The Maryland State Department of Education this week unveiled the School Progress Index (SPI), a new accountability system designed to spur improvement in every school. St. Mary’s County falls in the middle of the three Southern Maryland school systems, with an SPI of 1.0074. Systems with 1 or more meet the new system’s performance targets.
The state’s average score was .975, with Charles slightly above that at .9711. Calvert’s SPI was 1.0385.
St. Mary’s County missed meeting one of the six Average Measurable Objectives (AMO): reading percentage proficiency. One category caused that objective to be missed: white student reading proficiency. All other demographic categories met their AMO.
Although the overall school system met graduation requirements, it was not met for the following categories: Hispanic/Latino of any race; White; those on free and reduced meals; and special education. Special education also did not meet the AMO for mathematics Percent Proficiency.
The School Progress Index assesses each one of Maryland’s 1,400 schools on their individual school goals, rather than by an absolute measure. It takes into account a school’s progress determined by its overall student performance, student growth, closing of gaps between the highest and lowest student subgroups, and preparation for college and careers.
The new school accountability system was made possible by the flexibility Maryland officials received this year from some of the U.S. Department of Education’s No Child Left Behind (NCLB) mandates, initially set a decade ago. NCLB required that all schools be gauged on absolute targets known as Adequate Yearly Progress, labeling schools that failed to meet those targets as “in need of improvement.”
State Superintendent of Schools Lillian M. Lowery said the SPI is a better yardstick for school improvement.
“We should be rewarding those underperforming schools that have started to m
