Professional development, parent involvement help boost assessment scores, principals say

Test results show consistent improvement, some slips at south county schools

‘‘The bigger thing is better collaboration among teachers, and between teachers and parents,” said Carrington Smith, principal of Melwood Elementary School in Upper Marlboro.

Melwood Elementary students in nearly every grade showed improvement over last year – many by double-digit percentages – on the Maryland School Assessment in mathematics and reading. Only third grade math scores fell, with 56.2 percent passing compared with 61.1 percent of last year’s third graders.

Scores for the MSA, which students in grades three through eight took this spring, were released Tuesday. Students are given a score of basic, proficient or advanced, with proficient and advanced scores considered passing.

At the county level, the percentage of students who passed both tests improved in every grade level, Prince George’s County Public Schools officials said.

Scores at schools in the Upper Marlboro area reflected those strides.

‘‘I’m very pleased. And I know many teachers have called today and they’re very excited,” Marlton Elementary School Principal Carol Pica said Tuesday. ‘‘It validates the work we were doing over the course of the year.”

The percentage of Marlton students scoring at least proficient in reading increased 6.2 percent to 82.4 percent, while the percentage scoring at least proficient in math increased 1.3 percent to 79.2 percent, Pica said.

Only the school’s sixth grade math and reading scores fell from last year.

Pica and other principals said that the school system’s involvement with the Institute for Learning, an educator development program based at the University of Pittsburgh, helped make the difference.

Marlton Elementary teachers used techniques from the Institute of Learning that involve students leading their own small-group activities and evaluating each other’s work based on rubrics, Pica said.

Students ‘‘are really taking a lot of responsibility for their learning,” she said.

Principals also said measures have been taken to bring parents into better contact with schools, including the parent liaison staff position and various in-school and after-school activities meant to help parents learn how to participate in their children’s learning.

‘‘Our focus especially this year was having fathers be participants,” said Judy Dent, principal of Patuxent Elementary School.

This year, 81.1 percent of Patuxent Elementary students passed the reading test, up 9.5 percent last year, and 74.6 percent passed in math, up 4.6 percent.

Individual grade levels that had a smaller percentage pass this year compared with last year were fifth-graders in the math test and sixth graders in both tests.

Dent said that she was particularly proud of the gains made by her special education students, with 70 percent of them passing the reading test and 50 percent passing the math test. Those figures represent increases of 58.7 percent and 41.6 percent, respectively, over last year.

Dent attributed those improvements to a new model Patuxent teachers are using that brings regular and special education teachers into the classroom at the same time. She said that the school also received county funding last year to hold after-school tutoring for special education students.

Detailed information on each school’s performance on the MSA is available online at www.mdreportcard.org.

E-mail Andy Zieminski at azieminski@gazette.net.