Wednesday, May 15, 2013
The systemwide proposal to provide more central office support to struggling schools begins with a 10-school pilot, according to county schools officials.
Three schools in Montgomery Village—Watkins Mill Elementary, Montgomery Village Middle, and Watkins Mill High—were picked to help pilot a new program from Montgomery County Public Schools that will provide an extra layer of central office support to underperforming schools. Officials culled various data to determine the schools that needed help, including key measures at certain grade levels, like whether students are reading as they should by 3rd grade and whether 5th and 8th graders have the reading and math skills that prepare them for the next level. Watkins Mill High School principal Scott Murphy told Patch the innovation program is welcomed at his school. "I really think it's a good thing," Murphy said. "I'm really excited about the…
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
A review of test scores for algebra, geometry, algebra II and precalculus showed that a majority of students failed the final exam last year, local news outlets reported.
More than half of high school students in Montgomery County Public Schools didn't pass last semester's math finals, according to reports in The Examiner newspaper and WAMU.org. Data from MCPS, released after parents at Rockville High began anecdotally comparing test scores, according to WAMU, show that students across the system failed bedrock mathematics course finals—algebra and algebra II, geometry and precalculus. Course Algebra Algebra II Geometry Precalculus Final Exam Failure (%) 61 57 62 48 Those percentages add up to about 11,000 students not passing final math exams out of 19,000 who took the exams, Examiner reported. Dana Tofig, spokesman for MCPS, said the system is forming a task force to investigate the high rate of …
Monday, April 29, 2013
Brent T. Mascott, a former assistant principal at Montgomery Village's Whetstone Elementary, will take over the Gaithersburg school.
A former assistant principal at Montgomery Village's Whetstone Elementary School was named principal at a Gaithersburg elementary school, according to a report by The Gazette. Brent T. Mascott, currently a principal intern at Maryvale Elementary School in Rockville, will replace acting principal Lee Meiners at DuFief Elementary. Mascott has worked in the Montgomery County Public Schools system since 1998, serving as a teacher until 2005. He then served as an assistant principal at Whetstone Elementary from 2005-2009 and Damascus's Clearspring Elementary from 2009-2012. As a principal intern, Mascott works in a school as a principal with support, MCPS spokesperson Dana Tofig told Patch. It is part of MCPS's leadership development program. "…
A new model for underperforming schools will work to close the county school system's achievement gap, school officials said.
Ten "Innovation Schools" within Montgomery County Public Schools will receive "shoulder-to-shoulder" support from the system's central office under a new program that will work to close the achievement gap. The new program, announced at the April 23 meeting of the Montgomery County Board of Education, will hire a new position—a chief school improvement officer—to work directly with the leadership staff at the selected schools. This dedicated central office position is new to the system's approach to working with struggling schools, said Deputy Superintendent Beth Schiavino-Narvaez. "We're limiting the number of schools so that (the improvement officer) can be on the ground working shoulder-to-shoulder with the leadership team on their …
Monday, April 22, 2013
Incident is fourth such occurrence since 2005.
(UPDATE April 22) The Maryland Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) recently announced that for the fourth time in eight years, it has taken action against Montgomery County Public Schools regarding a student’s right to decline to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance. This most recent incident involved Enidris Siurano-Rodriguez, a 10th-grade student at Damascus High School, who was protesting U.S. government policies toward Puerto Rico, which is her family's native country. According to the ACLU’s press release, Siurano-Rodriguez initially was sent to the principal’s office, where the assistant principal “improperly demanded to know why she persisted in sitting during the Pledge.” The school then contacted the student’…
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Learn when each Montgomery County public high school will hold its graduation ceremony.
Montgomery County Public Schools on Thursday tweeted a link to a schedule of high school graduations this spring. All ceremonies at DAR Costitution Hall in Washington, D.C. will be streamed online, the school system's website said. The graduations season begins with a ceremony for the school system's Alternative Programs on May 24 and wraps up with June 12 with ceremonies for Watkins Mill High School, the Longview School and the Gateway to College program. Click here to read the full schedule on the MCPS website.
Monday, April 8, 2013
Gaithersburg Middle School principal was among 18 regional winners.
Gaithersburg Middle School principal Carol Goddard was among 18 principals from the Washington, DC-metropolitan area named as winners of a Distinguished Educational Leadership Award, The Washington Post announced. Award winners will be invited to participate in a three-day seminar focused on media and crisis communication training as well as sessions addressing current issues in the field of education. According to the Washington Post: The Distinguished Educational Leadership Awards were established in 1987 to spotlight principals who create exceptional educational environments for their students. The Agnes Meyer Outstanding Teacher Awards, which began in 1983, acknowledge teachers who work hard to ensure children receive a high-quality …
Friday, March 15, 2013
Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Joshua Starr said he is disappointed in the County Executive's budget plan.
The amount of aid for county schools proposed by Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett in his fiscal 2014 county budget plan falls short of what's needed, Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Joshua Starr said Friday. Leggett's plan calls for a schools budget of $2.23 billion—an increase of $65.8 million, or 3 percent more than the budget approved for the current school year. "The County Executive's recommendation would fund 100 percent of the [school board]'s request," according to Leggett's budget proposal. Click here to read more on Leggett's fiscal 2014 budget plan and here to hear the County Executive discuss the proposal. The proposal is a slight increase in spending for MCPS, to the level required by the state's …
Catch up on school news from this week.
What's been going on with Montgomery County Public Schools this week? Here are a few education headlines you might've missed: Achievement Gap Grows Wider in Some Areas MCPS Superintendent Joshua P. Starr and other county officials have repeatedly emphasized their goal of narrowing the achievement gap that separates white and Asian students from black and Hispanic students. But a 130-page report released this week found that the gap in scores for Advanced Placement exams, SAT tests and state-level math exams has actually grown wider for MCPS students, The Washington Post reported. Patch education blogger Joseph Hawkins predicted this outcome in his analysis of the county's efforts to close the achievement gap. Here's what he wrote in …
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Winter storm closes federal and county offices.
Schools and government offices are closed Wednesday, as the first significant snow storm in two years made its way across the region. Montgomery County Public Schools and their administrative offices are closed and all activities in school buildings are canceled, the school system announced. Federal government offices in the Washington, D.C., area will be closed and non-emergency federal employees will be granted excused absences, the Office of Personnel Management said on its website. Montgomery County goverment offices are closed. "Essential personnel should report to work," the county's website said. Montgomery College is closed and testing deadlines will be adjusted by one day, the college's website said. The Universities at Shady …
Nadia Biznis
4:47 pm on Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Um...yeah, about Puerto Rico... a U.S. Territory... it IS therefore part of the US. There is even a very active movement there to lead it to statehood. So..."her family's native country?" Wow. Not much educating going on in our schools, eh? more ›