Differentiated Instruction Doesn't Happen, MCPS Reports

When Superintendent Jerry Weast, and Board of Education members Nancy Navarro and Shirley Brandman moved full steam ahead with their plan to phase out and close the Secondary Learning Centers, parents of affected students were given lots of promises about how regular classroom teachers would be trained to provide "differentiated instruction" in order to meet the needs of students whose reading abilities could be two or more years below grade level.

Promises, Promises.

The Montgomery County Public Schools Office of Shared Accountability has now released their report on the evaluation of the phase out of the secondary learning centers. Page 14 of their report contains this electrifying statement:

"With the inclusion of the transition students, it was expected that teachers would need to provide more differentiated instruction (e.g., different activities, formats, or outcomes). Only 27% of the grade 6 classes and 27% of the grades 7-11 classes displayed any differentiated activities at any time during the lesson. Only 8% of the grade 6 classes and none of the grade 7-11 classes included differentiated activities throughout the lesson."

Even worse, knowing that the students in their classrooms did not have grade-level reading abilities, less than one third of classroom professionals responding to the OSA survey reported that their students had access to materials re-written at an appropriate reading level (page 15).

According to the OSA, "very little differentiation was observed in classrooms." (page 32)

And what was the outcome of the Weast-Navarro-Brandman plan?

Maryland School Assessment scores (MSA scores) tanked for these students. According to the report,

"Achievement of the transitioned students on standardized tests was weaker than that of students with similar disabilities. Their mean scores were lower than comparison students on the MAP-R reading test and on the MSA tests in Mathematics and reading. Also, a higher percentage of transitioned than comparison students scored at the basic level on each MSA test. (page 33).

It is time to end the experimentation with our students and make available a full continuum of special education options once more.

Lyda Astrove