10/06/05 - Silver Chips Online - Montgomery Blair High School

NEWS
October 6, 2005
chool efforts increase math scores
Blair results satisfy math requirements; reading scores could remove school from state watch list
from AYP page 1
f Other Languages (ESOL) stuents
also made a similar improveent
with 45.5 percent proficiency,
p from 15.2 percent. Blair’s overll
passing rate was 54.9 percent,
ccording to the 2005 Maryland
eport Card.
The Maryland State Department
f Education is still setting the stanards
for the reading MSA, which
as given to sophomores for the
rst time last year. Scores should
e released around November, acording
to department spokesman
ill Reinhard.
Schools that continually miss
YP will ultimately be faced with
estructuring by the state after five
years, during which time the state
could replace all staff, privatize the
school with a contractor or turn it
into a charter school. With each
year Blair does not make AYP, restructuring
becomes an increasing
threat.
Redemption for Blair
Gainous remains optimistic that
Blair’s performance on the reading
MSA could avert this stage. “Restructuring
is out of the picture for
six years or so, assuming that we
make [AYP] for two years,” said
Gainous. “I’ve got all my fingers
and toes crossed.”
If Blair fails to make AYP for the
third straight time, it will remain on
the watch list and could advance to
Corrective Action, the next stage in
the improvement process.
In the meantime, the higher
math scores have helped to improve
Blair’s image throughout
the country. “Blair was famous in
the U.S. for being a failing school,”
explained ESOL resource teacher
and data manager Joseph Bellino.
The discrepancy between MSA
scores and successful Blair math
and science programs contributed
to this exposure, according to Bellino.
“[Now], pressure is off,” he
said. “We can breathe easier.”
A team effort
The collaboration between students
and teachers last year made
the difference in the math scores,
according to Gainous. “There was
a lot of effort explaining to students
that their scores counted for the
school and that we needed them to
do their best, and they responded,”
he said. “In the past, I don’t think
we did as good a job explaining.”
The math department prepared
extensively for the Geometry MSA.
Geometry teachers had several staff
development days with MCPS
specialists to focus on student
needs. During each Geometry
class, students were given past test
questions as warm-ups. Teachers
also provided academic support
for students during lunch and after
school from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.,
which attracted large crowds. “In
the afternoon, we must have had 40
to 50 people, a full house. We went
through boxes of Capri Suns and
granola bars,” said math resource
teacher Rochelle Sherman. Teachers
from other departments and
silverCHIPS
ew safety initiatives increase awareness
from SAFETY page 1
around the Blair campus.
Countdown to the signals
For the past three years, PTSA member
Debbie Reed-Gillette has regularly contacted
the SHA about improving the intersections
around Blair for pedestrians. She notified
the SHA again after her son, senior James
Gillette, was struck by a car while crossing
the street with the Blair wrestling team in
October 2004. Last May, the intersections
were approved for countdown signals by
he SHA.
Blair has received yearly upgrades in signs
nd pavement markings, and the width of
he sidewalk on the bridge on Route 29 over
he Beltway was increased, according to Yaovitz.
She said that the countdown signals
re a relatively new technology in Maryland
nd that many of the older intersections do
ot have the necessary equipment to change
o the new system. The SHA has given priorty
to schools and central business districts,
ccording to Yanovitz.
The lights were approved for Blair priarily
through the efforts of Reed-Gillette
nd the PTSA, which has been meeting with
he administration to increase awareness of
he pedestrian safety problem and to find
ays to address it.
Hazards of walking
Parents who have been working to make
the Four Corners area safer said the speed
limits near the school are dangerously high.
“The 40 miles per hour is an insane stanard.
It’s an insult to the safety of the kids,”
aid PTSA Cluster Coordinator Peter Lafen,
ho has been working on pedestrian safety
or more than seven years.
The SHA has made it clear that a legal
peed reduction will not be possible on
he roads surrounding Blair because of the
hreat of increased traffic and congestion,
Graphic by Camille Mackler
said Reed-Gillette. Furthermore, the SHA
has determined that “everything that can be
done has been done” to make the intersections
safer without risking added confusion,
according to Reed-Gillette.
Aggressive motorists also increase the
dangers of crossing many of the busy intersections
in the county, including Four
Corners, according to Montgomery County
Pedestrian Safety Coordinator Christy Huddle.
“I feel safer flying a hang glider than
walking across the state roads in Montgomery
County, because I don’t trust the drivers,”
she said.
The high volume of traffic and the wide
streets make it difficult for pedestrians to
cross University Boulevard and Colesville
Road. “You can’t cross all six lanes in one
cycle. You must stop at the middle island,”
said Reed-Gillette. She explained that her
son’s accident took place because the light
changed while he was still crossing the
road.
By displaying the number of seconds left
until the traffic light changes, the countdown
signals alert pedestrians to how much time
they have to cross the street safely. “Even if
you’re on the track team, you’ll know you
can’t make it in two seconds,” said Pam
Miller, the chair of the Pedestrian Safety Advisory
Committee of Montgomery County.
Gillette, who regularly crosses the street
at Four Corners, highlighted the need for
pedestrians to be responsible, cautious and
adhere to the signals. Since the accident, he
has tried to wait longer to make sure he has
ample time before he proceeds through the
intersection. Gillette also agreed that, had
he known how much time he had left to
cross, he might have avoided his accident.
Countdown advantages
After a 2003 study of the effectiveness of
the countdown signals, Montgomery County
concluded that the lights are more effective
than the flashing hands, said Huddle. Additionally,
the countdown signals have a more
students from AP Calculus classes
offered their help at the tutoring
sessions as well.
Sherman credits the teachers
and administrators for creating a
sense of urgency for the students,
while providing a constant amount
of support. “There was a good
relationship between students and
teachers. [The students] started to
feel a sense of responsibility,” she
said. “They gave more than 100
percent effort.”
The Blair Sports Academy (BSA)
was also involved in the schoolwide
effort to increase MSA scores.
BSA Director Jose Segura required
indoor soccer players who were
failing their Geometry classes to
attend academic support at least
once a week.
Segura was not surprised at the
math scores. “We put a lot into it.
The kids bought into it, and they
scored well. They were capable
of doing it; it was just a matter of
convincing them,” he said.
Many of the soccer players
were Hispanic or ESOL students.
According to Bellino, Blair missed
AYP during the 2003-2004 school
year because of 15 Hispanic students’
scores on the Geometry
MSA. “Who knows? Maybe it was
the sports academy that made the
difference,” he said.
Plans for this year
The administration plans to
continue last year’s approach to the
MSAs for the students taking the
tests this year. “We’re going to do
similar things, talk to the students
and other schools to try to make it
this year,” said Gainous.
Instead of the Geometry MSA,
universal meaning, according to Miller, because
the symbols of the flashing hands and
the walking man have different meanings
for people from different cultures.
The effectiveness of the signals depends
primarily on whether or not students choose
to heed them. “If [the students] ignore the
crosswalks, it won’t help them any,” said
Reed-Gillette. The PTSA has discussed
installing a fence along the dividers to decrease
the number of jaywalkers by forcing
students to cross only at the crosswalks and
obey the crossing signals.
Walking through the problems
Recent accidents have brought the issue
of pedestrian safety to the forefront at Blair
even though both the Blair community and
Montgomery County have been working to
increase awareness for the past few years.
“It has probably been a problem for a long
time, but it’s starting to come home to a
lot of us that we could lose someone,” said
PTSA member and parent Sally Stokes.
To increase awareness in the county, Delegate
William Bronrott (D-Bethesda), approached
County Executive Doug Duncan
regarding pedestrian safety concerns in 2000,
after former Police Chief Charles Moose said
the Maryland State Department of
Education has decided to use the
Algebra High School Assessment
to measure AYP this year, according
to Reinhard. Although only
34 percent of students passed the
test last year, Gainous has been
reassured by the actions taken by
the math department. “As soon
as that decision was made, they
were already changing their approach
to algebra,” he said. “A lot
“Blair was
famous in the
U.S. for being a
failing school.
[Now] we can
breathe easier.”
-ESOL resource teacher
Joseph Bellino
of schools, in fact, were modeling
our program.”
Each year gets more difficult
as the standards increase towards
NCLB’s overall goal of 100 percent
proficiency in math and reading
by 2014. “We don’t have any more
wiggle room,” Gainous said.
Looking back, Gainous was
pleased with the amount of effort
put forth by the students last year.
“The kids really came through,”
he said. “I’m really proud of the
students.”
that there were more pedestrian deaths in
the county than homicides between 1997
and 1999.
Shortly afterward, Bronrott was appointed
to chair a Blue Ribbon Panel that
spent about two years examining pedestrian
safety problems in the county. One of the
committee’s 54 recommendations was the
installation of countdown signals. Currently,
the county must use countdown lights
when it either replaces old signals or installs
new ones.
Countdown lights are part of a threefold
initiative to increase pedestrian safety,
which includes engineering, education and
enforcement of laws, according to Miller.
Educating students is now the main priority
at Blair; faculty and parents are discussing
ways to inform students about the hazards
of crossing the street without caution.
“The biggest thrust at Blair is trying to get
students aware of their surroundings,” said
Stokes, who attended a meeting with English
teacher Lauren Nestuk, SGA sponsor
Rondai Ravilious and Health teacher Susan
Soulé on Sept. 20. At the meeting, numerous
ideas were proposed to increase awareness,
including the possibility of incorporating
pedestrian safety into the Health curriculum
or Connections classes.
Cars and trucks rush across the Four Corners intersection at high speeds, creating
hazardous situations for students walking to school. Photo by Brandon Herbst