State education officials will monitor Oakland Mills Middle School this school year, after the Columbia school missed progress targets on key reading and math tests for the third consecutive year.

Oakland Mills is the first Howard County school to require state intervention since officials began tracking progress on the tests, the Maryland School Assessment, in 2003.

Four other Howard County elementary and middle schools also missed the progress targets during testing in the 2007-2008 school year, according to data released Aug. 14 by the Maryland State Department of Education. Those schools are Bollman Bridge Elementary School and Patuxent Valley Middle School, in Jessup, and Stevens Forest Elementary School and Harper’s Choice Middle School, in Columbia.

Because it was the first year these schools  missed making progress, the state is not intervening, as it is at Oakland Mills.

If a school misses the progress targets for one year, state officials ask that local education officials bolster their efforts at the school. If a school fails to meet the standard for more than one year, the state reserves the right to take corrective measures at the school.

The tests measure the proficiency of students in third through eighth grades in math and reading. Officials monitor progress on the tests annually as a requirement of the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Officials released schools’ scores on the tests in July and this month calculated whether each had made sufficient improvement since the previous year.

Schools are expected to continually improve their scores, including the scores of student groups broken down by grade, gender, race, English proficiency, special education programs and those who receive free or reduced-price meals.

Howard County Superintendent of Schools Sydney Cousin said that, in most cases, the Howard schools missed the state progress targets by a slim margin and that extra academic support will be added at those schools.

“We still have some gaps that we have to deal with,” he said. “... We want to be sure to raise (scores for) all of our kids.”

Schools missed some targets

This year at Oakland Mills Middle, students who qualify for reduced-price meals — the school system’s measure of poverty — did not meet the reading target.

In 2007, the same group missed the reading target, along with black students and those in special education. In 2006, the school’s special education students missed the reading target.

The school has met all of its math targets.

Portia White, the Howard system’s testing coordinator, said state educators will monitor Oakland Mills in the coming year, although she was unsure to what extent the state would be involved.

“There is progress there,” White said of Oakland Mills. “We don’t know the specific details at this point, but there will be some monitoring because that’s required by the state.”

Oakland Mills Middle principal Cynthia Dillon could not be reached for comment.

At Bollman Bridge, special education students and those who qualify for reduced-price meals missed the math target.

Stevens Forest’s special education students missed the target in math.

At Patuxent Valley, special education students missed the reading target.

At Harper’s Choice, special education students missed the math target.

Although the students at Murray Hill Middle School, in North Laurel, posted sufficient progress in 2008, state educators will continue to monitor the school since it missed its targets in 2006 and 2007, officials said.

Reporter Sarah Daniels contributed to this article.

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