The mood was about as giddy as a group of elementary school students at recess.
Anne Arundel County Schools Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell, who had initiated a widely unpopular overhaul of Annapolis High School, stood smiling and giggling, his cheeks rosy, in the school's cafeteria after finishing a news briefing announcing that the school had for the first time in six years met federal testing benchmarks.
"I'm excited," Maxwell said. "This is great news." After a pause he continued, "Did you get the part about me being excited?"
Annapolis High School, which had failed to make what is called "adequate yearly progress" on annual standardized tests since 2003, celebrated the news that the school had finally met federal testing standards under No Child Left Behind.
Though state officials are set in the coming weeks to announce the statewide results of its high schools' standardized test scores, which determine whether a school makes AYP, Maxwell made an appeal to state schools Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick for permission to publicly share the good news about Annapolis High School early.
While the long-embattled school's accomplishment is certainly noteworthy, it represents a first step on the road to recovery: The school must make AYP for two consecutive years to be removed from the state's monitoring program, and it still remains under the close watch of Maxwell as part of his 3-year-restructuring plan, which was ultimately approved by state education officials. In addition to not making AYP, the school failed to reach graduation rate requirements in 2006 and 2007.
AYP targets are a key component of No Child Left Behind, setting percentage goals for proficiency on the English and math portions of annual standardized tests in eight subgroups of students. The required percentage of passing students rises each year until it reaches 100 percent in 2012.
Maxwell was under considerable pressure from a large swath of his constituency to remedy the problem and from state officials who had the authority under No Child Left Behind to impose sanctions ranging from a complete staff takeover to longer school days or even a state takeover, when he began an overhaul of the long-troubled school in January 2007.
