New PGCPS CEO Attacked Racial Achievement Gaps in Anne Arundel

July 1, 5:30 a.m.—In choosing Kevin Maxwell as the new CEO of Prince George's County Public Schools, county leaders selected a candidate whose previous job as superintendent of Anne Arundel County Public Schools saw him tackle thorny issues surrounding academic achievement and discipline disparities in the county's African American student population.

For Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker, Maxwell's previous focus on minority achievement was a policy highlight which separated him from the other two candidates recommended to lead the county school system. 

"It was critical," said Baker in an interview after he formally introduced Maxwell as his pick for Prince George's schools chief. "When we looked at his track record in Prince George's County, Montgomery County and in Anne Arundel County, it showed that wherever he went, he took a school like Walter Johnson—one of the best in the nation—and made it better. He took a school system like Anne Arundel County—where he could have just focused on those high performing schools—and took one of the lowest performing schools and turned it around. That was important."

Academic Disparities in Anne Arundel

When Maxwell became Superintendent of Anne Arundel County Public School (AACPS) in 2006, he made closing the minority academic achievement gap his top priority. In 2005, AACPS and the Anne Arundel County NAACP mediated an agreement which outlined a plan to close this gap. The agreement came out of a 2004 complaint the NAACP filed with the Office of Civil Rights over persistent academic achievement and discipline disparities between African American and white students.

In 2006, when Maxwell took over the reigns of AACPS, only 59 percent of its African American students were performing at a proficient level in Maryland Schools Assessment (MSA) and High School Assessment (HSA) tests, compared to 82 percent of all other students, a 23 percent gap. 

Likewise, in 2006, only 62 percent of Anne Arundel County's African American students were performing at a proficient level on MSA reading and HSA English tests, compared to 81 percent of all other students, a 19 percent gap. 

Maxwell tried to achieve this goal through a program called "Attack the Gap." While the program had success in narrowing the academic achievement gap, Maxwell will be leaving an Anne Arundel County school system in which African American students still lag significantly behind their white peers. 

Academic Gap Narrows

The first four years of Maxwell's tenure saw dramatic gains in proficiency among African American students in the Anne Arundel County public school system, according to documents provided by AACPS. By the 2008-2009 school year, 72 percent of African American students in Anne Arundel County earned proficient scores on MSA math and HSA algebra tests, narrowing the achievement gap to 17 percent. During that time, non African American students in Anne Arundel County also raised their proficient math and algebra scores to 90 percent. 

Likewise, by the 2008-2009 school year, 79 percent of African American students in Anne Arundel County public schools were passing MSA reading and HSA English tests with proficient scores, narrowing the achievement gap to 12 percent. During that time, non-African-American students in the county raised their proficient reading and English scores to 91 percent.

But since then, the gap has stayed roughly the same across all MSA and HSA test categories. In math and algebra, the 2011-2012 assessments show a 16 percent gap between African American students and their peers, with 75 percent of African American students achieving proficient scores compared to 91 percent of other students. 

Anne Arundel's reading and English assessment scores for African American's continue to lag approximately 12 percent behind their peers, with 79 percent of African American students achieving proficient scores compared to 92 percent of other students. 

"There has been progress, albeit slower than ideal, but fully addressing the intricacies of this complex issue takes time," wrote Maxwell in a 2011 paper summarizing the program to that point. "It is one thing to say we're going to build a rocket to go to the moon. Doing it is a lot more complicated."

Maxwell also said that consistent gains were harder to maintain as the gap narrowed in Anne Arundel. 

"I think as you get close to the upper ends, it's harder and harder to keep going forward," said Maxwell in an interview after he was formally introduced as the new Prince George's schools chief. 

Discipline Disparities Remain

Despite gains made in narrowing the academic achievement gap, discipline disparities between African American students and their peers in Anne Arundel County remained persistently high under Maxwell's tenure as superintendent. 

While African American students accounted for only 22 percent of the student body in Anne Arundel County, they accounted for an average of 38 percent of disciplinary referrals and almost 43 percent of suspensions each year between 2004 and 2012. African American students also accounted for 52 percent of all expulsions over the last three school years. 

The lack of progress in closing the discipline gap between African American students and their peers led the Anne Arundel NAACP to file a formal complaint last year with the U.S. Department of Education which highlighted "disparate treatment" for African Americans in disciplinary matters.

Lessons for Prince George's

The achievement gap remains persistently wide in Prince George's County, as well, according to a 2011 University of Maryland dissertation by Cheryl Jones. In 2010, African American students in Prince George's County Public Schools scored approximately 19 percentage points lower than white students in math assessment tests and 14 percentage points lower than white students in reading assessment tests, according to the report. 

"One would not expect PGCPS to perform so poorly. Prince George‘s County is a community that on its face would seem to be well positioned to address the African American achievement gap. Because the county is majority African American, one would expect a heightened sensitivity to the problems of African American academic achievement," reads Jones' report. 

Maryland schools are getting ready to transition away from the MSA testing to PARCC (short for Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) assessments in the 2014 school year. The new assessments are designed to test how well schools are preparing their students for higher education and professional careers. 

Maxwell was optimistic that he could narrow the achievement gap in Prince George's as well, but cautioned that the transition to the new assessments could result in lower than expected scores for schools across the county and the state. 

"That doesn't mean our kids aren't learning more, it means that there's more rigor, more expectation," said Maxwell. "We just have to get all of that in line."