PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Monday, September 21, 2009

Linda Dudderar, Chief Academic Officer, 301-475-5511, ext. 108

SMCPS Meets System Improvement Status

LEONARDTOWN, MD -- St. Mary’s County Public Schools (SMCPS) has achieved a positive System Improvement Status (SIS) based on the results of the 2008-2009 Maryland assessment data which was recently released by the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE).

 The federal government permits MSDE to separate overall Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) status from decisions about school system improvement. A school system’s improvement status is determined by examining the AYP targets at each of the three instructional levels – elementary, middle, and high school. A system moves into “System in Improvement” status by not making AYP at all three instructional levels for two consecutive years in the same reported area.  This allows MSDE and school systems to focus on improving student achievement by giving attention to students in areas of specific need.

To meet AYP at each instructional level, all students within each of the eight different student subgroups -- African American, American Indian, Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic, White, limited English proficiency (LEP), free and reduced price meals (FARMS), and special education students -- must reach the Annual Measurable Objective (AMO) for reading and mathematics as measured by the Maryland School Assessments (MSA) and the High School Assessments (HSA).  In addition, each Maryland school system must meet the state attendance and graduation rate criteria.  If a system does not meet all of these targets for all of these student groups, it does not make AYP for that year under No Child Left Behind.

For the 2008-2009 school year, SMCPS made AYP for all tracked subgroups at the high school level. In accordance with No Child Left Behind (NCLB), this requires high school students to meet the Annual Measurable Objective (AMO) set by the state for reading, mathematics, and graduation rate.  At the middle school level, SMCPS did not make AYP for the Special Education subgroup in math and reading.  The FARMS subgroup did not make AYP in reading.  At the elementary level, even though every individual school made AYP, SMCPS as a system did not make AYP for the Special Education student group for mathematics.

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