“Garrett is the only school system in the state to have no schools identified as schools in need of improvement.”
Garrett ends year within goals set by officials
For the Cumberland Times-News Cumberland Times-News
OAKLAND — The Maryland State Department of Education on Friday released system level results regarding high school as-sessments and adequate yearly progress for the school year 2010-11.
In July, the state released results for Maryland school assessments and adequate yearly progress concerning elementary and middle schools.
Combining MSA and HSA, Garrett County is not a school system in system improvement status, the calculation used by the state to identify for improvement any school system that does not meet annual targets for two consecutive years in the same reported area at the elementary, middle and high school levels.
In order to meet the federal guidelines of No Child Left Behind, students in specified subgroups, including ra-cial/ethnic classifications, students eligible for free or reduced price meals, and students with special needs, must also meet the AYP goals.
Of the 15 schools in Garrett County, 12 schools made AYP for the 2010-11 school year. Dennett Road Elementary School and Northern and Southern middle schools did not meet AYP requirements in one or two subgroups and will be placed on local attention status for the 2011-12 school year.
With the release of the high school data, both Garrett County high schools made AYP status. The high schools made AYP, indicating that a significant number of students scored at the proficient and/or advanced levels in all nine subgroups in the reading and mathematics areas, including graduation rate, the high school assessments and alternate Maryland school assessment.
In 2009-10, Southern High School did not make AYP and was placed on local attention status. However, the school rebounded in 2010-11, showing proficiency in every category.
For the graduating class of 2011, 100 percent of the students met the HSA high school graduation requirement throughout the county by either passing all four subject tests, reaching a combined score of 1,602 on all four tests, or by completing bridge plan projects in the various subjects. Other data concerning high school assessments are as follows:
• 96.8 percent of the students met the HSA algebra requirement by passing the assessment or completing bridge plan projects.
• 96.6 percent of the students met the HSA biology requirement.
• 91.7 percent of the students met the HSA English requirement.
• 92.3 percent of the students met the HSA government requirement.
For high school AYP, 88.9 percent of the students scored at least proficient on the high school assessment in English. This was 9.4 percentage points above the state’s annual measurable objective of 79.5 percent.
In algebra, 87.6 percent of the students met the proficient mark on the high school assessment, which was 13.9 percentage points above the state’s goal of 73.7 percent. The high school cohort graduation rate was 92.8 percent in 2011, up from 88.8 percent in 2010.
In July, MSA reading and math scores at the elementary grade levels improved in 2011 compared to 2010 results. In reading, 90.2 percent of the elementary students scored at least proficient, up by 1.2 percent points from 2010.
In math, elementary students had 88.3 percent of the students at the proficiency level, a gain of 2.5 percentage points from the previous year.
MSA reading and math scores at the middle school level remained the same or dropped in 2011 compared to 2010. In reading, 89.1 percent of the middle school students scored at least proficient, the same as in 2010. In math, middle school students had 84.5 percent of the students at the proficiency level, a drop of less than a percentage point from the previous year.
Garrett is the only school system in the state to have no schools identified as schools in need of improvement.
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