Departments gear up for standardized tests

Several departments recently undertook initiatives to prepare and energize students for this week's High School Assessments (HSAs) and Geometry Maryland School Assessment (MSA), expanding on an ongoing effort to improve Blair's performance through tutoring that began last year.

The math and social studies departments held academic support sessions for the Geometry MSA and Government HSA, respectively, and English teachers focused on HSA skills in sophomore English classes. In addition, Blair Sports Academy (BSA) organizers required certain indoor soccer players taking the Geometry MSA to attend.

The efforts to boost scores on state-mandated standardized tests have arisen from approaching requirements: Starting with the class of 2009, all students must pass the HSAs in order to graduate. Moreover, passing rates for specific subgroups on the geometry and English tests determine whether Blair will meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) this school year. Blair has failed to meet AYP for the past two years. Under the No Child Left Behind Act, continued failure will put Blair in danger of reforms by the county and state.

Teachers hope the geometry and National, State and Local Government (NSL) preparatory sessions, which took place during both lunches and after school beginning May 9 and provided snacks to encourage students to attend, will raise student passing rates. "[The effort] can only help; that's the bottom line. For many kids, it makes the difference between passing and failing," said social studies teacher Kevin Moose, one of the NSL teachers who ran tutoring sessions.

Earlier this year, NSL students were given a multiple choice section from a practice HSA, and those who scored below 70 percent were required to attend at least two review sessions. Many students willingly showed up, though, according to social studies teacher Glenn O'Neil. "I think they like coming. They also like meeting new teachers and getting candy," he said.

The social studies department first conducted NSL tutoring last year, and the NSL passing rate increased 10 percent, said O'Neil, who organized the sessions. O'Neil believes that last year's sessions "definitely helped" boost performance. Both the math and social studies departments plan to offer tutoring again next year.

Geometry teachers distributed letters to parents that listed the geometry topic review schedule, but they made the sessions voluntary. Still, the sessions drew a large turnout of around 30 students each, demonstrating student motivation to perform well on the HSA, according to math teacher Milton Roth. Staff development teacher Jennifer Craft said that the students' willingness to attend tutoring was encouraging. "Students are realizing the importance [of HSA testing]," she said. "They're seeing teachers put a lot of effort into it and realizing that their individual performance matters."

Junior Evelyn Mansaray, who attended NSL review during 5B lunch, said that she is concerned about the HSA because the score will appear on her transcript. She feels that the concepts taught at the sessions were applicable to both the tests and real life. "I come here and they explain to me what is federalism and the common good. It helps me, and it gives me wisdom to learn more," she said.

The English department, meanwhile, increased HSA preparation in class by assigning more practice tests and focusing on writing brief constructed responses, according to English resource teacher Vickie Adamson. Teachers administered one section of a sample English HSA to all sophomores and graded the responses.

In addition, 10th grade English teachers used their instructional activity periods to help each other teach classes and assist students in small groups.

This year, Maryland changed the English HSA to incorporate topics from the former English MSA and to test sophomores instead of freshmen. Consequently, current sophomores were required to take the revised English HSA, which assesses reading, writing and grammar skills, despite having taken the test last year.

The social studies, math and English office bulletin boards all provided students with tips and encouragement for the standardized tests. The English bulletin board featured a list of the "top 10 reasons students should show up to take the English HSA," including such reasons as "Homer's `Odyssey' started off as an ECR."

The BSA front

In a separate effort to improve test scores, soccer league organizers identified 23 participants who were failing their geometry classes and taking the Geometry MSA on May 24, said security guard and BSA director Jose Segura. Those students were required to attend at least one geometry review session per week. The effort was intended to help at-risk students in the soccer league, particularly Hispanics, the student group that did not meet the required proficiency in math, causing Blair to miss AYP for the 2003-2004 school year, according to Segura. On last year's Geometry MSA, Hispanics had a 15.8 percent passing rate, below the minimum passing requirement of 18.9 percent.

Sending certain students to geometry tutoring was the BSA's latest strategy to improve student performance. Currently, soccer players with GPAs below 2.0 must attend academic support three times a week. To participate in a game, they must present teacher signatures verifying their attendance.

The BSA, which attracts many English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) students, seeks to use its participants' enthusiasm for sports to convince them to get academic support. "We like to think of [the program] as an incentive, so academics and sports can go hand-in-hand," said Susan Gardiner, ESOL parent-community coordinator.

Segura believes that the soccer league has successfully encouraged students to request help with schoolwork. "Kids want to play, so they'll go to academic support," he said. "I definitely hope the kids buy into it and their grades rise." Segura hopes to determine the program's effect on students' grades once their fourth quarter report cards become available to him.

MCPS requires that students have 2.0 GPAs or above in order to participate in extracurricular activities, but the soccer league accepts students with GPAs lower than 2.0 in an effort to prevent gang involvement and other dangerous activities, according to Segura. "We're trying to get some kids off the street," he said.