Broad improvements seen in county scores on state exams
by Jeanette Der Bedrosian | Staff Writer
Third graders in Montgomery's public schools this year did not do as well as the previous one on state reading exams, according to test scores released Tuesday.
Countywide, according to the 2010 Maryland State Assessment, the percentage of third graders who scored proficient or higher dropped from 88.9 to 87.4. That's the largest decline of any grade and subject measured by the exams, which test third- through eighth-grade students in reading and math.
The scores for two other groups also dropped...
...Calls to school administration officials responsible for testing and academic achievement were not returned Tuesday...
...Although the county as a whole is ahead of statewide scores, Forest Oak Middle School in Gaithersburg and Neelsville Middle School in Germantown are among those on a state watch list of schools in need of improvement. Prior to this year, both had failed to make adequate progress four years in a row, putting them in at the bottom of county schools on the list. Neelsville Middle met its target scores this year, and will come off the state list of troubled schools if it does so again next year.
The disparity between county averages and scores at Neelsville Middle and Forest Oak Middle were greatest in eighth-grade math. At Forest Oak Middle, 53.2 percent of eighth graders scored proficient or higher on the math test, compared with 75.1 percent of the county's eighth graders. At Neelsville Middle, 59 percent of eighth graders achieved proficiency.
One county school, Parkland Middle in Rockville, earned high enough scores this year to come off the state list of schools needing improvement...
So, maybe the county shouldn't have cut the summer reading program this summer.
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