Washington Post: Top district (MCPS) lets average kids lag behind

Class Struggle: Top district lets average kids lag behind
By Jay Mathews

...Among the most important reasons for that, Stephens says, are the countywide final examinations in core subjects such English, social studies, science and math. They are important two-hour tests, written not by Stephens or other individual classroom teachers but by county experts. They are “kept locked and sealed until the day we give them,” Stephens said, “and we must sign documents, under penalty of dismissal, promising not to assist students in any way.”

And yet a student who flunks one of those exams is usually promoted to the next grade, and the next level course, as if that hard work writing and protecting the exams meant nothing.

“The majority of my precalculus students have never passed one of these exams in either Algebra 1, Geometry or Algebra 2, all Precalculus prerequisites,” Stephens said. “Nevertheless, they proceeded to the next level. ... Students are well aware that failure, even pathetic failure, will not prevent them from going on to the next level. Most of my students have failed multiple final exams in other subjects as well, but they still earned credit for those classes.”

In Montgomery County, any good faith effort on regular assignments or tests earns at least 50 percent, no matter how much is wrong with the work. The lowest passing grade is 60 percent, a D. If you turn it in, usually you pass, Stephens said, even if you don't understand it very well...