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 …
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…
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 …
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 …
Incident is fourth such occurrence since 2005.
The Maryland Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) recently announced that for the fourth time in eight years, it has taken action against Montgomery County Public Schools regarding a student’s right to decline to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance. This most recent incident involved Enidris Siurano-Rodriguez, a 10th-grade student at Damascus High School, who was protesting U.S. government policies toward Puerto Rico, which is her family's native country. According to the ACLU’s press release, Siurano-Rodriguez initially was sent to the principal’s office, where the assistant principal “improperly demanded to know why she persisted in sitting during the Pledge.” The school then contacted the student’s mother, stating …
Friday, April 19, 2013
Pension issues and local funding to drive spending over next four years.
While Montgomery County spends approximately half of its annual $4 billion budget on K-12 education, that figure is expected to grow by more than $100 million over the next four years, according to a recent Washington Post article. Two state mandates uncovered by Montgomery County Council staff will drive the increased spending—the shift of teacher pension costs from the state to the counties and the “maintenance of effort” rules which require schools to maintain a level of per-pupil funding at least equal to the previous year, The Post reported. Montgomery County Councilmember Valerie Ervin (D-Dist 5) described the increases in education funding as “a runway train.” Montgomery County Council staff director Stephen Farber described the …
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Learn when each Montgomery County public high school will hold its graduation ceremony.
Montgomery County Public Schools on Thursday tweeted a link to a schedule of high school graduations this spring. All ceremonies at DAR Costitution Hall in Washington, D.C. will be streamed online, the school system's website said. The graduations season begins with a ceremony for the school system's Alternative Programs on May 24 and wraps up with June 12 with ceremonies for Watkins Mill High School, the Longview School and the Gateway to College program. Click here to read the full schedule on the MCPS website.
Friday, March 15, 2013
Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Joshua Starr said he is disappointed in the County Executive's budget plan.
The amount of aid for county schools proposed by Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett in his fiscal 2014 county budget plan falls short of what's needed, Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Joshua Starr said Friday. Leggett's plan calls for a schools budget of $2.23 billion—an increase of $65.8 million, or 3 percent more than the budget approved for the current school year. "The County Executive's recommendation would fund 100 percent of the [school board]'s request," according to Leggett's budget proposal. Click here to read more on Leggett's fiscal 2014 budget plan and here to hear the County Executive discuss the proposal. The proposal is a slight increase in spending for MCPS, to the level required by the state's …
Catch up on school news from this week.
What's been going on with Montgomery County Public Schools this week? Here are a few education headlines you might've missed: Achievement Gap Grows Wider in Some Areas MCPS Superintendent Joshua P. Starr and other county officials have repeatedly emphasized their goal of narrowing the achievement gap that separates white and Asian students from black and Hispanic students. But a 130-page report released this week found that the gap in scores for Advanced Placement exams, SAT tests and state-level math exams has actually grown wider for MCPS students, The Washington Post reported. Patch education blogger Joseph Hawkins predicted this outcome in his analysis of the county's efforts to close the achievement gap. Here's what he wrote in …
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 ›