First- and second-graders in Baltimore significantly improved their performance on a standardized test this year, meeting or exceeding the national average in three of four areas measured, scores released Friday show.
In math, the city's first-graders outscored 63 percent of their peers in a national sample on the Stanford 10 exam, compared with 55 percent last year. They outscored 50 percent in reading - meeting the national average for the first time - compared with 47 percent a year ago.
Second-graders scored at the 57th percentile in math, up from the 49th, and the 46th in reading, up from the 42nd.
"Our kids are actually outperforming the nation as a whole or meeting the national average," said an elated city schools chief Andr?s Alonso. The scores are the highest in the city's history.
Gov. Martin O'Malley issued a statement congratulating city students, parents and employees. State Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick said in a statement that the scores will "serve as a foundation for many years of continued academic success for these children."
The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires schools to test children annually starting in third grade, but many systems begin earlier. The Stanford 10 shows how students are performing in comparison to a national sample of students.
City school system officials said they were particularly gratified that special-education students this year narrowed the gap in their performance compared with their nondisabled peers. The difference between special-education and regular-education students in first-grade reading was 4.3 points, down from 10.8 points in 2007.
Alonso said the system has been working hard to include children with disabilities in classes alongside their nondisabled peers. This spring, the special master in a long-running special-education lawsuit against the system identified more than 100 schools to release from certain aspects of court oversight, including one mandating that disabled students be educated in the "least restrictive environment."
Overall, Alonso attributed the increase in scores to factors including expanded prekindergarten and after-school programs and collaborative planning among teachers.
The test scores come after the release of a state report this spring showing that far more children in the city are entering kindergarten ready to learn. The results of the Maryland School Assessments, the tests taken by older children this spring, have not yet been released, though in recent years scores on those exams have improved in the city as well, as has Baltimore's high school graduation rate.
