South county pupils master reading test

Groups among only six in county with 100 percent pass rate on MSA last year

Fort Washington Forest’s fourth-graders and the fifth-grade reading class at Avalon Elementary School, also in Fort Washington, were the only grades in southern Prince George’s County in which all students earned passing scores on the reading or math MSAs last school year.

Scores were released earlier this month for the reading and math MSAs, taken by 623 classes in third through eighth grades at elementary schools and middle schools in the county.

Countywide, only four other grades aced one or both tests: the third-graders in math and the fifth-graders in both math and reading at Tulip Grove Elementary School in Bowie, and the fifth-graders in reading at Heather Hills Elementary School, also in Bowie.

Students taking the MSA are evaluated as either basic, proficient or advanced, with proficient or advanced considered passing.

Heidi Labron, the fifth-grade reading teacher at Avalon, said she challenged her students at the beginning of the year to shoot for 100 percent, and that the result surprised her.

‘‘That was the belief I put inside their head. I didn’t think they were going to get 100 percent, but it would motivate them,” she said.

Instructors at both schools attributed their groups’ individual success to a combination of motivated students and staff working in collaboration.

Avalon Principal Dianne G. Bruce said that last year she began encouraging teachers to use new strategies that actively encourage students to believe they can do well. She said that Labron and Cecil Johnson, the school’s special education teacher who helped with Labron’s fifth-graders, picked up on those strategies.

‘‘That was a key factor — children believing they can learn,” Bruce said.

Stroman highlighted the strength of a technique that both schools use but is not mandatory — keeping special education students in the classroom all the time, rather than taking them out regularly to give them tailored instruction.

‘‘We find that to be the best method because when you pull students out of the classroom, they miss out on something,” Stroman said.

Of the 29 Fort Washington Forest fourth-graders who passed the reading test, two were special education students. Of Avalon’s 44 fifth-graders, six were in special education.

Johnson said that keeping all students together ‘‘removed the label off them.”

One proof of students’ motivation was that many were willing to come to the school’s voluntary Saturday tutoring sessions, which the school started in January at Labron’s request, Johnson said.

‘‘It was so unique that our children were eager to come in here on Saturdays, and that parent support was very high,” he said.

Stroman praised her fourth-grade reading teacher, Martha Stewart, as someone who is ‘‘willing to grow professionally” and adopt new approaches.

But Stroman said no one person could take full credit for a group’s success.