Maryland school systems in question
When it comes to tracking student progress, Maryland’s accountability system needs improvement, according to a new report from a Washington DC-based thinktank.
The Thomas B. Fordham Institute claims that by focusing on getting struggling students up to a minimum level of proficiency in reading and math, Maryland public schools are leaving proficient and high-achieving students undeserved.
“What we were asking is whether or not states have taken advantage of that new flexibility and unfortunately for Maryland the answer is no,” says Fordham Institute’s President Micheal Petrilli. “Maryland still has a system that is very much like it was in the no child left behind days which is a system that instead of looking at how much progress a student has made over the course of the year, it is mostly looking at the percentage of students that are making it to that proficient level.”
Petrilli says under the No Child Left Behind Act, schools were not rewarded for how well they educated gifted students. And while some states have moved away from that system to compare a given student’s performance year to year, Maryland has not. Petrilli says the students that are at most risk are high-achieving but go to schools with a lot of low-income students, where a higher percentage of the student body may not be proficient.
“The system is basically saying to those school, hey those kids are not your problem they’re going to pass the test no matter what. Your not going to get any additional credit for helping those kids make even more progress so you should focus instead on your low performers,” said Petrilli.
47 ABC did reach out to nearly 10 different school boards in the state of Maryland, including the Wicomico Board of Education. No one was available to comment on their accountability system however, Wicomico county confirmed that they no longer abide by the no child left behind act and are currently transitioning into the every student succeeds rewrite.
The Fordham report ends with a call to action for the US Department of Education “Allow states to rate academic achievement using a performance index.”
Please see the link below for the original Fordham publication: https://edexcellence.net/publications/high-stakes-for-high-achievers
