Starr: "I am not dealing with specific issues until after the New Year,"

Gaithersburg Patch:  Starr: 'It Doesn't Have To Be Either Or'

Doing the MCPS math at Montgomery College

Here's some information about MCPS graduates from a Gazette article (11/3/10):

...About 30 percent of Montgomery County Public Schools graduates go to Montgomery College in their first year after high school, and 60 percent enroll by the second year, said school system spokesman Dana Tofig. About 10,000 students graduate from MCPS annually, he said...

And here is another Gazette article (12/8/10) that gives some information on students entering Montgomery College:

...A little more than 30 percent of students enrolled at Montgomery College take remedial reading and writing courses, while just over 60 percent of students require remedial courses in mathematics, said DeRionne P. Pollard, the first-year president of the college who attended the summit, which was hosted by the Maryland Association of Community Colleges...

Writing Crisis

Community Forum, October 15, 2009
Montgomery County Public Schools, Board of Education

Good evening. My name is Sue Katz Miller. I am a parent, a former teacher, a schools columnist, and a former PTA President.

I came before you a year ago to address the crisis in writing instruction. I urge you to reread that testimony. While I appreciate that MCPS officials took time to listen to my suggestions and to explain how they are trying to improve writing instruction, many parents and teachers continue to see this as the greatest academic weakness in our system. Many of us, both parents and teachers, were dismayed that the Seven Keys to College Readiness did not mention writing-a huge missed opportunity. Remedial writing classes are the most common form of remediation faced by college freshmen. I wrote to you last spring to ask for the reasoning behind this omission in the Seven Keys, and received no response from the Board or MCPS.

MCPS maintains that more writing instruction will result naturally as we push more students to take AP tests. I suggested to an MCPS AP administrator that focusing on writing might help improve AP test scores. I was shocked when the administrator responded that good writing is not necessary to score well on an AP test--that it's more a matter of memorizing content.

The writing crisis is just one symptom of everything that has been pushed aside in the relentless pursuit of raising reading and math scores under NCLB. Social studies, science, arts, experiential learning on field trips, crucial kindergarten playtime, all have suffered. And creativity in the classroom, allowing teachers to communicate their passions and ignite passion in students, has suffered greatly.

NCLB may have been necessary to bring accountability to teaching the basics of math and reading to all children. But the pendulum has swung way, way too far. This is supposed to be a world class school system: we have enormous resources and the best possible staff. If we cannot push back, if we allow NCLB to so deform our curriculum that students no longer have time to write plays or research papers, to learn geography or study pond water, to learn grammar or vocabulary or spelling, to sing rounds or plant gardens or work in clay, then we cannot be surprised when we see kids dropping out of high school, when we see families opting out of the school system, and when we see wonderful teachers leaving the profession.

I was recently asked by a relatively savvy parent if there is some way we could get a parent representative onto the school board. I was taken aback. I explained that I'm pretty sure that every BOE member is or has been an MCPS parent. But is the Board representing the parent perspective? The Baldridge Prize committee pointed to lack of stakeholder input as a weakness in MCPS. The only annual MCPS parent survey does not even address curriculum. If it did, you would hear a mandate from parent stakeholders calling for more writing, social studies, science, arts and experiential learning. Thank you.

Writing: the missing key to college success?

“American education will never realize its potential as an engine of opportunity and economic growth until a writing revolution puts language and communication in their proper place in the classroom. Writing is how students connect the dots in their knowledge. Although many models of effective ways to teach writing exist, both the teaching and practice of writing are increasingly shortchanged throughout the school and college years. Writing, always time-consuming for student and teacher, is hard-pressed in the American classroom. Of the three “Rs” writing is clearly the most neglected.”

Thus, began the April 2003 report by the National Commission on Writing. It was, for the most part, met with a collective yawn.

At the risk of dating myself, I must admit that my parents, one a teacher, taught me that grammar, rhetoric, and logical elucidation were the foundation of real learning. Yes, there was a time when writing was a much valued currency.

The panjandrums of perfect prose propel us on flights of fantasies away from a world increasingly populated by the “nattering nabobs of negativism.” Yes, that last phrase was the triumphant concoction of the late William Safire, the phrase-parsing wordsmith for the New York Times' Sunday magazine column on language usage. Writers are painters with words, capable of eliciting feelings of ecstatic pleasure or downright consternation.

Take George F. Will’s recent Op-Ed on denim, which included the following: “Writer Daniel Akst has noticed and has had a constructive conniption. He should be given the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He has earned it by identifying an obnoxious misuse of freedom. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, he has denounced denim, summoning Americans to soul-searching and repentance about the plague of that ubiquitous fabric, which is symptomatic of deep disorders in the national psyche.” Yup, you can even get verklempt with words.

At its very best, writing has overturned oppression, incited revolutions, and transformed society. Yet, it remains an art form accessible to a privileged few. Shouldn’t a public education system, marketing itself as a great equalizer, show a robust commitment to writing?

Yes, I know that MCPS does have curricular components dedicated to writing. However, I believe that we need a system-wide, uniformly implemented, well-defined writing program. One of the missing “keys” to college readiness is, in my opinion, writing at a skill level appropriate for success in the SAT writing section.

To use words from the College Board, writing to “organize and express ideas clearly; develop and support the main idea; use appropriate word choice and sentence structure,” not to mention writing mechanics such as proper “diction, grammar, sentence construction, subject-verb agreement, proper word usage, and wordiness,” should be part of any self-respecting public school curriculum.

Writing is no longer a pleasure for the privileged, it is a practical necessity. So, let us celebrate our teachers who value writing and advocate for a separate, robust writing curriculum.

Finally, a confession—I wouldn’t have written this piece if not for the requests of two teachers, one who wished to remain anonymous, and the other Mrs. V. I dedicate this piece to you and hope that you know you are appreciated.