Gazette: Montgomery lags behind Howard on science exams

Fifth- and eighth-graders improve on past performance

by Andrew Ujifusa, Staff Writer

Wall Street Journal: American Teens Trail Global Peers in Math Scores

But U.S. Students Show Progress in Science

By LAUREN ETTER

American teenagers made modest progress on an international exam, but still performed below average in mathematics compared with their peers in other industrialized countries, according to results released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Education.

The test, called the Program for International Student Assessment, has been given every three years since 2000 to 15-year-old students. Last year, when the test was administered, 60 countries participated. It's coordinated worldwide by the Paris-based Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development...

The Wall Street Journal link to the actual test scores is here.

Please sir, may I have some more?

This item from Robert Frost Middle School reminded me of Dickens character, Oliver Twist, with the students asking:

Please sir, I'd like some more. I am hungry for science education, and I just can't get what I need to succeed here.

MoCo's Promethean Procurement has kept many a Parents Coalition blogger busy writing about the proliferation of these funky techno-toys in schools throughout the county. Honestly, by now we thought that these boards were all over MoCo schools.

Imagine my surprise when I found the following on Frost's PTSA webpage.

Frost Donation



I know that math teachers and social studies teachers have Promethean boards at Frost - so why were the science teachers left out? Can't the teachers share?

More important - I wonder what the folks who are promoting "Science City" on the Belward Property will think when they find out labs in MCPS middle schools aren't state of the art. Shush, don't let them know that the high school labs at Wootton and Churchill are lacking in basics too - maybe they will rethink their plan for locating to a county that doesn't support K-12 science education.

WTOP: "We've copped out" says Blair teacher

WTOP's Kate Ryan reports on the findings of Governor Martin O'Malley's STEM* Task Force with comments from Montgomery Blair High School magnet teacher David Stein.

In Kate Ryan's first report we hear Stein say;

"We've copped out, instead of learning 5th grade math at a rigorous level we're just putting kids into 6th grade math in 5th grade."

In her second report, Stein says focus has been on "minimal competency" and gives recommendations for changes to curriculum.

Hear both parts of Kate Ryan's report: Part 1 and Part 2

*STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering and Math