Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Data from 2009 reveals that students have long struggled with final exams in MCPS math courses.
Few Montgomery County Public Schools students enrolled in high school math courses made high marks on final exams last semester, data released by the school district last week showed. In one class, Bridge to Algebra 2, less than 1 percent made an "A" on the final exam. (See data, above, that details the distribution of final exam grades "A" through "E" for eight math courses last semester.) School officials were prompted to release student math grades after members of the county school board grilled Superintendent Joshua Starr about last semester's final exam grades. Media outlets reported earlier this month that the majority of students in high school math—Algebra, Algebra 2, Geometry and Precalculus—failed their final exams. Starr …
Monday, May 6, 2013
The Gaithersburg school was one of 17 Montgomery County schools to make the list.
Quince Orchard High School was named one of the best high schools in the country, according to Newsweek/The Daily Beast, Montgomery County Public Schools announced Monday. The Gaithersburg high school—ranked 1,350th—was one of 17 Montgomery County high schools to make the list. The list only includes the top 2,000 high schools—less than 10 percent of all the high schools in the United States. “The Newsweek rankings, and other such lists, demonstrate that our high schools are national leaders in preparing students for college and the workplace,” MCPS Superintendent Joshua Starr said. “While there is still work left to be done, our staff and community should be proud of how well we are serving our students.” Other county schools ranked …
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
"Students are the largest stakeholders, but we are noticeably underrepresented in making critical decisions" in the school system, said Justin Kim, 18, of Gaithersburg.
Meet Justin Kim, junior at Poolesville High and an 18-year-old Gaithersburg native who will serve as student member of the Montgomery County Board of Education next year. Kim was elected to the position with 65 percent of the student vote, Montgomery County Public Schools announced April 26. All secondary students in the system were eligible to participate in the election. Patch spoke to Kim about what he hopes to achieve during his term and the challenges the school system faces. Patch: Why did you want to become a member of the Montgomery County Board of Education? Justin Kim: I’ve always had a passion for service and working with others towards a common goal. Throughout my life, I am always looking for new ways to help others and …
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Police and Montgomery County firefighters investigated the letter at Diamond Elementary.
A letter sent to a Diamond Elementary School faculty member contained an unknown substance and came from a fake Canadian business, a Gaithersburg police spokesman said Tuesday afternoon. Police were called to the Gaithersburg school Tuesday morning to investigate the letter, which Montgomery County Public Schools officials said posed no threat to students or staff. "The letter came from—it said on the receiving end—from a business out of Canada," Gaithersburg police Officer Dan Lane said. "When we looked up the business, the business didn't exist. So right now we don't know where it came from. "Where it came from is a fake address." Diamond Elementary instituted a "shelter in place" procedure and Marquis Drive was closed for a short time …
Summit Hall's entire fourth and fifth grade classes participated.
Summit Hall Elementary School fourth and fifth graders helped clean Gaithersburg's Muddy Branch as part of the 2013 Toyota TogetherGreen program, a spokesperson for the program said. The April 26 program introduced students to service learning while clearing Muddy Branch of litter and invasive plants, GreenKids' Diane Lill said. The Summit Hall students removed a total of 25 bags of trash and recyclables as well as two bags of invasive garlic mustard. The highlight of the day was when Summit Hall principal Keith Jones helped students remove a shopping cart from the stream, Lill said. Volunteers from the Muddy Branch Alliance and Maryland Master Naturalists, and the city of Gaithersburg (Morris Park) helped the students remove the collected…
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 …
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
The Gaithersburg school was one of just two Montgomery County schools honored.
Gaithersburg's Summit Hall Elementary was one of two Montgomery County schools and 64 schools nationwide selected as a Green Ribbon award winner, Montgomery County Public Schools announced Tuesday. The Green Ribbon Schools award program, established in 2011, is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and recognizes schools that save energy, reduce costs, feature environmentally sustainable learning spaces, protect health, foster wellness, and offer environmental education to boost academic achievement and community engagement, according to MCPS. Also selected was Germantown's Cedar Grove Elementary School. Representatives from the winning schools will participate in a national awards ceremony June 3, MCPS announced. The Maryland …
Pension issues and local funding to drive spending over next four years.
While Montgomery County spends approximately half of its annual $4 billion budget on K-12 education, that figure is expected to grow by more than $100 million over the next four years, according to a recent Washington Post article. Two state mandates uncovered by Montgomery County Council staff will drive the increased spending—the shift of teacher pension costs from the state to the counties and the “maintenance of effort” rules which require schools to maintain a level of per-pupil funding at least equal to the previous year, The Post reported. Montgomery County Councilmember Valerie Ervin (D-Dist 5) described the increases in education funding as “a runway train.” Montgomery County Council staff director Stephen Farber described the …
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’…
Joe Thomas
9:08 am on Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Quince Orchard is a great school but this is a bogus ranking. It has nothing to do with test scores. Its based on how many AP classes are taught and the percentage of kids in them. more ›