Two weeks before the high school Class of 2009 begins walking across stages around the state, school districts are reporting a significant reduction in the number of students who won't graduate because they have not met the new High School Assessment requirement.
In late March, about 4,600 seniors in the state had yet to meet the requirement, but that number has been decreasing as students work to complete projects in subjects they had failed. In Baltimore City and Anne Arundel, Howard, Carroll, Harford and Montgomery counties combined, the most recent data show that fewer than 1,150 students have not met the mark and each day the numbers are falling. Those jurisdictions had 2,040 students in danger of failing as of late March.
In Queen Anne's County, every senior who was on track to graduate has passed the HSA hurdle. Information for two school systems, Baltimore and Prince George's counties, has not been released since March. However, a Baltimore County school official said Thursday that the county expects the number of students who do not graduate to be 4 percent or fewer, which would be about 300 students. That figure had been 8 percent in the fall.
State education officials told all school systems on Wednesday not to release updated estimates after The Baltimore Sun requested the information this week. The next report is expected to be discussed at the state school board meeting May 27, but those figures may not reflect the final count. "The numbers look really good," said state Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick. "We feel optimistic."
The Class of 2009 is the first senior class that is being required to pass four subject tests in biology, algebra I, American government and 10th-grade English in order to graduate from high school.
The Maryland State Board of Education has voted several times over the past year to stick with the requirement even though thousands of students were at risk of not graduating. In late 2007, the state voted to allow students who had failed the tests twice to complete projects in the subjects that they had failed and later put in place a limited waiver for some students.
As of this week, Howard had four students who had failed to meet the requirement; Carroll had seven; Harford had several dozen; and Arundel had 100. School officials in Carroll, Harford and Arundel said they expect the numbers to drop in the next two weeks.
