In light of the Magruder High School shooting on January 21, 2022, some might be pondering the question: How common is weapon and gun carrying by @mcps youth? @mocoboe

Research compiled by Joseph Hawkins

How Common is Weapon and Gun Carrying by Youth by Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland on Scribd

2014: Live Music Venues, In The Red. "For 2012, Strathmore’s operating expenses were $8,426,877. Income was $5,483,932. That is a deficit of $2,942,945. I would say the place is bleeding cash."

FROM BETHESDA NOW - BY JOSEPH HAWKINS

 

| Published: 2014-05-07 10:20

My Two Cents is a weekly opinion column from Bethesda resident Joseph Hawkins. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of BethesdaNow.com.

Recently, BethesdaNow reported that the small, 250-seat music venue in White Flint to be operated by Strathmore will open this fall.

I love live music and I try especially hard to take in at least one event a month. In April, I saw Hugh Masekela at Birchmere and Kenny Barron at University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center (I’m really fond of the Kay Theater and its intmacy — not a bad seat in the house). Later this month, I’ll see El DeBarge at the Howard Theatre.

Still, I’m going to ask a question that’s perhaps a bit music-unfriendly. Do we need really need another music venue? I’m asking purely from a financial angle, because I find it hard to believe that most venues turn a profit.

Recently, one Bethesda music venue actually went public with its money problems. We now know that after one year in operation, the Bethesda Blues & Jazz Club in downtown Bethesda has yet to turn a profit. The club is asking for county help to fund sound and lighting equipment it thought would be left over from the theater’s last tenant.

Perhaps their $35 Sunday brunch gospel special isn’t special enough.

I got to wondering whether the big dog on the block, Strathmore, turns a profit.

It doesn’t.

Frankly, the Strathmore financials surprised me. (I applaud Strathmore for putting their financials on their website. Many Montgomery County nonprofit organizations seem afraid to share this info.)

For 2012, Strathmore’s operating expenses were $8,426,877. Income was $5,483,932. That is a deficit of $2,942,945. I would say the place is bleeding cash. (I reached out to discuss the issue with Strathmore officials, to no avail.)

In its IRS 990 — the federal tax submission required by nonprofits — Strathmore noted the following about running its 2012 deficit:

“We experienced significant reductions in individual and corporate contributions. …Contributed income, therefore could not cover the operating loss and the year ended with a deficit, which was further compounded by significant loss of investment income.”

And so, I have to ask, why is Strathmore looking to operate a new venue when it has trouble funding what it has?...

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/opinion/my-two-cents-live-music-venues-in-the-red/

Researcher’s fight to close achievement gap irked school board for years

Joe Hawkins learned early how much trouble he could get into as an educational researcher, particularly when he reported problems in his high-performing but self-congratulatory school district in Montgomery County, Md.

In 1981, Hawkins, as an evaluation specialist, was the first researcher to identify publicly the district’s black-white achievement gap. When he and a colleague published their results in the College Board Review, a school board member asked why school employees were putting out negative information.

It has been like that his whole career, ending this year at age 68 with his retirement from the position of senior study director for the survey research firm Westat. Few people know his name, but Hawkins has made important discoveries on many issues and been a valuable resource for education writers like me.

He grew up in the Washington area, got a bachelor’s degree in anthropology at Boston University and trained as a reading specialist at Howard University. He has an activist’s temperament. Few researchers have stuck their necks out as far as Hawkins has.

He became particularly notorious in 2001, shortly after he moved to Westat, when the Montgomery County Board of Education — for reasons that still make no sense to me — turned down a proposal by Hawkins and several brilliant Montgomery educators for the Jaime Escalante Public Charter School...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/researchers-fight-to-close-achievement-gap-irked-school-board-for-years/2017/08/24/b66e6b74-8799-11e7-a94f-3139abce39f5_story.html?utm_term=.159f759e319e

Jay Mathews dislikes fraudulent courses, but still want schools to use them

...Joseph Hawkins, a veteran education researcher based in Montgomery County, Md., said administrators should check credit-recovery courses for effectiveness. “A kid who, for example, recovers credit in Algebra must actually sit and pass an Algebra exam,” he said.

Creative thinking is needed, Hawkins said. He said high schools could set up an academic plan with a ninth-grader at risk that might take five years, but at a pace they could handle...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/i-dislike-fraudulent-courses-so-why-do-i-still-want-schools-to-use-them/2017/07/14/6c90d8e4-680d-11e7-8eb5-cbccc2e7bfbf_story.html?utm_term=.a9cbb136cf27#comments

My Two Cents: Debating Healthy Food In MCPS

For the past 15 years, I’ve worked as a federal contractor supporting a government survey that assesses school health.

I see what educators and health experts around the nation do to improve the lives of youth. And one of the side benefits of the work is that I get to attend the occasional conference to hear about what is actually happening on the ground.

Several years ago, for example, I spent half a day listening to Kentucky educators explain how they connected local farmers and schools to improve school lunches. Local farmers also helped build functional school gardens. The end result was a true farm-to-table operation. Kentucky school children were eating just like the hipsters on the Food Network.

And so when a small group of Montgomery County Public Schools parents started advocating for “real” food, I paid attention. Was farm-to-table coming to MCPS?...

 http://www.bethesdanow.com/2015/04/14/my-two-cents-debating-healthy-food-in-mcps/

No more secret workouts. We need to see the next potential quarterbacks in action, including how these draft choices interact with fans.

My Two Cents: Picking A New Quarterback For MCPS

My Two Cents: Starr Wars

by Joseph Hawkins

It looks like the Montgomery County Board of Education will not sign Joshua Starr to another four-year term as superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools.

 http://www.bethesdanow.com/2015/01/28/my-two-cents-starr-wars/

My Two Cents: Growing A More Diverse Teaching Corps In MCPS

by Joseph Hawkins — November 3, 2014

 A recent Montgomery County Council report points out that the Montgomery County Public Schools teacher corps is not diverse enough when compared to the school system’s student body.

Nearly, two-thirds of MCPS students are non-white and yet 76 percent of its teachers are white...

 http://www.bethesdanow.com/2014/11/03/my-two-cents-growing-a-more-diverse-teaching-corps-in-mcps/

My Two Cents: MCPS And The Third Rail

by Joseph Hawkins 

This past Monday, I listened to some of the County Council’s discussion of the achievement gap in our public schools. I didn’t listen to all three-plus hours, but I heard enough to know that the issue of changing school boundaries is a serious third rail among Board of Education members. 

As a possible gap-closing strategy, changing boundaries was discussed because study after study in Montgomery County reveals that low-income MCPS students perform better when they attend public schools where the student body is economically diverse... 

http://www.bethesdanow.com/2014/07/16/my-two-cents-mcps-and-the-third-rail/

My Two Cents: Local Travel Tips For BOE Members

by Joseph Hawkins 

Dear Board of Education, 

Subject: Local travel tips to save money 

Thank goodness! You’re coming to your senses and plan to ban overnight hotel stays within a 50-mile radius of Rockville. With acts like this, you might just get your American Express credit card scandals behind you. 

Last week for work, I attended a U.S. Department of Education two-day conference at the Washington Hilton Hotel, located in D.C. This is the same Hilton some Board members back in February spent two nights in on the public’s dime. I thought I would share a few tips about how I behaved — all with the intent of being a good steward of (federal) taxpayer dollars and saving money. 

1. Sleep in your own bed. With the Hilton being a mere eight miles from my Bethesda home, it never crossed my mind to stay at the hotel. 

2. Eat your own food. I ate breakfast each morning before heading out to Hilton. It never occurred to me that someone else should pay for my morning granola. And even though I had several cups of coffee each day — all purchased from the hotel’s coffee shop, I’m not seeking reimbursement. On a normal work day, I would have paid for my own coffee anyway.

          ...continues at link below:

http://www.bethesdanow.com/2014/06/17/my-two-cents-local-travel-tips-for-board-of-education-members/

My Two Cents: Don’t Expect MCPS To Change School Start Times

This week, Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Joshua Starr took a step back from his own proposal to move high school start times 50 minutes later, from 7:25 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. with school ending at 3 p.m. instead of 2:10 p.m.
The optimists among us are holding firm to the notion that MCPS will change, and before you know it, rational minds will prevail. Later start times will happen and finally — finally — county teens can get a good night’s sleep.
Of course, I see the world differently. I see no changes coming. Here’s a cautionary tale about MCPS and change.

http://www.bethesdanow.com/2014/06/12/my-two-cents-dont-expect-mcps-to-change-school-start-times/

My Two Cents: Career Skills And MCPS

Joseph Hawkins

In a recent publication, Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Joshua Starr wrote, “…industry leaders are telling us that our graduates don’t have skills like perseverance, teamwork and creative problem solving that are so important in the 21-century workplace.”
When reading Starr’s entire essay, one realizes he is not just writing about MCPS high school graduates, but high school graduates in general.
But what do these skills really entail? How much can a public school system do to instill those skills and should that be where our focus is?

 http://www.bethesdanow.com/2014/03/19/my-two-cents-career-skills-and-mcps/

My Two Cents: Is Innovation Just A Word?

by Joseph Hawkins

Recently, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Superintendent Joshua Starr gave a speech about innovation.
Now, when you Google the word innovation, this list of synonyms pops up: “change, revolution, upheaval, transformation, breakthrough, creativity, ingenuity, inspiration, inventiveness.”
Revolution! Upheaval! Pretty strong stuff, right?

 Continues at Bethesda Now: http://www.bethesdanow.com/2013/11/27/my-two-cents-is-innovation-just-a-word/

Post's Jay Mathews writes about Joe Hawkins

Expert suggests putting all black students in IB

I don’t know anyone who cares more or knows more about Montgomery County public schools then Joseph Hawkins, a senior study director at the Westat research company.
He tried in 2000 to start a charter school in the county to challenge low-income minority kids. The Board of Education said no, concerned, among other things, that the charter’s plan to have all students in the International Baccalaureate diploma program was too strenuous.
Hawkins still wants more rigorous classes for the students least likely to be in them. In a recent post on the Rockville Patch blog, he suggested the following: At the eight county schools that offer IB classes, black students must go for the full IB diploma, which requires six three-to-five-hour exams and a 4,000-word research paper. His reasons are interesting.
As an adult, Hawkins wrote, he became friends with his middle school basketball coach, Skip Grant. They ran together. Hawkins asked Grant how to get faster.
“I thought he would give me some really complex training program,” Hawkins wrote, “but instead his advice was two words: ‘Train fast.’ In short, you can’t really improve your real race times unless you practice running faster.”
Hawkins is an expert on school statistics. He said he often thought of Grant’s advice when people asked him how schools can close achievement gaps “between their black and white students, their Latino and white students and their poor and rich students.”
“Now I know it sounds simple,” he wrote, “but to close gaps, schools must make the students who are behind (e.g., black students) run faster. And if they do not, then gaps remain.” He said he italicized the word “make” because “it does come down to a requirement. There is no negotiating excellence and better outcomes.”
In his e-mail exchanges with me, Hawkins usually has numbers to illustrate his point. In the Rockville Patch piece, he wrote that in 2011, there were 796 black seniors at the county’s eight IB high schools: Bethesda-Chevy Chase, Einstein, Kennedy, Richard Montgomery, Rockville, Seneca Valley, Springbrook and Watkins Mill. Only 40 black seniors at those schools were candidates for the IB diploma, which is 5 percent.
“That is not even close to good enough,” he wrote.... Jay Mathews article continues at this link.

Are MCPS Teachers Cowards?

Those who know me know I’m no fan of Jerry Weast, the former superintendent of the Montgomery County Public Schools. One can find a fairly long list of blog postings, including here and here where I hold no punches when criticizing Weast and his legacy.
So, it feels strange to find myself almost defending Weast. A recent Washington Post "Answer Sheet" blog posting, written by MCPS teacher Lisa Farhi, seemed so wrong on so many fronts that I just had to come to Weast’s defense...

 http://rockville.patch.com/blog_posts/are-mcps-teachers-cowards

Find the Missing MCPS Seniors

Montgomery County Public Schools just released a new report on college facts for MCPS high school graduates.
The report is full of interesting facts. Here’s a sample:

• “From 2001 to 2010, 65,810 of 94,232 MCPS graduate (70 percent) went to college in the fall immediately after high school…”

Joseph Hawkins' Article Continues on Potomac Patch

Patch: Can a Curriculum Make Children Happy?

 ...And so being curious, I started poking through the MCPS public website and found this video of Superintendent Joshua Starr on 2.0.

What an interesting video. And what did I learn? Three things:

1. Before Curriculum 2.0, we didn’t allow children to think on their own.
2. Curriculum 2.0 is making children happier.
3. With Curriculum 2.0 our children are taking ownership of their learning...

Read Joe Hawkins' Patch article on curriculum at this link.

In a World of 'Not Possible,' Can a Starr Revolution Work?

by Joseph Hawkins

Montgomery County Public Schools is doing a really good job of quickly loading to its public website videos of Superintendent Joshua Starr's book club discussions. Click here to view the newest video, on the book "Drive."

In my last blog post, I wrote about "Drive" and the misguided belief that MCPS should prepare its graduates for the world of work

I noted that my Montgomery County-based for-profit research firm is hiring, and when interviewing new workers, we never discuss high school and what was learned there. Now, I am restricting my observations here to the hiring of recent college graduates.

But let’s get back to the "Drive" video. In the video, Starr claims that our schools are out of sync with the world of work and the global economy.

Now, Starr is not the only school superintendent saying this—that schools today must have a different purpose, one that better matches emerging world economies. On the Dec. 20 edition of "The Politics Hour" on WAMU-FM, Kaya Henderson, chancellor of District of Columbia Public Schools, actually said today's schools are so out of touch with reality that they should be "blown up."

But here's the part that really needs tackling: I accept the notion that schools today have different purposes than schools from the dawn of the last century. Very few of us are going to argue against this. But then we still are left—or Starr is left—with two key questions:

1. How does MCPS actually get parents and communities to accept this notion of a new mission? I’m not convinced that Starr and most MCPS parents are on the same path.
2. Assuming everyone ends up on the same path, what does Starr do to change things—and change schools?

PATCH article continues at this link.

Reminder: Civic Fed meeting Mon, June 13th - Charter Schools 101

Please join the Civic Fed for a program on Charter Schools in Montgomery County.

Paula Bienenfeld

Chair, Education Committee, Montgomery County Civic Federation

Monday, June 13, 2011
7:45 p.m.
County Council Building - 1st Floor Auditorium
100 Maryland Avenue, Rockville, Maryland

For Directions go here.

Program: "Charter Schools 101: Let's Start the Conversation"
Speakers: David Borinsky, Chair, Board of the Maryland Charter School Network
Joseph A. Hawkins, Board Member for the proposed Global Garden Public Charter School
Darren Woodruff, Ph.D., Member, District of Columbia Public Charter School Board

And, come to celebrate the Community Hero Award to the Save our Parks/Preserve Our Community Coalition which was formed to save the 17-acre Rosemary Hills-Lyttonsville Public Park from becoming the site for the B-CC Middle School. They successfully fought off that challenge. In the face of that opposition the MCPS Board of Education (BOE) voted instead to conduct a feasibility study for the site at another public park, Rock Creek Hills Park, in Kensington. In response, the Coalition is working with the Kensington community to make sure that our public parks are not taken over by the BOE. In response also, the Civic Fed has a proposed resolution on the table to be discussed at the June 13th meeting to make sure our public parks are not taken for other uses.

The No College Remediation Promise

by Joseph Hawkins

The Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) promise has appeared in several publications.¹ The basic promise goes something like this, If you are in college in 2014, you will not be required to take any remedial coursework.

Honestly, the first time I saw the promise I thought it was joke. The promise, however, is real. But really, how on earth can a public school district guarantee such an outcome? And if 2014 comes and goes, and we still have MCPS graduates required to complete remedial college coursework, what happens? Are there penalties in place for those making the promise? Will MCPS hand out reimbursement checks to graduates required to take remedial courses? And by the way, I have never seen published baseline data on college remediation rates for MCPS graduates—what is the current state-of-affairs?

In reality, 2014 will come and go and nothing monumental will happen. No one from MCPS will be taken to a woodshed and spanked for making such a dumb promise. And as sure as the sun rises each day, MCPS graduates will still be taking college remedial coursework. There is one basic reason why the latter will still be true in 2014 and beyond.

Public school districts do not control colleges. There is way too much variation in how colleges define remediation to make good on the no remediation promise. We might believe that a graduate with scores of “3s” on several Advanced Placement exams is prepared for college (and they probably are), but if that first-year student sits down in the August of their freshman year and scores below a certain cut-point on their math placement exams they will be placed in a remedial math course. Period! MCPS simply has no control over this reality.

In general, it is true that many college and universities exempt first-year students from even sitting for their placement exams when those students have high SAT scores or high other stuff (e.g., ACT scores, AP scores of 5). MCPS is on the record indicating that the exemptions takes place with a combined SAT score of 1650. Certainly such a high SAT score might do the trick. The problem is there are huge numbers of black and Hispanic MCPS graduates without such scores. Currently, both black and Hispanics MCPS seniors score, on average, 200-250 below 1650. And given how little these groups’ means move from year to year, there is no evidence to suggests that by 2014 means will jump from 1400 up to 1650.²

But let’s return to the no remediation promise. Professionally, I have nothing against college remediation. It can work, and in reality, without it a good slice of poorly prepared high school graduates or returning older adults would never make a successful transition to higher education.

My first real job—with full benefits—was teaching remedial reading at Howard University. I taught for five years. Toward the end of time at Howard, I was assigned the responsibility of tracking and documenting the successes and failures of the University’s remedial students. In addition, for two years on a part-time basis, I taught remedial reading at Prince Georges Community College. My views on remedial or development college coursework are shaped by these experiences.

My views?

I’m a pragmatic realist—as long as colleges are around, and they control their own placement standards, there will be undergraduates placed in remediation. And even though some colleges are currently experimenting with revising how remediation takes place—exposing students to shorter remediation experiences or online tutorials, the fact is these “new” experiences—regardless of what we label them—are still at their core remediation.^{3 4}

At the time I worked at Howard, remediation was only a recommendation for entering first-year students and not a requirement. Recommendations for remediation were based on placement test scores. It has been decades since my time at Howard, but what I recall is this about the impacts of remediation: First-year students who successfully completed their assigned remedial courses had better grades and graduation rates than first-year students who either did not complete their remedial requirements or who had never enrolled even though they had been recommended for remediation. Again, remediation can work.

The debates about college remediation have not abated since my Howard days. Researchers still crank out papers about their impacts, which in general, conclude that remediation—beyond the extra cost, which is huge—is perhaps more beneficial than harmful. The fact that some students need remediation is not the end of the world. The promise of no remediation at all, however, probably needs to end.

______________

1Here is a link to one such publication: http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3754644.

2Link to the most recent MCPS SAT report: http://montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/reports/2010/Class2010SAT-MCPS-MD-Nation_09-10-10_OctoberUpdate-Graduation.pdf

3See this article for how Montgomery College (Maryland) is changing their remedial courses: http://www.gazette.net/stories/12082010/montnew190928_32543.php

4See this article for how other colleges are changing their remedial courses: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/11/AR2011021104924_5.html#eight