Hyattsville schools exit watch list

Principals point to new academic support program as contributing factor

For the second year in a row, Beacon Heights, Lewisdale and Port Towns elementary schools made Adequate Yearly Progress, which measures improvement on state tests of math, reading and science.

To stay off the watch list, each year schools must meet AYP, which is a series of benchmarks meant to get schools to 100 percent proficiency in math, science and reading by 2014. One area school, Thomas Stone Elementary, failed to meet AYP this year and is now on the watch list. Principal Helen Smith couldn't be reached for comment.

The three area schools that exited the watch list are all Title I schools, meaning they receive special funding because of a high percentage of students living in poverty.

Lewisdale Elementary Principal Melissa Glee-Woodard attributes the school's success to its three after-school programs and Friday evening "English Survival" classes conducted by the parent liaison for parents to learn homework help strategies.

"We actually had programs every day except for Friday evening and Sunday, so our students were able to receive a lot of academic support after school," Glee-Woodard said.

Lewisdale also increased co-teaching between classroom and ESOL teachers, she said.

Beacon Heights Elementary School Principal Lynn Stuewe said the school didn't meet AYP three years ago in part because of score shortfalls among the school's special education and English as a Second Language students. Stuewe said about 70 percent of the school's population participates in ESOL.

The school has since begun an after-school tutoring program in which students tutor ESOL students in reading. Out of about 450 students in the school, more than 200 participate in some kind of afterschool program, Stuewe said.

"The after school programs really do strengthen our kids," she said. "It's not just the neediest kids. It looks at strengthening the skills of all our students who may just have certain areas of weakness."

Stuewe said the school focused on improving reading last year, so this year it will focus on mathematics skills.

Some principals worried that since they are no longer on the watch list, they will no longer see the school improvement funding that paid for many of the afterschool programs that they partly credit with helping them reach AYP.

"I've been talking to the teachers, saying that we may have to roll up our sleeves and volunteer to help our students afterschool," Glee-Woodard said. "It's something in the back of my mind, but I still feel, with the quality of teaching that we have at Lewisdale, we'll still make AYP next year."

Schools will continue to receive school improvement funding for one year after they have exited the state watch list, according to Prince George's County schools spokesman John White. Additional funding for programs after this year will be decided upon a case-by-case basis.

E-mail Elahe Izadi at eizadi@gazette.net.