One-hundred percent reading proficiency six years early. Last spring, all 184 students in the third and fourth grades at Ocean City Elementary School passed the Maryland School Assessment, or MSA, a battery of tests given by the state every year since 2003 to satisfy the law. “The school was the first in the state, apart from a few tiny special-education centers, to meet the goal that has defined public education this decade,” reports the Washington Post.
While not a disadvantaged school, neither Ocean City Elementary an affluent suburban school. The Post notes the student population, nearly 600 in total, is 89 percent white, 5 percent Hispanic, 3 percent black, 2 percent Asian and 1 percent American Indian. Twenty-nine students have limited English proficiency, and 134 qualify for subsidized meals because of low family income.
