Most county schools show progress on state tests

This year she will happily keep her her promise.

Lincoln Elementary, along with 45 of the 49 middle and elementary schools in Frederick County, nailed their state-set targets in the latest round of the Maryland State Assessments.

The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires that a certain percentage of students each year meet standards set by the state until 2014, when all students must meet the standard.

Test results this year have made Lincoln – a school which has struggled with state tests since 2002 and two years ago faced the possibility of restructuring – a success story in Frederick County.

The school far exceeded the state standards this year. While the state required 71.9 percent of Lincoln's students to pass reading assessments, 84.8 percent of students met that target. In math, 82.1 percent passed the tests, instead of the 69.1 percent required by the state.

As a result, the school was removed from the Maryland State Department of Education's watch list, where it has been since 2002.

"I didn't anticipate how well we did. … We took a huge leap." said Reever, who attributed the success to the hard work of students and teachers and support from the school system and the Lincoln community.

Other Frederick County public schools also progressed in the tests. With the exception of Liberty Elementary in Libertytown, all 36 elementary schools met state-set targets for 2008.

After a downward trend in results last year, test scores also improved at Frederick County middle schools. Last year, six of the county's 13 middle schools missed test targets. This year, the number of middle schools missing the target fell to three —New Market, Thurmont and Walkersville.

"In every single grade we have seen improvement," said Steve Hess, the school system's director for research, development and evaluation. "This is part of an ongoing set of improvements that we have started to introduce in our middle schools."

Among schools showing progress was West Frederick Middle School. The school has missed its targets for several years, and is now categorized as "developing stage focused needs school."

The school is now in the second year of implementing a two-year improvement plan. If it makes targets again next year, it will be removed from the state list.

While he noted this year's test improvements, Hess said Frederick County still has challenges to focus on, and "can't rest on its laurels."

The school system now has to focus on Liberty Elementary, the only elementary school which didn't show improvement this year because of the performance of special education students in math.

To get results back on track, the school system will have to provide Liberty with additional special education support, said Steve Martin, associate superintendent for Frederick County elementary schools.

"Liberty needs some very focused attention," he said.

The same will be true of Thurmont Middle School, which missed its targets for special education students in both reading and math three times in the last four years. Because of that, the school has been categorized as "developing stage focused needs school." That means it needs additional help, specifically focused on special education.

The Maryland State Assessments are administered to third- through eighth-grade students each spring.

Test results are passed to the Maryland State Department of Education, which determines if schools have made ‘‘adequate yearly progress."

Test results are measured within student subgroups, based on ethnicity, economic stability or special education needs.

According to federal mandates, each subgroup has to be proficient in reading and math by 2014.