Parents at six schools may transfer children

The Baltimore Sun

Parents of students at twice as many Baltimore County schools as last year will have the option this fall to transfer their children to higher-performing schools in the system, school officials announced yesterday.

Of the system's 28 middle schools, Lansdowne Middle, Old Court Middle and Woodlawn Middle remain on the list from the most recent school year, and joining them are Golden Ring Middle, Loch Raven Academy and Dundalk Middle.

Parents whose children attend these schools are being invited to community meetings this month to learn more about the so-called Title I transfer option, a provision that is required by the federal No Child Left Behind law. At the meetings, parents will learn to which schools they can transfer their children.

"Based on the data we've received to date from [state education officials], we're proceeding with communicating with families regarding the Title I transfer option," Kara Calder, a county schools spokeswoman, said yesterday. "Our goal is to support families as fully as possible. Clearly, we want parents to make an informed decision."

Parents have until July 30 to submit transfer applications for their children.

"In addition, the meetings are an opportunity for the principal and the school community to come together to talk about school performance," Calder said. "It's an opportunity for parents and guardians to have their questions answered about the performance of their schools."

Signed into law in 2002, the No Child Left Behind Act is designed to reduce the achievement gap for poor, minority and special-education students. The law requires school systems to allow parents to move children from schools that repeatedly fail to improve and that also receive money through a national funding program -- called Title I -- for schools with high rates of poverty.

State education officials use results from the annual Maryland School Assessments, given each spring in grades three through eight, to determine whether schools -- and school systems -- have made sufficient progress to meet specified benchmarks, known as adequate yearly progress.

School systems must show progress in all of several subgroups of students, such as poor children and minorities. Schools that repeatedly fail to show progress face escalating sanctions, ranging from being required to provide tutoring services to facing state takeover.

At the six county schools named in yesterday's announcement, scores tended to be lowest among special-education students, poor students and racial minorities.

Progress reports on which schools have met the benchmarks this year are expected to be released by midsummer, state school officials have said.

Calder said that while officials with the Maryland State Department of Education have not released a breakdown of individual schools' performance, local educators have enough preliminary information from the results of this spring's statewide assessments to form the list of six county schools.

At Woodlawn Middle School, for example, the percentage of seventh-graders passing the statewide math exam dropped by almost half, from 50.4 percent of students passing the test last year to 26.7 percent passing this spring's assessment. Countywide, 58.1 percent of seventh-graders passed the math test.

Overall, fewer of Woodlawn Middle's seventh-graders and eighth-graders passed the math and reading exams this year than last year.

Dundalk Middle, Golden Ring Middle and Loch Raven Academy saw similar declines among seventh- and eighth-graders.

At Dundalk Middle, eighth-grade reading scores dipped 10.5 percentage points -- from 34 percent passing last year to 23.5 percent passing this year. Countywide, 53.3 percent of eighth-graders passed the reading test.

No Child Left Behind requires states to set increasingly tougher standards each year, with the goal of having 100 percent of students passing statewide assessments by 2014.

gina.davis@baltsun.com

Community meetings

For students attending:

Old Court Middle -- 7 p.m. July 16 at Milford Mill Academy, 3800 Washington Ave.

Golden Ring Middle -- 5 p.m. July 17 at Golden Ring Middle, 6700 Kenwood Ave.

Woodlawn Middle -- 7 p.m. July 17 at Woodlawn High, 1801 Woodlawn Drive

Lansdowne Middle -- 7 p.m. July 18 at Lansdowne library, 500 Third Ave.

Dundalk Middle -- 7 p.m. July 18 at Dundalk Middle, 7400 Dunmanway

Loch Raven Academy -- 7 p.m. July 19 at Loch Raven High, 1212 Cowpens Ave.

Source: Baltimore County school system

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