Four elementary schools in central Prince George’s County made double-digit gains on a statewide test of reading and math skills, while the performance of special education students kept many others from meeting state standards.

Capitol Heights’ Carmody Hills Elementary, Capitol Heights Elementary, Landover Hills’ Glenridge Elementary and Hyattsville’s Woodridge Elementary schools posted some of the county’s biggest score jumps on the Maryland School Assessment.

Results were released June 29. The MSA is given to students in grades three through eight to measure Adequate Yearly Progress, a state Department of Education benchmark for grade-level reading and math skills.

Those four schools were among 16 central Prince George’s elementary schools that made AYP. Fourteen central-area elementary schools did not make AYP.

Of those 14, 12 failed to make AYP due to special education students’ math performance.

Woodridge Elementary had the highest leap, from 74.2 percent in 2010 to 90.8 percent of its students with proficient or better reading skills. In the same category, Carmody Hills increased from 66 percent to 81.3 percent, followed by Glenridge, with an increase from 72.9 percent in 2010 to 83.4 percent this year.

Capitol Heights increased from 78.1 percent in 2010 to 89.5 percent of its students with proficient or better math skills.

Capitol Heights Elementary Principal Herman Whaley said the key was finding the instructional needs for each student. Internet-based programs such as “Study Island” and “First in Math” helped and teachers tailored the assignments in those programs to each child, Whaley said.

Whaley also praised a community group made up of local politicians, the school’s PTSA and business owners who pooled resources to buy CD players for the school’s listening center’s literacy program and dinner for parents who attended after-school parent involvement nights.

“We knew that was a hardship in terms of parents making it to the meetings,” Whaley said. “That was one responsibility we took out of their hands for that day. That also improved our parent attendance at these meetings as well.”

Capitol Heights, Carmody Hills, Glenridge and Woodridge elementary schools escaped being placed on the school improvement list this year by making AYP. The school improvement list comprises schools that failed to make AYP two years in a row and are required by the state to develop a plan to exit the list next year.

Carrollton Elementary in New Carrollton and Kenmoor, William Paca, Highland Park Elementary schools, all in Landover, are in danger of making the school improvement list in the 2011-12 school year if they fail to make AYP for a second year in a row.

At Highland Park Elementary School in Landover, despite achievements such as 100 percent of its fourth-graders being proficient or better in reading, it was special education student performance in math that kept the school from making AYP, said Principal Lori Ellis.

She said a special education instructor was out on sick leave at the beginning of the school year and the vacancy was not filled until January, two months before the MSA.

“We know it was based on two students in special education, so our focus will be how do we address the needs of those students as well as the other students in the school,” Ellis said.

Two central-area elementary schools entered the state’s school improvement list: Landover’s Columbia Park Elementary and Capitol Heights’ William W. Hall Academy K-8.

Capitol Heights’ Robert R. Gray Elementary School, which made AYP this year, can exit school improvement if they make AYP again in 2012. Robert R. Gray Principal Cheryl Franklin said success came from implementing parent-student-teacher conferences and analyzing student work during teacher planning sessions to figure out what questions they need to ask students so they better comprehend course material.

Franklin praised outside groups such as the Prince George’s County Memorial Library System and the nonprofit Prince George's County Chapter of the Continental Societies Inc. for mentoring and reading to Gray students throughout the year.

“You celebrate in the moment but then you quickly realize it’s time for you to work even harder,” Franklin said.

nmcgill@gazette.net