HCPSS MPIA Request #2019-124

Requested Information
Please provide me with a list of every school that has the Reading Recovery program and the demographic breakdown of students served by the program at each of these schools over the last five years. Specifically, for each school in the program, I would like to know out of the total number of students in the Reading Recovery Program at that school, the percentage that are African American, the percentage that are of mixed race, the percentage that are Hispanic, the percentage that are Caucasian, the percentage that are Asian, the percentage that are English language learners, and the percentage that receive FARM assistance.

Additionally, I would like the county-wide demographic breakdown for those same five years for students who are seen by reading specialists. Specifically, I would like to know out of the total students who receive instruction by reading specialists, the percentage that are African American, the percentage that are Asian, the percentage that are Caucasian, the percentage that are Hispanic, and the percentage that are of two or more races. Also, I would like to know out of the total students who receive instruction by reading specialists, the percentage that receive FARM assistance and the percentage that are English Language Learners.
Date Received
Status
Complete
Response Notes

Responsive to this request, under MPIA 2019-036 we indicated Reading Recovery was used in 16 elementary schools for the past five years:
Bollman Bridge
Bryant Woods
Cradlerock
Deep Run
Ducketts Lane
Elkridge
Guilford
Jeffers Hill
Laurel Woods
Longfellow
Phelps Luck
Running Brook
Stevens Forest
Swansfield
Talbott Springs
Veterans

Additionally, while no existing records track system-wide students receiving instruction by reading specialists, all students below grade-level in reading receive interventions by HCPSS certified reading specialists. Available counts of students per school who are one or more grade levels behind at the elementary and secondary levels can be found under MPIA 2019-029. Please note, for elementary school, the above/on/below data only goes back to the 2015-2016 school year due to the change in systems around that time. Our Language Arts staff indicate the school system is currently developing a data tool to monitor system-wide reading interventions, with expectations for implementation next year. Please note, under the MPIA process, and as advised in the Fourteenth Edition of the Maryland Public Information Act Manual created by Maryland’s Office of the Attorney General, an agency is only obligated to produce existing records and is not required to generate new data or summarize data. In order to extract demographic, FARMS and EL data on those students who are below grade-level from the HCPSS reporting system, a new query would have to be programmed. Per the MPIA GP § 4-205(c)(4)(iii), an agency is not required to program a new record if the type of data extraction requested is outside its normal course of business.

Responsive Documents
Copy of RR Student data for last 5 years all schools REDACTED.xlsx
Available demographic, FARMS and EL data as reported by teachers for students participating in the Reading Recovery program for the last five full years. Under both the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA), which restricts access to student records, and MPIA GP § 4-313, which prevents disclosure of school district records pertaining to individual students, HCPSS must protect against the potential disclosures of personally identifiable information about students. In accordance, HCPSS follows the Maryland State Department of Education and the National Center for Education Statistics’ guidelines for protecting student privacy in public reporting and suppresses all indicators for populations that fall below 10; categories directly related to specific student records; and/or information that, when combined with other publicly accessible data, can reasonably identify an individual student or reveals information from an individual student’s record. Due to low overall participation, and National School Lunch Program protection regulations, all counts have been suppressed in the Free/Reduced Meals column. HCPSS has made substantial efforts to ensure the accuracy of this information; however, data collection and reporting is consistently subject to change. Please be mindful when comparing data as many variances can occur between reports based on date pulled, parameters used, categories included, etc.

*Some request language is summarized to include the requester's specific document requests and legally protected information (such as personally identifiable information of a student) or personal, defamatory and malicious content removed at the discretion of the school system.

**Responses containing legally protected information available only to the person of interest are omitted from the above report.

***Howard County Public Schools reserves the right to remove erroneous or outdated documents from this site.