Hyattsville, Port Towns schools make gains

MSA scores mainly up at area schools and countywide

Many schools saw both improvement and regression in scores. Chillum Elementary had 21.9 more fourth-graders score proficient or better this year in math, but saw a drop of 25.7 percent of fifth graders who were at least proficient in math. Mount Rainer Elementary also saw a decrease of 19.1 percent of third graders scoring at least proficient in reading, but an increase of 18.8 percent of third-graders scoring at least proficient in math.

MSAs measure proficiency in math and reading, and schools have to meet state Adequate Yearly Progress goals every year to eventually get schools to 100 percent proficiency. Schools that do not meet AYP are put in school improvement status.

Some area schools in school improvement status saw increased scores this year, like Port Towns Elementary in Bladensburg, which made double-digit gains in fourth and fifth grade. The school began a new reading design curriculum this year.

‘‘We engage the students more in independent reading and more of a workshop model,” Principal Lisa Farabaugh said. ‘‘The teacher becomes more of a facilitator of learning, and the students are acquiring more independent reading skills.”

But the sixth-grade class scored lower in reading than last year, with a 22.7 percent drop in the number of students scoring proficient or better. However, Farabaugh said the score comparisons do not measure a particular class’s improvement.

‘‘That particular group of students, if you look at the trend data, they struggled last year as fifth-graders, and they struggled as fourth-graders,” she said. ‘‘From fifth to sixth grade, they improved, but definitely some deficits are there.”

Some sixth-grade math teachers taught the subject for the first time this year, which also contributed to the low math score, Farabaugh said.

Melissa Glee-Woodard, principal of Lewisdale Elementary School in Hyattsville, said she hopes the school will exit school improvement status this year. Math scores improved across grades, with a 27.8 percent jump in the number of third-graders scoring proficient or better, and a 17.3 percent jump among fifth-graders. Also, 26.8 percent more fifth-graders scored proficient or better in reading than last year.

‘‘I’m very excited because we worked very hard this year,” Glee-Woodard said. ‘‘We had a new reading curriculum, the comprehension tool kit, and with our ESOL teachers going into the classroom, there was a lot of co-teaching.”

That helped raise scores among ESOL students, she said, with 18.3 percent more scoring proficient than last year. The school’s parent liaison hosts weekly ‘‘English Survival” classes for parents, where parents learn homework help strategies.

Middle schools didn’t fare as well as elementary schools, although Nicholas Orem in Hyattsville, also in school improvement status, saw a jump in seventh and eighth grade scores.

‘‘That’s a snapshot of the good things happening at Nicholas Orem,” Principal Richard Jackson said. ‘‘I’m really most pleased with both the effort of the teachers, students and the community.”

Although 11.2 percent more eighth-graders scored at least proficient in math than last year, only 34.8 percent were at least proficient. Jackson pointed to a trend where eighth grade scores remained low across the county and state.

‘‘What the state is asking of eighth-graders is a lot more stringent than what they asked from seventh and sixth graders,” he said. ‘‘I see a system-wide trend that says what we’re not doing in the eighth grade.”

Jackson said schools may not be teaching eighth graders ‘‘something that’s being assessed” and there could be a ‘‘misalignment of the curriculum.”

E-mail Elahe Izadi ateizadi@gazette.net.