"A sense of urgency is called for because 2,010 students dropped out of MCPS in the past 2.5 years, the number of students in a medium-sized high school." That's a lot of dropping out!

• From 2017 to the present, approximately 544 Grade 9 students, 696 Grade 10 students, 390 Grade 11 students, and 380 Grade 12 students dropped out of school in MCPS

• MCPS data reveal that in the 2015‒2016 school year, 28,144 of our 152,439 students were chronically absent; 18.5 percent of the total number of students, and those numbers are rising as our enrollment increases; the 18.5 percent is greater than the national average of 10 to 15 percent. 

• [Parents were excluded from Superintendent Jack Smith's committee.]

•  READING is another major concern with thousands of students reading below grade level, some so low they are embarrassed because they cannot do the academic work, and therefore,they drop out. Thirty-one percent of this year’s Grade 9 students and 28 percent of Grade 6 students read below grade level (MCPS data).

• Insufficient attention to equity [This from the public school system that charges students illegal class fees!] seen in the high number of dropouts among students who receive Free and Reduced-Price Meals System (FARMS) services (40 percent of total MCPS dropouts) and the disproportionate numbers of Black or African American 

Full text of Superintendent Jack R. Smith's memo to the Board of Education:

https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/BEBM2D591C6C/$file/Student%20Attendance%20Pathway%20Engagement%20190729.pdf