In Baltimore County, 13 middle schools are categorized as needing improvement, but three of them - Arbutus, Dundalk and Woodlawn - improved their performance enough so that they met the standard this year. A school must meet standards for two years in a row before it can be removed from the list.
Damien Ingram, Woodlawn's principal, attributed the school's progress in part to a mutual commitment from teachers and students to put forth their best effort and improve daily.
"Our teachers' attitude toward being successful was incredible," Ingram said, adding that tutorial programs and the use of "short-cycle assessments" - instruction zeroing in on student needs - also contributed.
A school for special education students, White Oak, was on the list of Baltimore County schools that need improving as well.
For Baltimore City, the results were mixed. For the first time, the majority of Baltimore City elementary schools, or 82 of 153 schools, met the federal standards. Last year, only 65 made sufficient progress. "It shows that we are making tremendous growth here," said Mary Minter, the city school system's chief academic officer. "We are going to get better every year."
But 20 of the city's 22 middle schools were on the list of those needing improvement. The only two to meet the standards, Crossroads and KIPP, are charter schools.
In Anne Arundel County, seven of 19 middle schools, two of 77 elementary schools and one alternative school failed to make adequate yearly progress, a virtually stagnant result from last year's figures, according to statistics the county released yesterday.
Though a stubborn pattern among the county's middle schools persisted, with a third failing to meet the federal benchmark, school system officials heralded the success of two middle schools - Lindale and Marley - for making the standard. That means they are being taken off the list of schools needing improvement.
"We still have work to do at some of our schools, particularly at the middle school level, but I am pleased that the large majority of our schools are doing what it takes to meet standards, which rise every year," superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell said in a statement.
Of the seven Anne Arundel schools that need improvement, only Annapolis Middle School and J. Albert Adams Academy had students from across the school who failed to meet the federal standard. Annapolis Middle School is in a category that could require significant changes at the school.
