Achievement Gap

Baltimore County school board members raised concerns last night about funding, timing and priorities as they began sifting through nearly a dozen recommendations from an independent audit that suggests overhauling many of the system's educational policies, plans and strategies. While their consensus was that the board should act swiftly, they had a harder time deciding what their immediate next step should be. Several members stressed the need to improve school facilities, which auditors described in their report as deplorable.

Tests show students struggle to graduate While I agree with the editorial "Testing progress" (Aug. 23) that progress has been made on the recent high school assessment tests, one-third of the students still failed two of the three tests whose results have been reported. And a persistent and significant racial and class achievement gap persists. More than half of low-income students failed at least one test, as did about half of the black students and one-third of Hispanics. Further, the results from the middle school assessment tests for eighth-graders are equally discouraging: Only 67 percent scored proficient in reading and 55 percent in math, with a similar achievement gap for minority students.

When President Bush visited North Glen Elementary School in Glen Burnie last week to tout the success of his signature education initiative, the No Child Left Behind law, he cited the school's progress in narrowing the achievement gap between minority and white students on state tests. That school's progress is impressive, but one administrator pointed out that it was achieved, at least in part, thanks to extra federal funding. Too many other schools are unable to show that kind of progress because federal education funding has been coming up short.

In the most recent national report card on student achievement - the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress - minority pupils showed some welcome, though not overwhelming, signs of narrowing the long-standing achievement gap vs. the performance of white students. Maryland's testing of its public-school students in recent years has shown much the same improvements. And within certain parts of the Baltimore region, such as the Howard County schools, the relative gains by black students also have been pronounced.

WASHINGTON -- Before she enrolled her daughter in kindergarten at Jordan Community School in a rough section of Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood, Rhonda Jones stopped to share a marijuana cigarette with her daughter's father in a nearby park. Just a little taste before facing the bureaucrats. "I smoked reefer for breakfast, lunch and dinner," she recalls in the PBS documentary Making Schools Work, by Hedrick Smith. If that was all that you knew about Ms. Jones, she would be an unlikely role model for a report on education.

At Bryant Woods Elementary in Columbia, teachers and administrators see the latest statewide test results as a sign that they are moving closer to their goal of narrowing the academic gap between minority and white pupils. The school - where half of the population is African-American and where many are from low-income families - saw combined scores for third- and fifth-grade black pupils in reading or math increase at least 10 percentage points over a three-year period. And, taken as a group, third- and fifth-grade pupils who receive free or reduced-price lunches have made solid improvements on the Maryland School Assessment since 2003, according to data released last week.

Baltimore County students of all races are making academic progress by many measures, but wide gaps in the achievement and suspension rates between whites and minorities remain, according to a report released yesterday. The report shows that minority students, along with whites, are taking more "highly rigorous" courses, and that in some cases the achievement gap in standardized test scores is narrowing. At the same time, however, the number of suspensions for African-American students nearly doubled between 2000 and 2004 while the number for white students rose only slightly.

THOUGH A MAGNET for criticism throughout its three-year history, the No Child Left Behind law is under attack today as never before. Connecticut just announced plans to file a federal lawsuit claiming NCLB is an unfunded mandate, and Utah may forgo millions in federal funds to avoid the law's accountability requirements. In response to these challenges and others, the U.S. Education Department is changing the way it administers fundamental provisions in the law, and Education Secretary Margaret Spellings pledged Thursday to be more flexible in enforcing the law. This pattern is regrettable.

HOWARD County's African-American students have made significant progress in academic performance, with black pupils at several elementary and middle schools meeting or exceeding standards on state tests, according to the 2004 Howard County NAACP Education Report Card. More "A" grades were given than in any other years the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has been evaluating academic performance among black students. "This reveals a breakthrough for African-American students," Natalie Woodson, the group's education committee chairwoman, told the Board of Education at its meeting Tuesday.

Turmoil and controversy marked the past school year in Howard County, but stability and optimism seem to be guiding the school system this academic year. "It's been a very good year so far as measured by people's attitude and spirits," said Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin. "I've said this over and over again, it's a good place to live, work and educate your kids." Last year's controversies overshadowed the academic achievements of the county's 48,000 students. But the focus on the school system's two goals - raising student performance and providing a nurturing environment that values diversity and commonality - has been renewed under the leadership of Cousin, who took over last year.