Ocean City School Achieves 100% Proficiency

In Alexander Russo's "This Week in Education," he briefly discusses a Washington Post story about an elementary school in Ocean City, MD. The headline states, "School In Ocean City Nails Its Target," referring to the No Child Left Behind goal of a 100% passing rates on academic proficiency tests.

What made this school different? How did it achieve such astounding success? Disregarding the flaws of the NCLB Act, let's look at a few items:

• According to parents and school administrators, the teaching is "relentless and consistent." Huzzah for that!
  

• The student population is 89% white, of course, but almost a quarter of the students qualified for low income meal subsidies. So how did this school do better than the quasi-elitist public schools of Montgomery County to my North? It inched it out by a few points, and I'm guessing it's because of the "focus on getting children to speak" Class participation, discussion, and peer-to-peer learning (all of which of stressed at Ocean City Elementary) are exceptional learning tools.

• One of the teachers said, "There isn't anything magical about what we do." They're obviously doing something right, though.

Ocean City Elementary School, keep up the good work! One down, and only 1,454 public schools left in Maryland!