Child Left Behind law.
Newly relaxed federal rules regarding disabled children will allow the state to introduce a modified version of the Maryland School Assessment, which state officials say will be simpler and shorter. Two percent of disabled students statewide can take the modified exam, starting next year.
As a result, "schools won't be missing adequate yearly progress ... when in fact, that kid is growing and improving," Alban said. "We don't have an assessment tool to see that or to validate that [now]."
