Overhaul planned for failing schools

State education board approves multi-step plan that includes removal of principals and other teaching staff and intensifying development programs

The schools affected are Thomas Claggett Elementary in District Heights, Benjamin D. Foulois Elementary in Suitland, Charles Carroll Middle in New Carrollton, G. Gardner Shugart Middle in Temple Hills, Thomas Johnson Middle in Lanham, Stephen Decatur Middle in Clinton, and Bladensburg High School.

‘‘Our concern is to maintain and establish a highly qualified core of academic teachers and administrators,” county schools Superintendent John E. Deasy told board members.

Deasy said the teachers being replaced would be ‘‘no longer eligible for employment” with the county schools unless they could be placed elsewhere, such as at a different grade level, and be highly qualified.

‘‘We’re very clear – this is 100 percent highly qualified work,” Deasy said.

To meet the definition of ‘‘highly qualified,” teachers must hold at least a bachelor’s degree, a teaching certificate in the subject areas in which they teach, and have the ability to demonstrate knowledge of their subject areas. None of those being replaced are considered highly qualified.

About 74 percent of the schools’ teachers meet that definition, according to school system statistics.

Restructuring is the final stage of state-mandated school improvement, said MSDE spokesman William Reinhard.

‘‘The federal law is nonspecific, and does not say what to do next,” Reinhard said, referring to rumors that the state at some stage would take over schools that continuously fail, which he said does not happen.

‘‘The state board continues to monitor those schools to find ways to help them exit the improvement plan,” he said.

All school districts in Maryland must make Adequate Yearly Progress under the NCLB law.

‘‘AYP is an individual state’s measure of progress toward the goal of 100 percent of students achieving state academic standards in at least reading⁄language arts and math,” the U.S. Department of Education’s Web site states.

State board members have approved implementation of the plans at the start of the academic year beginning in August.

The plans include changing the schools’ ‘‘instructional leadership,” which could include replacing principals, assistant principals or other school personnel; implementing America’s Choice, a national program that offers curricula for improving student performance; and running additional staff development programs.

Deasy spokesman John White on Wednesday pointed to Drew Freeman Middle School in Suitland as an example of a school introducing novel methods to exit school improvement. The school, under a two-year plan for failing to meet adequate yearly progress, ‘‘has adopted single-gender classes as part of its program,” White said. Boys and girls will be in separate classes during the next school year.

Charles Carroll Middle School Principal Eric Wood has dubbed his school ‘‘the new Charles Carroll.”

He said the school is focusing on both achievement and community involvement.

‘‘You’re not just principal of a school; you’re principal of the community,” Woods said.

Wood has also implemented a school motto, which he calls the three P’s, to help the school exit the improvement plan: peaceful, positive and productive.

‘‘It guides every action that takes place in the school,” said Wood, who has been the school’s principal for the past three years.

Staff Writer Ulric Hetsbergercontributed to this report.

E-mail Megan King at mking@gazette.net.