Showing posts with label Friday Bad News. Show all posts

Friday, September 3, 2021

Some 1,000 students, staff in Montgomery County schools are in quarantine

Just five days after students returned to school in Montgomery County, Maryland, approximately 1,000 students and staff are in quarantine.

As dozens of reports of individuals who’ve tested positive for COVID-19 at Montgomery County schools are recorded, the school system updated the quarantine guidance for unvaccinated students...

https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2021/09/we-have-faced-challenges-this-week-updated-quarantine-guidance-at-montgomery-county-public-schools/?fbclid=IwAR1LjbXUK_YVbFkdgKa4TqAiSitzXcZC9nq5cPHY6VU45MfrjLNup2O1IAw

Friday, June 27, 2014

Starr's Friday Bad News: Higher number of students received failing grades on the Algebra tests - Starr to Add 15 Points for Everyone

Superintendent Joshua Starr's plan is to simply add 15 percentage points to the results of every test to make up for the high number of low and failing grades on the Algebra exams. (We are not making this up. This is not an article from The Onion.)

MCPS Bad News for a Friday Afternoon Press Release:

...In the process of reviewing the results of Algebra 1B semester exams, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) staff discovered that a higher than expected number of middle and high school students received low and failing grades on the tests...

...Because students had no control over this loss of instructional time, the semester exams were recalculated...

Read the press release at this link:http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/press/index.aspx?page=showrelease&id=3561

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Breaking News: Starr Dumps More Bad News on Holiday Weekend

What's the "mindset" behind Superintendent Joshua Starr dumping terrible news on Friday afternoons? Is he hoping that Montgomery County parents won't notice?

Here's the latest Friday afternoon data dump: First semester final exam grades in Government, Honors Government, Modern World History, Honors Mod. World History, Biology and Honors Biology.

And, final exam grades in 8 different English classes.

Have a nice Memorial Day Weekend and by Tuesday, May 28th, please forget you ever saw this data.

The Washington Post: Large percentages of Montgomery students fail final exams in English, history and biology

Principles

Formed in 2002, the Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland seeks to achieve the goals of coherent, content-rich curriculum standards; high expectations combined with timely remediation and acceleration; a wider range of educational options for parents and children; greater transparency and accountability; and meaningful community input.

E-mail: parentscoalitionmc AT outlook.com

What The Washington Post said about the Parents' Coalition

The coalition might be the best-known parent advocacy group in the region. Its members represent several constituencies, including parents of special education and gifted education students and fiscal watchdogs. The group's defining victory came this school year when the school system scaled back the fees charged to families for course materials.

Coalition leaders have drawn attention to the misuse of funds collected from students for activities, the broadcast of a commercial radio service on school buses and, with their "Weast Watch" blog, the travel habits of Weast and his lieutenants.

The Washington Post, June 4, 2009

Jerry Weast on the Parents' Coalition

"Along the way, you’ve had a challenging relationship with the Parents’ Coalition, the network of citizen activists who use the political process and other means to hold MCPS accountable.

The thing people accuse me of is listening, but not hearing. I hear, but I do not always agree. I am sorry that the world is faster than it was 10 years ago. I did not do that. [But] if we do not keep up, then our kids will be behind. We have to stop whining and get real."

Bethesda Magazine, March-April 2011