America’s Choice Shows Promising Results, Author of New Maryland Report Says

Washington, D.C. (Dec. 6, 2007) – Jack Jennings, the president and CEO of the Center on Education Policy, which released a report today on Maryland’s efforts to improve struggling schools, cited America’s Choice as one of two programs beginning to have a positive impact in Prince George’s County schools, as reported in today’s Washington Post.

The report, Making Mid-Course Corrections: School Restructuring in Maryland, was released today by the Washington, D.C.-based education policy think tank. The report notes that the state’s early strategies for addressing schools in restructuring under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, such as employing school “turnaround specialists,” have not been enough to help most schools in restructuring exit that status.

According to the report, the Maryland Department of Education has eliminated six previously available intervention alternatives – including turnaround specialists. But Jennings told The Post that turnaround specialists might help improve schools as part of a comprehensive approach. For example, he noted, “In Prince George’s, implementing a curricular reform program called America's Choice and ensuring that the lowest-performing schools have the highest concentration of highly qualified teachers have shown promising results.”

The story adds that though the number of Prince George's schools designated in need of restructuring has increased in recent years, the number undergoing any type of corrective action decreased dramatically this year. "We've been thrilled," Prince George's spokesman John L. White told The Post. "That's not to say there's not more work to be done, because there is, but the progress has been terrific."

America’s Choice joined forces with the Prince George’s County last year. America’s Choice specialists have worked with 17 of the district’s middle schools that have failed to meet the state’s AYP goals in math or literacy, or have missed AYP in both areas. America’s Choice has also worked with 22 elementary feeder-schools.  America’s Choice has trained dozens of Prince George’s teachers to work with Ramp-Up Literacy, Ramp-Up to Pre-Algebra, and Mathematics Navigator.

The 135,000-student Prince George’s County Public Schools, which is located just outside of Washington, DC, is the second-largest school system in Maryland and the 18^th largest in the nation.