Fostering the talents of individual students

Big Ideas in Education: More on Harvard's Ed.L.D. Program:

...In many ways, Weast's tenure (he announced his pending retirement last week) is a unique story of the triumph of political will over the status quo: Weast moved successfully to divide the high-performing, low-poverty and low-performing, high-poverty sections of his district into two zones, green and red, and funnel attention and resources from the former to the latter. Weast has identified seven keys to college readiness as his benchmarks for success in the district: they include on-time advancement to college-ready math and reading, and high performance on AP, IB, SAT and ACT exams. It is Weast's particularly political style of leadership, however, that has garnered his staunchest criticism, from parents and policymakers who argue he perpetuates inequalities in the district by low-balling accountability measures.


I spoke to one of these critics, district parent and gifted and talented education advocate Frederick Stichnoth, at length. In our conversation, Stichnoch argued the key to racial equity isn't simply ensuring all races achieve the same elementary benchmarks but to foster the talents of individual students, particularly minority students who can serve their communities best by achieving their full potential. By focusing narrowly on the seven keys, Stichnoth says, Weast has hidden broader differences in programming between green and red zone schools that prevent poorer and more diverse schools from serving individual student needs. More generally, Stichnoth views the division of the district into zones as itself hypocritical and counterproductive. By partnering with Harvard, and the rest of what he calls the "national education elite," Weast has avoided the district's particular problems by adopting the "cultural competence, courageous conversations and college-readiness buzzwords."


Stichnoth is not alone in his criticism of Weast's technique. Washington Post education writer Jay Matthews offered a measured criticisms of Weast's strategy as described in Leading for Equity as focusing too little on quality teachers (a criticism Education Sector analyst Elena Silva thought unjustified). The Post's Daniel de Vise also outlined critiques of the proxies Weast and the book use to measure growth, noting a declining minority graduation rate during Weast's tenure. Though from arguably different angles, both critiques argue Weast gave too little focus to district particularities and spent too much time shoring up political support for his agenda, a strategy which PELP and Harvard make no bones about emphasizing...

Pending Legal Action on School Fees in California

The ACLU is suing numerous California school districts over fees charged to students in public schools.

Maryland's Constitution guarantees a free public education for its students - so when your children come home requesting a mandatory fee, you don't have to pay it - unless you want to make a donation to the school

From the article:

Public schools across the nation, many facing budget shortfalls, have been charging students fees to use textbooks or to take required tests or courses.
Now a civil liberties group is suing California over those proliferating fees, arguing that the state has failed to protect the right to a free public education. Experts said it was the first case of its kind, and could tempt parents in other states to file similar suits.

Blue Ribbon: Seven Maryland schools get Blue Ribbon status - baltimoresun.com

Blue Ribbon: Seven Maryland schools get Blue Ribbon status - baltimoresun.com

Seven Maryland schools were designated Thursday as national Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence, an award given to those with consistently high performance or a high percentage of economically disadvantaged students that have shown significant improvement.

Five of the schools are public, including Eastern Technical High in Baltimore County and Ellicott Mills Middle in Howard County, and two are Catholic.

"This is one of the nation's most significant awards presented to public schools," state schools Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick said in a statement.

The three other schools in the state are Northern Middle in Calvert County, New Market Elementary in Frederick County and Northwestern Elementary in Wicomico County. The Catholic schools are St. Louis in Clarksville and St. John the Baptist in Silver Spring...

More on the Education Week Graduation Ranking

The Baltimore Sun - Inside Ed:  Graduation Rate and Maryland Schools

...Ed Week does its best using the only data available for school systems across the nation, but it cannot actually track students. Rather, the graduation rate is an estimate based on the numbers of students who are in each grade that year in the district. So the rate does not take into account the students who graduate in five years nor does it try to compensate for what is known as the ninth-grade bulge. Many ninth-graders in the city don't pass all their classes and spend an extra half-year classified as a ninth-grader although they technically have nearly enough credits to be a 10th-grader.

In other words, the ninth grade looks larger than it really is and the number who eventually graduate is smaller than it should be.

So the Education Week researchers acknowledge that there may be a 14-point discrepancy in the true graduation rate and what they report...

Fact Check: MCPS 11th in Graduation Rate in Maryland - But don't compare!

MCPS has asked the Parents' Coalition to correct a previous post. We are more than happy to do so! MCPS wants to make clear that the MCPS ranking in the State of Maryland is 11th out of 24 school districts. 

MCPS' Public Information Office also says it is "neither valid nor fair to compare MCPS" to other Maryland counties.  


We leave that decision up to our readers.


MCPS' Public Information Office doesn't mention that other Maryland counties ARE on the Education Week ranking. For example, according to the State of Maryland, Anne Arundel County has a graduation rate of 90.6 and is ranked at 7th in Maryland.  


However, on the Education Week ranking Anne Arundel County is shown as having a graduation rate of 75.2 and is ranked 7th after MCPS.  Here is more on the Education Week ranking from The Baltimore Sun.

*****

On June 9, 2010, the MCPS Public Information Office put out a press release that had the following title:  

MCPS is Number One in High School Graduation Rate 

What did that title really mean? 

The MCPS headline was based on an Education Week report that ranked the 50 largest public school systems in the country based on 2007 numbers.  The press release for the Education Week report started out like this:

Progress on Graduation Rate Stalls

1.3 Million Students Fail to Earn Diplomas

Report Identifies Epicenters of the Dropout Crisis;

Examines Data-Driven Strategies to Boost Graduation

WASHINGTON, June 10, 2010—A new national report from Education Week and the Editorial Projects in Education (EPE) Research Center finds that the nation’s graduation rate has dropped for the second consecutive year, following a decade of mostly solid improvements. Although the latest decrease is considerably smaller than that found the previous year, the report shows that, on a national scale, 11,000 fewer students will earn diplomas. These new findings raise cause for concern, as those who fail to finish high school will face far greater hardships than their graduating peers, particularly during a period of economic instability...

Meanwhile here in Maryland - MCPS' graduation rate was 11th out of 24 public school systems in 2009 based on information released by the Maryland State Department of Education.  


MCPS Graduation Rate 2009  

MCPS releases PSAT participation rates

A recently released report from the MCPS Department of Shared Accountability reveals that 10th grade PSAT participation rates at most high schools ranged from 80% to 97%.

Thomas Wootton High School lead the pack with a participation rate of 96.6%. On the low end, the rate at Springbrook High School was 68.9%, more than 11 percentage points lower than any other MCPS high school.

Overall, 90% of MCPS 10th graders took the PSAT in 2009.

The PSAT is offered at "no charge" to all MCPS 10th graders, so it is baffling as to why there is such large variation in the participation rate throughout the school system.

The complete report is available at:

http://sharedaccountability.mcpsmd.org/reports/list.php?selection=868

PSAT score reports for 2009 have been received by MCPS but have not yet been released to the public.

Sue Katz Miller: My Dream Superintendent: Top Ten Qualities

Takoma-Silver Spring-Kensington Voice
School Scene
Sue Katz Miller

A few days before the start of the school year, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Superintendent Jerry Weast announced that he would, indeed, retire as expected at the end of his contract in June. The early announcement gives all of us more time to engage in the tremendously important process of picking the next Superintendent.

What should the search process look like? What kind of Superintendent are we seeking? These two questions are closely linked. The biggest frustration many parents have with MCPS is the lack of two-way communication. So we need to seek out a Superintendent who is going to restore parents to their role as full partners in education, dismantle the fortress that surrounds the inner-workings of the Rockville bureaucracy, release data to the public, and recognize that the Board of Education is elected to represent the taxpayers in a system of checks and balances...

continues HERE.

Examiner: Md. school board blasts Montgomery County textbook deal

By: LISA GARTNER
Examiner Staff Writer
September 7, 2010

The Maryland State Board of Education has condemned Montgomery County’s contract with a global textbook publisher to create and market its own name-brand curriculum.

The agreement “appears duplicative of state efforts, wasteful of resources, and further balkanizes [Montgomery County Public Schools] from the statewide reform initiatives,” the board wrote, even as it dismissed an appeal of the contract....

...Montgomery school board member Laura Berthiaume, who voted against the contract, said she won’t be surprised if the state’s curriculum eventually trumps Montgomery’s.

“We are going to find ourselves in three or four years having developed a product that will never be used by us,” Berthiaume said. “The state has a legal authority to impose [its curriculum] on us, and I don’t know why it wouldn’t.”

The contract allows Pearson and the school board to withdraw by Sept. 30, but the school system isn’t planning to back out, spokesman Dana Tofig said. The curriculum will be “fully aligned” with national standards and has voluntarily been implemented at kindergarten and first-grade levels in 110 schools.

Read full article at this link.

FACT CHECK: MCPS has 131 elementary schools. Mr. Tofig's statement in the Examiner means that the new curriculum has not even been implemented in all MCPS elementary schools. Why have 21 elementary schools declined to implement this new curriculum? 

Note also that Mr. Tofig's quote says the Pearson/MCPS curriculum will be fully aligned with "national standards", not Maryland standards. In the opinion discussed in this Examiner article the Maryland State Board of Education made very clear that they are the final word on Maryland curriculum. 

Fact Check: MCPS 13th in Graduation Rate in Maryland

UPDATE: See updated post on September 9, 2010.


*****


On June 9, 2010, the MCPS Public Information Office put out a press release that had the following title:  

MCPS is Number One in High School Graduation Rate 

What did that title really mean? 

The MCPS headline was based on an Education Week report that ranked the 50 largest public school systems in the country based on 2007 numbers.  The press release for the Education Week report started out like this:

Progress on Graduation Rate Stalls
1.3 Million Students Fail to Earn Diplomas

Report Identifies Epicenters of the Dropout Crisis;
Examines Data-Driven Strategies to Boost Graduation

WASHINGTON, June 10, 2010—A new national report from Education Week and the Editorial Projects in Education (EPE) Research Center finds that the nation’s graduation rate has dropped for the second consecutive year, following a decade of mostly solid improvements. Although the latest decrease is considerably smaller than that found the previous year, the report shows that, on a national scale, 11,000 fewer students will earn diplomas. These new findings raise cause for concern, as those who fail to finish high school will face far greater hardships than their graduating peers, particularly during a period of economic instability...

Meanwhile here in Maryland - MCPS' graduation rate was 13th out of 24 public school systems in 2009 based on information released by the Maryland State Department of Education.  


Here is the 2009 ranking of Maryland public school systems by graduation rate. You can see where MCPS falls on the list. 


9/9/10 Note this chart has been corrected to show MCPS in the 11th place position. Thanks to MCPS' Public Information Office for proofing this ranking!

MCPS Graduation Rate 2009

Schools: The Disaster Movie

Schools: The Disaster Movie

Happy Labor Day and Thank You

Parents Coalition thanks all the hard working teachers, parents, and taxpayers and union members who work so hard throughout the year to support our fellow citizens and contribute to the quality of life we enjoy in this county. The first Labor Day was held on September 5, 1882, in New York City. This year the Town of Kensington is holding its own 43rd Annual Labor Day Parade on Monday, September 6th.

Our grandparents, and great-grandparents fought and risked their lives for the working conditions we enjoy today; the 8-hour day; child labor laws; health and safety laws; and safe working conditions. According to the Department of Labor website,

“Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.”

State Board of Ed on Pearson/MCPS: "wasteful of resources, further balkanizes MCPS"

...we question the soundness of the local board's policy decision to approve an Agreement that appears duplicative of State efforts, wasteful of resources, and further balkanizes MCPS from the statewide reform initiative...     

Maryland State Board of Education August 24, 2010 

On August 24, 2010, the Maryland State Board of Education rendered a decision (Opinion 10-31 Janis Zink Sartucci v. Montgomery County Board of Education) on an Appeal of the recent decision of Montgomery County Public Schools to enter into a contract with Pearson Education, Inc.  The Maryland State Board dismissed the Appeal, but they used their decision as an opportunity to exercise their broad visitatorial authority to make a public statement about the soundness of MCPS' decision to partner with Pearson Education, Inc. 

Here is some of what the Maryland State Board of Education had to say:

...Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) has not signed on to the RTTT [Race to the Top] application. But, we never viewed that as a definitive roadblock to collaboration and cooperation on the statewide reform efforts, including statewide curriculum and assessment development.  The Agreement [with Pearson], however, with its requirement of confidentiality and the proprietary nature of the work that MCPS and Pearson will do, could negatively impact the collaborative statewide process. That possibility causes us significant concern....

...The State Board has "the last word on any matter concerning educational policy or the administration of the system of public education."...

...We consider it sound educational policy when all 24 school systems pull in the same direction to reform Maryland's public education system.  In the K-5 curriculum and assessment arena, however, MCPS and Pearson have drawn a cloak of confidentiality over their work. It will be difficult, if not impossible, for them to come to the table with MSDE [Maryland State Department of Education] and the other systems to discuss creative, innovative ideas for the K-5 Maryland State Curriculum and assessments.  It will be difficult, if not impossible, for MSDE and the other school systems to share ideas with MCPS and Pearson who may, wittingly or not, appropriate them as their own for their K-5 project.

We view the Agreement as essentially separating Pearson and MCPS from the collaborative education reform effort triggered by Maryland's education reform initiative. We believe the Agreement represents an education policy decision that further balkanizes MCPS from the collaborative process of developing statewide curriculum and assessments. 

Moreover, we view the MCPS/Pearson project as essentially duplicative of the State's efforts. MSDE and twenty-two school systems will be spending significant time and money to develop a K-12 curriculum and assessments that will be applicable statewide to all Maryland school systems, including MCPS.  Montgomery County/Pearson will be spending almost $10 million ($5 million through a recent federal grant and $4.5 million under the Agreement) to produce a K-5 curriculum and assessments that will not have statewide applicability, but will apparently be marketed nationwide. It appears to us that this duplicative and proprietary effort represents a waste of valuable resources. As we see it, the better course would be for MCPS/Pearson to find a way to collaborate with MSDE on the K-5 curriculum and assessment development so that scare resources are maximized within the State.

While we question the soundness of the local board's policy decision to approve an Agreement that appears duplicative of State efforts, wasteful of resources, and further balkanzies MCPS from the statewide reform initiative...

We regret that Montgomery County, by agreeing to the confidential, propriety nature of its K-5 project with Pearson, will have to absent itself from the statewide K-5 curriculum and assessment discussion...

Maryland State Board of Education on MCPS - Pearson Contract  

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

Early Voting for Primary Election Starts Today

Gazette.net: Early voting starts Friday for primary election in Montgomery County
Officials do not expect extra days to affect voter turnout

by Erin Cunningham | Staff Writer

Early voting for the Sept. 14 primary election will take place from Sept. 3 through Sept. 9, except for Sunday, Sept. 5, at five sites in Montgomery County. Early-voting centers will be open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. Anyone in line at 8 p.m. will be allowed to vote. Early voting in Montgomery County will be held at:

-Bauer Drive Community Recreation Center, 14625 Bauer Drive, Rockville

-Germantown Community Recreation Center, 18905 Kingsview Road, Germantown

-Marilyn Praisner Community Center, 14906 Old Columbia Pike, Burtonsville

-Executive Office Building, 101 Monroe St., Rockville

-Silver Spring Civic Building, 8525 Fenton St., Silver Spring

From the Parents' Coalition blog: Links to websites for Board of Education candidates.

...expected to sit quietly at her desk until 30 other students caught up...

FrederickNewsPost.com: Students go to head of the class with homeschooling

...Christine Colburn pulled her daughter, Calle, out of Montgomery County Public Schools when she finished second grade.

Colburn said her last straw was being called into the school because Calle was "fidgeting" at her desk. Colburn discovered that Calle was finishing her work much more quickly than her classmates, and then was expected to sit quietly at her desk until 30 other students caught up.

"I asked if she could be given other work to do, or be allowed to take a book out of her desk and read, and I was told that wouldn't be fair to the other students," Colburn said. "I love all children, but I'm worried and concerned for my child first."

You can help Save a Community School

It's been almost a year since Superintendent Jerry Weast's surprise announcement to close Monocacy Elementary School in Poolesville, Maryland. The planned closure is now a distant memory as the Superintendent's effort was quashed by community outcry that resulted in a unanimous Board of Education backing away from the Superintendent's decision.

But over in Fairfax County, at about the same time, a decision was made to close an elementary school with similarities to Monocacy Elementary. The school is Clifton Elementary. Clifton Elementary has been in operation for over 80 years in a historic part of Fairfax County and serves around 370 students.

Despite the pending decision to close Clifton Elementary, the community is still advocating to save the school. Included in the action plan for saving this community school is a new organization in the community called Friends of Community Schools.  The Friends of Community Schools group is in the running for a $25,000 grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to help preserve this community school. 


You can help this community win this grant to help save their school by voting here.    

Here's an article on the decision to close Clifton Elementary School in Fairfax, Virginia:

Fairfax Station Connection: Clifton Gets Creative To Keep School Open
Community will pursue legal, political and historic preservation options.

The Fairfax County School Board may have voted to close Clifton Elementary on July 8 but the local community said the school fight is far from over.

A group of families directly affected by the decision filed a lawsuit against the school system Aug. 9. Approximately 100 people also gathered at the Town of Clifton’s Town Hall Aug. 2 to discuss alternative for keeping the school open, including starting a Clifton Elementary charter school.

Ideally, the community would like to see the School Board take another vote to reverse the Clifton closure. The school system plans to operate Clifton for at least the 2010-11 school year. If new construction is needed to accommodate the Clifton students at another campus, the school could remain open beyond next summer.

"That school is still open right now and, as long as that school is still open, it is not over. … This is going to play out over the next school year. Strap yourselves in for a year of working together to make it happen," said Clifton Mayor William Hollaway to the crowd at the town hall meeting...

All Work and No Play....

.... makes Jack a dull boy, and Jill a dull girl, too. According to a recent Newsweek article, research shows that American creativity is declining. One factor cited is "the lack of creativity development in our schools. In effect, it’s left to the luck of the draw who becomes creative: there’s no concerted effort to nurture the creativity of all children."

Let Them Play, argues Jane Ching Fung in another recent magazine. "Play, she writes, including the ability to make your own choices, helps children develop and use essential social-emotional and academic-learning skills. Through play, I have seen my students develop social, critical thinking, and problem-solving abilities in a safe, risk-free environment."

Squeezing play time out of kindergarten to make time for filling out Venn diagrams and for other highly structured academic pursuits reveals a lack of vision on the part of our superintendent and his enablers at the Board of Education. They view students as test-takers who must be cajoled, pushed, and prodded into submission at the altar of standardized testing.

There is no standardized test on creativity -- so why bother with it? Child development specialists tell us it's good for children -- clearly not a terribly compelling argument for our superintendent and the Board of Education! According to the Newsweek article, however, a recent IBM poll of 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the No. 1 “leadership competency” of the future. Now, how's that for a reason?

If you need to be convinced of the powerful link between creativity and play (and even if you don't), listen to what Tim Brown has to say. Then, come September 14, vote for members of the Board of Education who will fight to restore common sense to the school system: Lyda Astrove, Agnes Jones-Trower, and Louis Wilen.




Patricia

Board of Education Work Plan

The Board held a work session August 26, 2010 8:30-12:30*. They were scheduled to sort through proposals for the Board 2010-2011 agenda, and vote for up to six of them. Both BOE members and the MCPS administration made agenda proposals for consideration.

That's not what happened. Instead, Andrew Gelber of the Panasonic Foundation facilitated a discussion on the purpose of a work session and the criteria for Board (and Committee) agenda topics. Most of the Board said that this discussion was necessary and worthwhile; one Board member said she was "completely frustrated."

I believe that an ad hoc committee (Brandman, Chair, Berthiaume, O'Neill) will reexamine the proposed agenda items in light of the criteria, and suggest how the Board should proceed. It's not known if the Board will take up the Work Plans on September 16, 2010.

While that's interesting, its fodder for another feast. These attached proposed agenda items indicate what the Board and administration think the Board should be talking about.

What do you think?

Board of Education Work Plan
Board of Education Work Topics

Board of Education Work Plan as suggested by Superintendent and MCPS staff:
Board Work Topics Suggested by Weast & Staff

Frederick Stichnoth

*Please note that this Board of Education session was held off camera and is not available for reviewing by video on the Board of Education website.

Gazette: Larger-than-expected class sizes alarm Bethesda parents

Enrollment jumps at Carderock Springs Elementary School

...In an e-mail to parents, Principal Rock Palmisano said, as of Aug. 17, second-grade classes already had exceeded 28 students each — the recommended maximum for grades 1-5/6 is set in the district's Board of Education policy guidelines at 23 students per classroom. There were 58 students enrolled in the two fifth-grade classes on Aug. 17.

"Due to unprecedented budget constraints" his request for an additional class was denied, the e-mail said, but the school was given a 0.6 classroom teacher; a part-time position designed to break apart larger classes for a portion of the school day...

Bethesda Magazine: Surviving Kindergarten

They’re making Venn diagrams, writing poetry journals and doing homework. Being 5 just isn’t what it used to be

By Leah Ariniello

September/October Issue 2010—My son emerged from school glassy-eyed and wired, looking like my old college roommate after a coffee-fueled all-nighter. Barely glancing in my direction, he chucked his backpack and tore off after a buddy. He knew that even though he had just completed six hours of work, he didn’t have much time to let loose. This Thursday, like every other weeknight, there was still homework that needed to be completed before he could hit the pillow.

Such is the life of a kindergartner.

What used to be a kind of extended playdate centering on the arrival of chocolate milk is now a hard-core schedule of reading, math, science and social studies. The Bridge to Excellence in Public Schools Act of 2002 mandated that all Maryland schools provide full-day kindergarten for students by the start of 2007. That mandate took effect in Montgomery County with the 2006 school year. Today, kindergartners in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) attend school from roughly 8:50 a.m. to 3:05 p.m...

continues here.