Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Data from 2009 reveals that students have long struggled with final exams in MCPS math courses.
Few Montgomery County Public Schools students enrolled in high school math courses made high marks on final exams last semester, data released by the school district last week showed. In one class, Bridge to Algebra 2, less than 1 percent made an "A" on the final exam. (See data, above, that details the distribution of final exam grades "A" through "E" for eight math courses last semester.) School officials were prompted to release student math grades after members of the county school board grilled Superintendent Joshua Starr about last semester's final exam grades. Media outlets reported earlier this month that the majority of students in high school math—Algebra, Algebra 2, Geometry and Precalculus—failed their final exams. Starr …
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Advocates for free school breakfast programs say student achievement is linked to the availability of breakfast in schools.
More schools in Montgomery County are participating in free breakfast programs, a reality that may result in increased student achievement, advocates for school breakfast said. "Expanding participation in breakfast is one of the best ways to ensure that Maryland’s children are healthy and ready to learn," said Cathy Demeroto, director of Maryland Hunger Solutions. "Efforts to expand school breakfast in Maryland are making a difference, and we’re pleased to see that the state is moving in the right direction. Still, we can build on this progress and reach even more children, especially in urban areas." During the 2011-2012 school year, 49.3 percent of low-income children attending Montgomery County Public Schools participated in the …
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Floyd Starnes remains principal despite complaints from former school employees
Montgomery County has settled out of court with a group of teachers who brought a lawsuit against the county's board of education and Floyd Starnes, the principal at Kemp Mill Elementary School since 2007, The Washington Post reported. The former school employees accused Starnes of "unabated and outrageous bullying behavior directed toward the Kemp Mill teachers, as well as the administrative and custodial staff," according to the lawsuit. Both sides signed a confidentiality agreement preventing them from disclosing the terms of the settlement, The Washington Post reported. When the suit was filed in March 2012, MCPS released this statement: “It is unfortunate that a group of people is using the media to make accusations—thus far proven to…
Sunday, May 12, 2013
The Montgomery County Board of Education meets regularly in Rockville.
The Montgomery County Board of Education will approve a bevy of school building improvements at its regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, May 14 at 9 a.m. in Rockville. Projects at Judith A. Resnik, Sequoyah, Summit Hall, Arcola and Rosemary Hills Elementary Schools are on the agenda. (To see the full agenda, click on the PDF above.)
Monday, May 6, 2013
Gov. Martin O’Malley, Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett and MCPS Superintendent Joshua P. Starr spoke at the launch event at Benjamin Banneker Middle School last week.
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Alix Medor of Northwood High School in Silver Spring was recognized as the Patricia Behring High School History Day Teacher of the Year for Maryland.
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
"Students are the largest stakeholders, but we are noticeably underrepresented in making critical decisions" in the school system, said Justin Kim, 18, of Gaithersburg.
Meet Justin Kim, junior at Poolesville High and an 18-year-old Gaithersburg native who will serve as student member of the Montgomery County Board of Education next year. Kim was elected to the position with 65 percent of the student vote, Montgomery County Public Schools announced April 26. All secondary students in the system were eligible to participate in the election. Patch spoke to Kim about what he hopes to achieve during his term and the challenges the school system faces. Patch: Why did you want to become a member of the Montgomery County Board of Education? Justin Kim: I’ve always had a passion for service and working with others towards a common goal. Throughout my life, I am always looking for new ways to help others and …
Monday, April 29, 2013
A new model for underperforming schools will work to close the county school system's achievement gap, school officials said.
Ten "Innovation Schools" within Montgomery County Public Schools will receive "shoulder-to-shoulder" support from the system's central office under a new program that will work to close the achievement gap. The new program, announced at the April 23 meeting of the Montgomery County Board of Education, will hire a new position—a chief school improvement officer—to work directly with the leadership staff at the selected schools. This dedicated central office position is new to the system's approach to working with struggling schools, said Deputy Superintendent Beth Schiavino-Narvaez. "We're limiting the number of schools so that (the improvement officer) can be on the ground working shoulder-to-shoulder with the leadership team on their …
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Seven Montgomery County schools included in the Top 10
U.S. News has ranked Silver Spring's Montgomery Blair High School in the Top 10 of public high schools in Maryland in its 2013 report of the best high schools nationwide. Blair was given a national rank of No. 247 and awarded a gold medal. There are 2,827 students enrolled at Blair, and the Advanced Placement participation rate is 64 percent, U.S. News reported. Seven of the top 10 schools in Maryland are in Montgomery County: Blair, Winston Churchill, Walt Whitman, Poolseville, Wootton, Richard Montgomery and Bethesda-Chevy Chase. Read more about the rankings: A full list of the best high schools in Maryland How U.S. News calculated the 2013 best high schools
Monday, April 22, 2013
Read the winners' responses to this question: “How can the country readily and realistically tackle growing income disparity?”
Isabel E. Hendrix-Jenkins, a junior at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, has won a $10,000 scholarship for her essay about growing income disparity, Montgomery County Public Schools announced Monday. She is one of four MCPS students selected as winners in the 2012 Junior Achievement Essay Competition. Hendrix-Jenkins placed second in the state. The competition, coordinated by Junior Achievement of Greater Washington, asked high school students from Virginia, Maryland and Washington, DC to compete for scholarships by writing a 1,000- to 1,500-word essay in response to the following question: “How can the country readily and realistically tackle growing income disparity?” One of the ways Hendrix-Jenkins suggests is to bolster …
AMSV
3:50 pm on Thursday, May 23, 2013
It makes me wonder if there is a problem with how the exams are written. If a large number of students fail, it is reasonable to consider that the test itself may be a problem. If a student gets an A all year and flunks the exam, was the teacher too easy all year or was the exam too hard or confusing? I have never liked standardized tests. They don't tell the big picture. And, frankly, I think … more ›