Bushy Park Elementary School in Howard County posted one of the highest passing rates on the Maryland School Assessment this year in the state, according to an analysis by The Baltimore Sun. Yet Principal Deborah Jagoda said while the school delights in its success, it refuses to rest on its laurels.
"No child should be left behind," Jagoda said, alluding to the federal legislation that sets mandates for student achievement and holds states more accountable for their progress, requiring that 100 percent of students be proficient in reading and math by 2014.
Bushy Park saw 100 percent of its fifth-graders pass reading and math and had at least 97.2 percent of its third- and fourth-graders pass the subjects. It is among several schools in Howard County that appear to be moving steadily toward the mark of having all students pass, helping to give the county a reputation of being synonymous with student achievement.
Clarksville Middle, Mount View Middle in Marriottsville, Lime Kiln Middle in Fulton, Burleigh Manor Middle in Ellicott City and Folly Quarter Middle in Ellicott City each ranked among the top schools in the state in MSA passing rates, according to The Sun tabulations. All of the schools posted passing rates of at least 94.5 percent.
Overall, Howard's elementary schools have at least 90.1 percent of it students achieving passing marks in reading and math, while its middle schools have at least 84.5 percent of its students passing in both subjects.
Such scores are one of the reasons why school officials like Jagoda consider the 100 percent mark not only realistic but also attainable.
"We're working for that 100 percent for every child; to do less than that is to fail," Jagoda said. "How can you say, 'Everyone can succeed except that child'? You never go to a surgeon who says, 'I lose a patient every year.' You go to a surgeon who says, 'Every patient that I treat comes through every year.'"
To that end, county officials say that they focused on the fact that six county schools failed to meet adequate yearly progress marks as required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Those schools were Jeffers Hill Elementary, Oakland Mills Middle and Wilde Lake Middle, all in Columbia; Veterans Elementary in Ellicott City; Mayfield Woods Middle in Elkridge; and Murray Hill Middle in Laurel.
"The culture of Howard County is that we don't blame the child, we nurture," said county Board of Education member Sandra French. "It's the teachers and administrators who look at each child in depth and bring along experts who might have expertise in what this child might need."
County Board of Education chair Ellen Flynn Giles said that among the factors contributing to school achievement are programs that help youngsters gain confidence through realizing their individual talents.
Clarksville Middle, known for its emphasis on music, has fielded a wind ensemble that recently became the state's first middle school invited to perform at Chicago's Midwest Clinic, one of the world's largest music education conferences.
The county's emphasis on public debate has led to two of its middle school students — Michael Koo of Ellicott Mills and Devansh Srivastava of Bonnie Branch — capturing first place recently in policy debate at the National Middle School Forensics tournament in Des Moines, Iowa. Another student, Nikita Datta of Lime Kiln Middle School, was named top speaker for the event's policy competition.
Debate, Giles said, "helps them to see that words matter. We continue to provide opportunities to help students find themselves and what they're good at, and that is reinforced by success."
She was among a group of Howard administrators who recently visited China as part of a cultural exchange and explored how schools in the world's most populous nation educated its students.
Students there, she said, conducted research projects in each of their years in high school, which starts in the 10th grade. Some schools that date back to the 1700s even had museums, Giles added, to give students a sense of how their schools and education in the country had evolved.
"We took away from them that it makes a difference when you come to school prepared to learn and take your responsibility as a student seriously," said Giles.
She added that Howard administrators showed the China delegation how individual achievement — providing programs for children who not only score well in gifted and talented testing but also for those who show interest in a subject — fosters success in American schools.
Jagoda said that Bushy Park did well in the MSAs last year, but entering this year's exams, instructors cautioned students not to assume that last year's results would automatically repeat themselves. She said the same holds true for this coming year.
Still, she said, every year students approach the testing with confidence.