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Friday, May 17, 2013

More Excuses: Starr Blames the Economy for Math Exam Failures

More from the May 14, 2013, Board of Education meeting discussion of the revelation that significant numbers of high school students fail their county wide math exams.

11 comments:

  1. Starr about high failure rate on math exams: "Course completion has been the system's target. Grades have not been the system's target." The system being MCPS. Oh boy.

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  2. So when the economy was still burgeoning from 2004 to 2007 why were the kids failing the exams? Mr. Durso's testimony is even worse. I'm flummoxed. Give the teachers a short survey? They'll say we as parents are failing to support our kids in math. That's what I heard year after year in MCPS. There was a chain of blame that kids were not being prepared for whatever math curriculum was introduced. The upper elementary teachers blamed the lower elementary teachers; the middle school teachers blamed the upper elementary teachers; the high school teachers blamed the middle school teachers. And through it all they also blamed the parents for not "providing an enriching math atmosphere" at home. It never got any better; and when they get to college they have to take middle school math in remedial classes. Yes, Mr. Durso, parents do wonder why some data is manipulated to show how wonderful MCPS is, when in reality some of the data is pretty dismal. In my son's high school, there were five kids in a senior AP math class while there were 35-40 kids in on-level math classes. And no one ever makes the connection that providing an excellent education to the best students while the less academically advanced students languish in large classrooms with brand new teachers may have something to do with them not passing final exams.

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  3. It's always been about completion of the course or the grade/level...not the grade or the mastering of the material which the grade represents to some extent. Why do kids who fall in the FAILING "Basic" level year after year keep being pushed along falling ever more behind? At the Town Halls this year, Dr. Starr told us parents to stop focusing on the grades, he would like to just get rid of them. What an insane idea. Parents who are invested in their children's education understand what a "B" or a "D" represents. We understand that a "C" is passing but it certainly isn't mastery of material and means there's plenty of room for improvement. So glad my youngest is beyond ES and these new report cards with new reporting codes. Sounds like those new codes will make it easier to hide the failures.

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  4. "Course completion has been the target" - meaning mastery of content was not a target? I thought we sent our kids to school to learn. No wonder teachers can sometimes feel like over qualified baby sitters.

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  5. It was never about mastery. It was about placing students into above grade level courses that they were not ready for to make Jerry Weast look good. Weast dictated that teachers move students to upper level courses based on a fixed percentage of enrollment into the higher level classes. Mastery of the material had nothing to do with placement. Some students were skipped an entire grade/course level in order to meet the fixed percentage given to staff by Jerry Weast. As far as Durso suggesting a survey.............. Teachers and math specialists all over Montgomery County complained that students were not being assigned to upper level math classes based on mastery. These MCPS math educators were ignored every time that the issue was brought forward. Many complained to the union and they were also ignored. There is no need to spend money on a survey when it is blatantly clear that MCPS students were used for political reasons and that is also why the final exam results were kept hidden from parents.

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  6. Yes, course completion (aka social promotion) has always been the target. Nothing new here.

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  7. How much are we paying this guy? Maybe his salary should be based on performance.

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  8. From a Fred Stichnoth post on GTLiasons yahoo group:

    Pat O'Neill was right on top of this situation, in 2000:
    http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/boe/meetings/minutes/2000/minutes.052200.pdf (see page 26).

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    Replies
    1. Regarding the BOE Resolution, the tasks assigned in 2000 don’t seem to have been accomplished. Do we award an incomplete or is a failing grade in order after thirteen years?

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  9. Anyone who thinks anything other than course completion has been MCPS's main goal hasn't been paying attention. The county allows students to receive credit for courses by only passing one marking period (can fail the other marking period AND the final). Students don't have to pass the final to advance.

    Then there is High School Plus where students who fail can retake the course in a much less demanding setting. Don't forget credit recover, where students who fail a course don't have to demonstrate mastery by passing the course or the course final, but still can get credit. Course completion is the key to those high graduation rates.

    If the county switched to actually having to demonstrate mastery of the content, more students would fail classes and the graduation rate would drop dramatically.

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  10. @Anonoymous, May 19, 8:13 PM nope. We reward the BOE with a raise. That's what the delegates you voted for did in the just-ended session in Annapolis. Delegates are up for election next year. Going to vote them in again? I thought so.

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