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Parents at Gwynn Park High School in Brandywine pressed officials from Prince George's County Public Schools and the Maryland Department of Education on Monday for more educational resources and higher standards for the county's students.

Citing a 2009 report by the Maryland Higher Education Commission that found 44 percent of county graduates need to take remedial math classes in college, parents at the forum said there must be higher standards in high schools and more college and career preparatory courses to make students more competitive in academic and career markets. The forum was held at Gwynn Park's PTSO meeting.

South county parents also were concerned about the performances of students in specialty programs and advanced placement courses, and said there is a lack of career and technology training offered in south county schools.

"We've failed our children," said Maurice Banks of Brandywine, who has a son in the 10th grade at the school. "Our kids can't compete. They're struggling."

Some parents complained that educational policies such as the federal No Child Left Behind Act have forced teachers to instruct students around benchmark tests, such as the Maryland School Assessment and the High School Assessments, instead of teaching toward learning styles that help students grasp concepts.

"We're teaching toward a test rather than toward the student," said Clinton resident Tamara Davis Brown, who is also a candidate for the District 9 County Council seat in 2010. "Are we giving teachers enough autonomy in the classroom to be able to tackle [different] learning styles?"

Parents posed questions to a panel of representatives from the state and county schools.

Monica Goldson, executive director of the county's high school consortium, said the county has expanded workshop training for teachers that would include techniques on teaching.

Woody Grant, branch chief for the Equity Assurance and Compliance Branch of the Maryland Department of Education, said teachers often come out of college without the skills to educate diverse populations and learning styles.

"Our teachers have been miseducated in how to educate diversity," he said. "Teachers need help all over the state because of what they lack when they go into super diverse classrooms."

About 35 parents attended the meeting. Goldson was the only representative from county schools on the panel. The organizer, Denise Foskey, a Gwynn Park PTSO member, said schools Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. and Deputy Superintendent Bonita Coleman-Potter had been invited.

Foskey said a playoff football game at the school earlier in the day contributed to the modest turnout.

"I was hoping for a bigger turnout," she said. "We may be rural, but we're not invisible."

Banks said he hopes to increase parental involvement in schools and attendance at meetings to help give parents a louder voice when dealing with the school board.

"Rebellion is the voice of the unheard," he said. "What you see is a reflection of the fact that the school board doesn't hear us."

E-mail Joshua Garner at jgarner@gazette.net.