The Harford County school superintendent said yesterday that he is "proud . . . not satisfied" that county schools continued to show gains in meeting standards set by the Maryland School Performance Program.
As they did last year, Harford's 49 public schools met 11 of the 13 criteria set by the state. Superintendent Ray R. Keech said county schools were rated "excellent" in seven of the 13 criteria established under the school reform program that began in 1989. The results for the 1993-1994 school year which ended in June were released yesterday.
The two areas in which Harford schools need improvement are attendance in grades seven to 12 and the dropout rate, which climbed slightly in the 1993-1994 school year after a period of improvement. "We need to continue to work to get the kids to school," Dr. Keech said.
To receive a satisfactory rating for attendance, school systems must record a 94 percent attendance rate. Last year, Harford schools upper-school attendance achieved a 93.1 percent attendance rate.
The schools also must have no more than 3 percent of high school students dropping out to receive a satisfactory rating. Harford's dropout rate was 3.97 percent, nearly three-quartes of a percentage point worse than the 3.26 percent rate in 1992-1993. "We have one of the lowest dropout rates in the state, but we still don't meet the standard. It's a high standard," Dr. Keech said.
Schools officials played down the significance of the change in the dropout rate, saying it probably involved fewer than 100 of the system's 34,775 students.
The officials said new programs -- such as offering classes to certain students at night and a mentor program -- should help improve the attendance and dropout rates.
The Maryland School Performance Program tests are administered to third-, fifth- and eighth-graders in reading, mathematics, social studies, writing and language usage.
Dr. Keech said that on average, Harford schools improved in 14 of 16 categories. The two additional areas, third-grade reading and eighth-grade science, were new categories.
No Maryland school system is currently meeting the state standards under the Maryland School Performance Program. The state goal is for 70 percent of students to achieve satisfactory scores by the year 2000.
In addition to the performance tests, administered last May, Dr. Keech said Harford schools met or exceeded state standards in functional tests administered to ninth-and 11th-graders last year.
And, he said, third- and fifth-graders in Harford finished no lower than sixth among the state's 24 school districts in the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills last year. The county's third-graders were second best in the state in reading.
Eighth-grade results in the skills test were in the top third in the state, he said.
"We are enjoying the status of being one of the better academic achieving school systems in the state," Dr. Keech said.