Exam failures raise concerns

Recently released Maryland School Assessment (MSA) scores indicate Blair's failure to meet math proficiency standards as a school and reading proficiency standards within the special education and ESOL departments, raising serious concerns within the Blair administration.

Blair was one of 11 high schools countywide that failed to meet the passing criterion for a subgroup in reading and one of two high schools that failed to meet the criterion overall in math, a 14.6 percent decrease in performance from 2002.

Principal Phillip Gainous did not have a specific explanation for the drop in math scores, but he reasoned, "It's a different group of kids, and you'll have fluctuations."

Blair PTSA President Valerie Ervin expressed anxiety about the scores. "The results are really frightening," said Ervin. "A lot of people will be in shock. We have to prepare students and parents about the impact of these tests and what they could mean for the whole community of children."

Additionally, there were large exam result discrepancies between median MSA scores of different races, highlighting an achievement gap between black and Latino students and their white and Asian counterparts. The gap reaches as high as 51.9 percent in the reading test.

MCPS Deputy Superintendent Gregory Thornton believes the results were a signal to re-examine class objectives. "We had hoped children in some sub-areas would have been able to do better. We need to rethink the curriculum," he said. "This is just not acceptable."

Although Blair missed reaching passing levels in the special education and ESOL subgroups by as much as 33 percent, the school received an overall passing percentage for the reading MSA. However, both the county and state scores were higher than Blair's by 11.4 and 3.1 percent, respectively.

ESOL resource teacher Joseph Bellino believes the tests have unreasonable expectations for newly immigrated ESOL students. "It takes a long time to compete academically with native speaking students," he said.

Junior Surfal Medemdemia, a current ESOL student, agreed with Bellino. "It's not fair," he said. "It's really hard to understand what [the test is] saying."

Similarly, James Short, Blair's acting special education department head, said grading special education students like students without learning disabilities was not realistic. "A large part of the test relies on memory, and some of the kids' disadvantage is in memory loss. This works against them," explained Short.

In an effort to better inform communities of a school's progress, all MCPS schools must now post test results and academic information on senior classes in a public location. Such a bulletin board is on prominent display in Blair's main office.

By 2014, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation mandates that 100 percent of graduating students be proficient in reading and math. The requirement has concerned Blair staff members since the MSA examinations were implemented. "There's a big to-do over SAT scores," said Gainous. "But I've been saying that those are going to be nothing compared to these tests."

Administrators have begun taking steps to improve exam scores, including implementing the new Connections class as an approach to help develop students' reading skills. "We've got a lot of work to do," said Gainous. "We will continue to work hard and not give up on the students."