‘A whole system failure’: Test scores indicate half of MCPS third-graders can’t read at grade level

Advocates fear more students will fall behind during virtual instruction
By Caitlynn Peetz, Bethesda Magazine. for the whole story go here.

In Montgomery County, half of the approximately 23,400 third-graders ended the 2018-19 school year unable to read at or above grade level, according to the results of a state assessment obtained by Bethesda Beat. Advocates fear that while children learn from home due to COVID-19, missing close to a year of face-to-face instruction, more children will fall through the cracks.

“We do run the risk that the learning loss students experience now will be the enduring legacy of this pandemic,” said Ralph Smith, director of The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, a national advocacy group. “Up to this point, there has been a significant, whole system failure and … the impact of the pandemic could cause a generation of students to suffer severe lifelong consequences.”