Thousands of Baltimore's elementary students gleaned only a few months of learning from 180 days in city classrooms last year, according to results of a critical twice-a-year reading and math test the school board will use to evaluate everything from student progress to teacher and principal performance.

The poor showings were a disappointment -- if not a total surprise -- to school board members, who are in their second year of major reform efforts and had hoped to see more signs of improvement.

"I hope there is not anyone out there that can't agree we have got to work harder," said school board President Tyson Tildon after seeing the scores for the first time at last night's board meeting.

Fourth- and fifth-graders made only three months' progress in reading on average according to the tests, which measure fall-to-spring gains in month-by-month increments. Second-graders -- who began the 1997-1998 school year just below grade-level -- only gained two months by spring and are a year behind their peers nationally.

First and third grades were an exception: Children in both grades boosted their reading scores by eight months. But even they -- like children in second, fourth and fifth grades -- lag far behind the national averages for children their age. Baltimore's elementary students scored at best in the bottom third of the nation's students -- between the 16th and 30th percentiles.

In math, gains were similarly small, but slightly better; city students scored between the 19th and 33rd percentile nationally.

Some experts say the Baltimore scores reflect a national trend in urban districts, where deep poverty often hobbles student progress. But within the district-wide numbers are individual schools that belie that trend.

Beating the odds

Pimlico Elementary is among the poorest in the city, yet its children achieved significantly more than children in other schools. The same can be said for Carter G. Woodson and the Barclay School -- which use the curriculum of the private Calvert School -- and several others.

The challenge for board members -- who have stated their desire to make poverty irrelevant to student achievement -- will be to discover and replicate those schools' secrets, to ensure that every child in the city gains nine months of learning from nine months in class.

Some of the bright spots among the city's scores were predictable. Roland Park, Mount Washington and Woodhome elementaries -- which have lower poverty levels than other city schools -- all out-performed the city average at most grade levels. Two new schools -- one run by a parent group in Bolton Hill and a second by a church -- also did better than average, despite high poverty rates.

One puzzler among the scores was the performance of schools that participate in high-profile reform programs.

Schools which have been using the Open Court Co. textbook series, Collections for Young Scholars, before it was adopted city-wide this fall showed no more gains than the average city schools. The same was true for six schools that put Direct Instruction in place two years ago. The highly scripted program has a phonics-rich curriculum.

Muriel Berkeley, director of the Baltimore Curriculum Project which assists 15 of the 18 city schools in Direct Instruction, said she was not surprised or discouraged by the scores. She said she would not expect any significant gains for at least another year.

Gary Thrift, the administrator in charge of the Direct Instruction schools, said so many students transfer in and out of the schools that the test scores may not be representative of how students who have been in the program for a full two years scored.

One research scientist at the Johns Hopkins University saw positive trends in the test results. While the scores are low, said Sam Stringfield, the percentiles are going up. For instance, in third grade, students were in the 17th percentile in the fall and the 29th percentile in the spring. So compared with their peers nationwide, they had progressed further by the end of the year, he said.

"I would take some pleasure in that if you look at the gains, they are up," he said. "I think the board has something to feel good about."

In general, teachers and principals say privately that they believe it will take five years before new textbooks, curricula and smaller class sizes will translate into gains in scores. Too often, they say, the city has swung from one new quick-fix program to the next, never giving a program long enough to take hold.

In addition, some school officials believe that with a more detailed analysis some trends may become apparent. While, on average, schools that used Open Court did not score any better than other schools in the city, several of the individual schools using Open Court did well.

At Liberty Elementary School, Principal Linda Chinnia, decided after years of declining test scores that she would put Open Court's program into place in 1997. Not only did she buy the textbook series and spend a lot of time retraining teachers to use it, she also hired a consultant who spent last year at her school helping teachers implement the program.

The intensive teacher training made the difference, she said.

Liberty, which has been on the list of the state's lowest performing schools, made larger gains in test scores at most grade levels than the city schools as a whole.

None of the testing experts could say how Baltimore's scores compared with other large, urban school districts; however, they say, urban systems generally do poorly.

Second-graders at issue

Perplexing to some testing experts is why the second-graders gained only two months of learning last year on average, meaning that in dozens of schools students scored lower in the spring than they did in the fall.

For example, fourth-graders at Curtis Bay Elementary in South Baltimore scored at 3.7 grade level in the fall, but only at the 3.2 grade level in the spring.

Several testing experts said they don't believe that students actually knew less, but that they have probably not grown much.

"It is possible that it reflects imprecisions in the test," said Steven Ferrara, a testing expert at the American Institutes for Research in Washington and the former director of state assessment in Maryland.

And in fact, Yen said, the fall test is a diagnostic test and the spring test is more difficult and measures slightly different things. For that reason, Baltimore school officials had to translate the spring results into scores that were equivalent to the fall test scores.

School officials were at a loss to explain the second-grade scores. And school board officials said the numbers depressed them. "Is it safe to say our kids could almost stay home and do as well?" asked school board member Patricia Morris.

Looking at the test results as a whole, said Ferrara,, "the numbers show that Baltimore city like other urban systems are not doing well compared to their peers. They reflect the problems kids bring to school."

Across the nation too, he said, urban children tend to fall further behind the longer they stay in school. "Whatever gains they make in the early grades tend to disappear."

Scores did increase in the third grade, because many principals and teachers give special attention to third grade, which is when the first statewide assessment test is given. Chinnia, for instance, said she generally doesn't put her novice teachers in charge of third- and fifth-grade classes.

Pub Date: 9/09/98