The PCMC Math Survey

Please take a moment to complete the PCMC survey on MCPS math by clicking here. Your opinion is important to us, and the results will be presented to MCPS.

Schools Identifying 50% or More as GT & Expenditures by Public Schools for 2007

A school that identified more than 80% as GT did so for three years until an analysis was published showing that the number was inconsistent with student performance on MSAs and TerraNova.


A significant number of schools identified 50% or more of their second graders as GT.

All this in a school system that outspent other Maryland public school systems.

GT education is mandated by state law and MCPS needs to step up to the plate and implement a GT program that conforms to established best practices and accepted standards and norms.

GT education cannot be filibustered away by an advisory committee or a political group. Nor is it a title to be awarded at whim. It is, to repeat myself, a legal requirement for a student population we need to nurture and cannot simply wish away.

Raw GT data, published by MCPS, is also available here (2005), here (2006), here (2007), and here (2008).

Hooray for Highland ES!

On 12/26/2008 1:50 PM I posted an email with the subject line “Labelgate,” which contained the following:

“Take a look at Highland ES (#774) a state Blue Ribbon school. They had a 76.2% Hispanic student population. Georgian Forest, the “pilot” school for detracking, had a 49.2% African-American student body. Highland ES beat Georgian Forest ES in every category of the MSAs. Why? What did Highland do right? Shouldn’t we want to know?”

On 12/28/2008 11:55 AM, I posted an email with the subject line “Highland ES MSA performance, "Pilot" school performance, and GT screening in 2004-2205.” I wrote “Highland ES deserves our congratulations for their apparent performance on the 2008 MSAs. If they keep it up—give the folks a bouquet.”

Today, Highland Elementary School in Silver Spring, became the only public school to win the award in Montgomery County this year.

Without further ado let me present the students, staff, and parents of Highland ES a virtual bouquet. Folks, you made my day!

Too bad that Carver didn’t look to Highland for lessons learned, and replicate it. Then again, that would have required proactive leadership.

ONE, WELL-MADE KEY to Unlock the Door to Educational Success

I have often used this medium to advocate a different approach to addressing minority underperformance. If there is a succinct way to describe what I have said in many words, it would simply be HARD WORK. I have oft quoted Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story, and cited the examples of high performing schools in support of my contention that parental involvement, support system, and yes, hard work, seem to have been the determining factor. Then I read more about the Meyerhoff Model pioneered at UMBC (see http://www.diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_11378.shtml and http://www.umbc.edu/Meyerhoff/the_meyerhoff_model.html , etc.) and recognized a philosophical kin.

The program, a brainchild of an African-American, Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski, President, University of Maryland Baltimore County, embodies the very concepts I have been advocating. I reached the conclusions of the Meyerhoff Model through a simple question: Why do Asian-Americans, in disproportionate numbers, do well in any environment?

The answer, as I have repeatedly asserted, is in our cultural values. If you visit the national site honoring Dr. King, you will find, prominently featured outside, a sculpture of Mahatma Ghandi. It symbolizes Dr. King’s foresight in embracing a strategy pioneered by another community. Success, I assert, is recognizing a good strategy, be it the brainchild of someone else, and embracing it. Overwhelming success is recognizing a good strategy and making it better.

With that philosophy, I advocate what I fervently believe is a reasonable strategy to address the “achievement gap” --use what can be learned from successful groups. If another minority is a good example, then learn from them.

When Jerry D. Weast, the schools superintendent in Montgomery County, Md., was asked what he was doing to improve low-performing schools, his answer was “that his public school district spends big bucks every year trying to teach low-income parents “how to kick my butt … how to work the system just like affluent people.” Here is a better strategy to improve school performance—create, support, and enhance programs like the Meyerhoff Model adapted for schools. Learn from the Asian-American cultural model of education.

I challenge Dr. Weast to prove me wrong in my belief that a pilot program of this type will be far more academically successful than gutting GT, steamrolling Special Education, and shoving Seven-Keys in the lock on the door to educational success.

My idea won't be a quick fix. It sure might turn out to be a permanent fix. So, why not give it a try?

It takes just ONE, WELL-MADE KEY to unlock the door to educational success.

E-Rate - too good to be true?

Is the e-rate rebate program truly "found" money? If you think this program is too good to be true, you may be correct. Before we thank Superintendent Jerry Weast for tapping into this great resource, check out what has happened to some other school systems who have found the same pot of gold.

E-rate participants have been the focus of criminal and civil investigations at the US Department of Justice and other federal agencies for several years.

Is this "old law" that doesn't apply to Montgomery County Public Schools? Think again.

In December, 2008, a businessman in Atlanta received a prison sentence of 5 years because he bribed an Atlanta school official in connection with the E-rate program.

Just last week, Federal agents requested records from the school boards in Atlantic City and Pleasantville as part of a bid-rigging investigation. Philadelphia and Camden schools are also under investigation.

Recently, a Illinois contractor was fined $3.3 million for bid rigging and procurement fraud in connection with E-rate.

Its not just the feds who are looking into this practice. Earlier this year, the Arizona Attorney General found pervasive problems with the procurement process at the Tucson Unified School District.

Want more case studies? Run your own google search.

Is the great e-rate funded Promethean promise one that will likely find our own MCPS school system under investigation? Stay tuned, but remember, unlike their friends in Arizona who settled the case and put the three individuals involved in the scandal on leave - MCPS would rather litigate than admit mistakes.

But then again, MCPS may hit the jackpot a second time, since no one, including the County Council or the MCPS Ethics Panel, has yet to demonstrate any willingness to provide meaningful oversight over the MCPS budget.

Just kidding! What MCPS said in March 2007

This is what MCPS said about volunteering for the Accelerated and Enriched Instruction Advisory Committee in 2007. Tonight they said something very different...more on that tomorrow.

March 13, 2007
MCPS needs broader representation of bilingual and bicultural
communities

Volunteers from the county's multicultural communities are invited to
serve on the Montgomery County Public School Accelerated and Enriched
Instruction Advisory Committee (AEIC).

* The AEIC Advisory Committee is an opportunity to discuss school
programs and provide feedback and guidance on MCPS programs and the
implementation of MCPS Policy and the Gifted and Talented Education
program.

Parents of MCPS students are especially welcomed to serve on the AEIC.

* The Committee meets on the fourth Tuesday of each month from
7:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. at Carver Educational Services Center (CESC),
located at 850 Hungerford Dr. Rockville, MD. Members are invited to
serve for a one year term.

For details on how to volunteer for the Accelerated and Enriched
Instruction Advisory Committee, please contact one of the individuals
listed below:

Martin Creel, Director

Accelerated and Enriched Instruction

Montgomery County Public Schools

301-279-3163

Elizabeth C. Alcoba

Instructional Specialist, Outreach and Training

Division of Consortia Choice and Application Programs Montgomery County
Public Schools

Spring Mill Field Office

301-649-8558 or 8081

Tuesday Feb 10th 88.5 Kojo Nnamdi Show

The Kojo Nnamdi program on WAMU, 88.5 FM, will focus on Montgomery
County Schools tomorrow at 1:06 pm, following the news. Jerry Weast is the guest.

Contact the Show: kojo@wamu.org
Telephone Numbers Call-in Line: 1-800-433-8850 Comment Line: 202-885-1226

13:06 Montgomery County Schools
Montgomery County has long prided itself on having some of the most successful public schools in Maryland -- and the nation. But the tough economic climate is hitting the schools hard, and administrators are bracing for further cuts to an already lean budget. Join Kojo as we talk with Montgomery Schools Superintendent Jerry Weast about the challenges of maintaining academic excellence during an economic downturn.
Guests
Jerry Weast, Superintendent, Montgomery County Public Schools
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Is this why the Board of Education meeting was rescheduled from Tuesday to Monday?
Good opportunity to call in questions for the Superintendent.