The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) released St. Mary’s County Public Schools’ (SMCPS) student performance results for the 2007 High School Assessments (HSA) on Tuesday.  All student groups made gains on all four tests.  For the Algebra/Data Analysis, Biology, and English assessments, student scores continued to show dramatic increases.

The 2007 HSA scores are the highest scores ever attained by SMCPS high school students.  Passing scores for the Algebra/Data Analysis HSA rose from 70.2 percent in 2006 to 83.0 percent in 2007.  The Biology score rose from 80.1 percent in 2006 to 86.5 percent in 2007, and the English score rose from 67.5 percent in 2006 to 79.0 percent in 2007.

“I am extremely pleased with the progress we are continuing to make at the high school level,” said Dr. Michael J. Martirano, superintendent of schools.  “The vast majority of the students in our first graduating class who need to pass these assessments for graduation have met the necessary requirements.  It takes purposeful effort and a real commitment on the part of students, parents, and educators to attain this tremendous level of success.”

SMCPS HSA Percent Passing History

 

As a result of resequencing the Government course, SMCPS only tested the students who were not successful in passing the test at the conclusion of their ninth grade Government course.  There were 247 students in that group as compared to 1325 in 2006.  The Government class was moved from the ninth grade to the tenth grade in the sequence of courses.  Therefore, given that the 2007 SMCPS tenth graders had already taken the Government course in their ninth grade year, there were no original tests given to tenth grade students in SMCPS.  More than half of the students, 53.8 percent, who sat for a second round of the Government assessment passed.  With the success of the students who passed the second round of the Government assessment, the combined pass rate for the class of 2009 is now at 88.7 percent.

               

For the graduating class of 2009, the first graduating class to be required to pass the HSA as a requirement for graduation, the vast majority of these students have passed the assessment. For the Algebra/Data Analysis assessment, 87.7 percent of the students have passed; 91.6 percent passed the Biology assessment; 88.8 percent passed the Government assessment; and 81.9 percent have passed the English assessment.

SMCPS Class of 2009 Passing Percentages for the HSA

English II Biology Government Algebra
SMCPS Class of 2009 81.9 91.6 88.7 87.7
CHS Class of 2009 80.1 94.1 88.1