Severna Park High School ranked among the best schools in Maryland on high school assessment results released yesterday - one of the few silver linings Anne Arundel schools officials could find as they discussed the county's generally dismal performance on the statewide tests.

Overall, the county ranked between seventh and 15th in the state in the five subjects tested - much worse than the two top-performing school systems, neighboring Howard and Montgomery counties.

"That's just totally unacceptable," said schools Superintendent Eric J. Smith. "We have the capacity to do much better."

There also was bad news for elementary schools, which received results of the final round of the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program (MSPAP) yesterday.

Scores earned by the county's third-graders slipped in all subjects, with the greatest loss in math. The percentage of third-graders who scored "satisfactory" in math - 28.1 percent - slipped below the state average of 28.7, the first such lag since 1993.

Fifth-graders made slight gains in science and social studies, but did worse in math and reading than in the previous year.

Eighth-graders in Anne Arundel County and 15 other counties were excused from this round of MSPAP. Some officials said a lack of enthusiasm was partly responsible for poor performances on the MSPAP, which pupils took last spring after the state announced the test would be abandoned.

"I didn't expect great improvement this year," said Thomas W. Rhoades, who oversees testing research for the schools. "It was hard to get everybody geared up."

Smith said the low elementary math scores reinforce his decision to change the county's math curriculum, which relies on photocopied handouts rather than textbooks.

"It's very difficult to manage," Smith said. "We need to move this next fall to a textbook format that a teacher would use as a primary text and that students can take home at night and work on with their parents."

The superintendent also said he will try to reduce glaring performance disparities among high schools.

Severna Park High, which did the best countywide in all five subjects, scored in the 76th percentile in English, meaning its median student did as well or better than 76 percent of all students in Maryland. In contrast, North County High scored in the 34th percentile.

Smith said he believes the disparities reflect economic and racial achievement gaps.

"There has to be ... very clear, concise information about what students are expected to know," he said. "If there's not clarity about what needs to be taught, the ones that suffer are the lower-income and minority students."

The principal of North County High School, which along with Annapolis High received the county's lowest scores, said she was disappointed with her school's results, but not surprised.

"It's always good to know where you are," said Patricia Plitt, who said the assessments will be a useful tool for improvement. "Now that we have something concrete, we have something to work from."

Severna Park High's principal credited the school's success to students giving the tests an "honest effort." It was the only Arundel high school to score above the 80th percentile in any subject (biology and geometry).

"We're right proud of that," said William Myers. "That says your students are doing something right, the faculty is doing something right."

Another bright spot for the county was to be found in the scores of middle schools, where some pupils took the high school assessment for algebra. The middle school scores were better than officials expected - mostly higher than the 80th percentile, and some above the 90th.

Officials said middle school students may have outperformed high-schoolers because higher-achieving middle school students tend to take the algebra course.

Smith said the scores were so high that he is concerned that only the top students are enrolled in algebra in middle school. "What that tells me is that we're probably denying some access to upper-level rigorous coursework in our middle schools," he said. "We're being too restrictive."