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Buh-Bye Jerry Weast, Hello Joshua Starr

Posted in In the News, School, tagged , , , , , , on April 25, 2011 | 1 Comment »

As you can probably guess, I have absolutely zero sadness at the departure of Jerry Weast. Words cannot adequately capture the smarmy arrogance of the man.  I had one final chance to catch him in action at the March 28 Board of Education meeting.  An overflow crowd of parents representing  various interests  — including GTA’s Challenge Every Child campaign (do be sure to check out the online petition and read the 850 comments) — had turned out that evening.  In the midst of public testimony, which people were trying to listen to, Jerry strolled in to tell the gathered crowd that they should be sure to show up at the County Council budget meetings to support his budget. Lame.  Condescending.  I short, you won’t find me at the Jerry Farewell Lovefest. (www.WeastLegacy.com.  Really? So modest.)

So it was with great interest that I awaited the announcement of the new MCPS superintendent.  This evening, with much drama, the announcement was made (pending Board Approval):  Joshua Starr, Superintendent from Stamford, Connecticut.

Starr, 41, has three children and began his career in special education.

Since July 2005, Starr has been schools chief for the Stamford school district, which has around 15,000 students and 20 schools. He began his career as a special education teacher in Brooklyn and later helped guide reforms in early childhood education and gifted and talented education in the New York City school district, according to his career biography. Starr has a doctorate in Education Administration, Planning and Social Policy from the Harvard University.

Starr, 41, is married and has three children.

You can read the MCPS announcement here, and a story from the Stamford Times here. And more are being published by the minute.

By comparison to MCPS, Stamford is tiny. Its entire gifted and talented program takes one webpage, this.

Here’s a link to the Stamford School Profile from 2008.  20 public schools.  3.6% percent identified as Gifted and Talented!  That was all of … 529 students!  Dr. Starr, you’re not in Kansas anymore.

Connecticut News Teacher Talk blog ran a interesting series of stories about and interviews with Dr. Starr earlier this year.  You can see them here:

This comment does not bode well for those interested in GT (from Connecticut News Teacher Talk blog):

…what you hear here from Stamford parents and teachers is the frustration of a group of people that want all kids to excel and not only the lowest group. We are in the process of alienating and shutting out our highest performing students and their parents.

The whole heterogeneous grouping movement and forcing higher achieving students to become academic role models to inspire lower performing students to improve academically serves only one student group.

I, as most parents, are not against heterogeneous classrooms. They are appropriate for non-core subjects. But for math, science, reading and writing it is a recipe for disaster. Especially if you consider the diversity of the Stamford school population.

Here’s some more skinny on gifted education in Stamford (from StamfordParents.com). (StamfordParents.com, meet Parents’ Coalition):

Gifted and Talented Program: the program that never happened agai

The gifted and talented program called “Extraordinary Learners Program” was cut in 2003/04 after nearly 10% of 2nd and 20% of 5th graders participated. Board members said it failed to serve the truly gifted students because the selection process became watered down, and some students were staying in the program because of parental pressure.  So in early 2007 a new gifted and talented program was proposed. We have some kids who are very, very high achievers, and we want to make sure we have the right instructional environment for them,” Superintendent Joshua Starr said. “It’s a distinct educational need that a certain segment, albeit a small one, has.” The district will hire four teachers trained in gifted and talented instruction. The program would cost $575,000 next year and be geared towards 3rd and 4th graders.  Albeit it never happened. As far as I know, is was cut out of the budget and there is no program in place as of now, to help the kids that are truly gifted and challenge them at an appropriate level.

In 2008 a  9 week long Math/Science Enrichment program was offered for students in grades 5 and 8. Students had to score in the 95th percentile and above on the 2007 CMT  in math. Students would meet one day per week for two hours at Turn of River Middle School.

Uh oh, and here we really have it:  Stanford Residents for Excellence in Education: 
http://stamfordree.org/
.  Looks like Dr. Starr was engaged in quite a nasty fight over “detracking.”

  • Detracking in the Stamford, CT Public School System – Pablo Corcel Relincha blog 12/11/09
  • Another View Regarding Middle School Reform – Stamford Advocate 1/14/10
  • Forum sparks dialogue over middle school reform – Stamford Advocate 1/22/10
  • Middle School Reform:  Superintendent’s Response – Stamford Advocate 10/28/10
  • Nasty tactic regarding mid-school reform unnecessary – Stamford Advocate 11/3/10
  • Response to Stamford Residents for Educational Excellence - longer response by Dr. Starr
  • 1/21/10 Forum on Middle School Reform at Rogers – the good, the bad and the ugly.  Quote: “During the Q&A came some good news.  In response to an SREE member’s question, Dr. Starr FINALLY went on record in front of a crowd saying that tracking and grouping are different, and that, for instance, Westover’s model of flexible ability grouping in math and reading is not tracking and gets good results.  Pretty big breakthrough.
    THE BAD: But then, as if catching himself for giving away too much, he continued down an unfortunate path, switching gears mid-answer to address tracking again.  He said that many people in the community would like to keep the practice of tracking in place for the benefit of their own kids in the top tracks, with the side effect of denying kids in the low tracks (many of who are minorities) the opportunity to grow.  This is a disturbing tactic — to make up a non-existent “other side” that is pro-tracking and then position their beliefs, agenda and goals in order to try to manipulate support. Unfortunately, given control of the microphone, Dr. Starr was left mostly unchallenged on this. And left unchallenged, it seemed plausible to some who have not been closely following the conversation..
    THE UGLY: When many SREE members in the audience raised hands to comment that no one supports tracking, and remind him that he even just said 5 minutes earlier that tracking and grouping are not the same and that grouping works, Dr. Starr abruptly cut off Q&A.  Some of this dialog was covered in the Advocate’s article.  One SREE member commented, “if this is how he treats the public, no wonder the teachers and administrators won’t come forward to voice dissent.”
  • Dr. Starr quoted in Should Your School Detrack to Close the Achievement Gap?  In the April Education Update feature, “Should Your School Detrack to Close the Achievement Gap?,” Stamford School District (Conn.) Superintendent Josh Starr discussed one of the barriers to community support for detracking: language. Being able to explain things clearly and simply—parsing for parents terms like differentiated instruction, tracking versus ability grouping, professional learning communities, and how tests will be used—is a vital, ongoing part of Starr’s work. “Without being too technical, parents need to understand what’s going to change and need to see evidence of their kids doing solid academic work,” he says.

Oh dear.  So much for hoping to start off with a reasonable person on a positive note.  Looks like GTAMC is going to have its work cut out for it.  Challenge Every Child couldn’t have come at a better time.

On what was a positive note, Gifted and Talented Association President Fred Stichnoth was invited to take part in off the record interview of the Superintendent candidates.  Fred has always been very forthcoming in his reporting of GT issues, and I look forward to his take on the new Superintendent.

UPDATE:  There have been many more stories published, plus information gathered.  GTAMC has rounded it up in an announcement here.

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Under a Bushel

Posted in education, Gifted, In the News, School, tagged , , , , , , , on February 28, 2011 | 5 Comments »

Congratulations to Montgomery Blair High School!  Blair was honored on February 16 with the Maryland Excellence in Gifted and Talented Education (EGATE) award. It is one of just five schools statewide—and the only high school—to receive the prestigious award, which recognizes outstanding gifted and talented education.  MCPS actually issued a press release!  For those readers outside of MCPS, Blair’s Math Science and Computer Science program is a perennial of rival of Fairfax’s Thomas Jefferson High School for most Intel wins.  The school also houses a highly regarded communications arts program.

Here are the application requirements for an award to the school.  ALL criteria must be met to qualify:

  • Administrator shows leadership in expanding/improving programs and services for gifted and talented students in the school or school system.
  • Administrator allocates resources (time, people, money) to expand and improve gifted and talented education programs and services.
  • Administrator leads the expansion or improvement of parent, community, and/or business partnerships that directly support the education of gifted and talented students.

But wait!  There hasn’t been any mention of this on the school’s own website.  No announcement on the school listserv.  Nor in the school’s award winning paper.  What gives?  Isn’t the school justifiably proud of the award?

Hmmm.  Well there is this story in Silver Chips.

…Student Member of the Board of Education (SMOB) Alan Xie spoke with members of Blair’s Students for Global Responsibility (SGR) about the Gifted and Talented (GT) label Today. SGR is working with the countywide organization Montgomery County Education Forum (MCEF) to remove the GT label in elementary schools across the county.

Student Member of the Board of Education (SMOB) Alan Xie met with Blair’s SGR after school today.
According to SGR sponsor George Vlasits, the club is currently working to inform Blazers about how the Montgomery County Public School (MCPS) system begins separating students in second grade. After seven-year-olds take a test, they are sorted into the GT track or the non-GT track. “The [non-GT] kids get very little opportunities,” Vlasits said. “They would like to try more challenging material but those things won’t fly.” According to Vlasits, due to a discrepancy in teacher expectations, it is hard for students not on the GT track to get into magnet middle schools or magnet high schools. “If [non-GT] are constantly told they cannot perform as well as GT kids, they will eventually believe it,” he said. “It gets back to what we do early on….”
Ah, it’s our good friends the MCEF, they of the “no labels, no limits” campaign!  (I’ve written about them in the past, such as here.) I don’t know about you, but it strikes me as rather…icky…to have a club adviser pushing a personal agenda through a student group.   Particularly one that essentially is about sowing divisiveness in the school’s community.
Worse, Mr. Vlasits’ comments are patently wrong.  “They would like to try more challenging materials but those things won’t fly.”  Fly by whom?  Please!  Last time I checked there is no gatekeeping for accelerated and enriched instruction in MCPS (some would argue that’s the problem).  Any student or parent of a student showing the willingness and interest for more advanced instruction ask for it and get it.  Not there is a lot to ask for–we’re essentially talking accelerated math instruction, and in future that is going to be ratcheted back now that MCPS has decided that it over-accelerated in the past.  Plus a smattering of William and Mary.  So please show me this “GT Track” because I and other GT parents haven’t been able to find it in the 10+ years I’ve been around MCPS.  Instead we hear over and over and over again that GT identification is completely meaningless.  (40%+ identified as GT.  Thanks MCPS!)  Is he talking the Centers for the Highly Gifted perhaps?  Well, that program is there to meet the legitimate needs of outlier students whose needs can’t be met in a regular classroom.  Kids who would otherwise be bored and alienated in school. Is that what he’s advocating?   Denying the right of every student to learn something new every day?  Because it seems like the total elimination of all honors, magnet, Center, accelerated etc. etc. classes and programs is the only thing that will satisfy.

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What’s the Matter with Kansas?

Posted in education, Gifted, In the News, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 7, 2010 | 3 Comments »

Really, what’s up with those people in Kansas?  There they go again, pushing some crazy-ass notion, out of step with the nation…  Except, um, maybe this time they’re onto something.

GT listservs are humming with the news that Kansas City, Missouri schools are experimenting with the elimination of grade levels, following on the heels of the schools in Colorado and Alaska.  Here’s the Kansas story as it appeared in EdWeek the other day.

Forget Grade Levels, Kansas City, Mo., Schools Try Something New

…Students—often of varying ages—work at their own pace, meeting with teachers to decide what part of the curriculum to tackle. Teachers still instruct students as a group if it’s needed, but often students are working individually or in small groups on projects that are tailored to their skill level.

For instance, in a classroom learning about currency, one group could draw pictures of pennies and nickels. A student who has mastered that skill might use pretend money to practice making change.

Students who progress quickly can finish high school material early and move forward with college coursework. Alternatively, in some districts, high-schoolers who need extra time can stick around for another year.  Advocates say the approach cuts down on discipline problems because advanced students aren’t bored and struggling students aren’t frustrated….

Now the “drawing pictures of pennies” gives me pause, but I’m guessing (hoping) this is a lower elementary lesson, a simple example the reporter latched onto to make a point.  Further into the article it quotes a student who “used to get bored after plowing through his assignments. He had to bring books from home or the library if he wanted a challenge because the ones at his old school were one or two grade levels too easy.”  His parents moved him into the district specifically for the experimental approach, and are thrilled:  “I wish school was like this when I was growing up,” said the dad.

So yes, that cry of “Hallelujah!” you’re hearing across the nation at this news is from parents of GT kids, frustrated beyond belief by the arbitrary barriers posed by lockstep age/grade-based education.  You know, the “but what will we do if we run out of curriculum?”

Could the Kansas experiment ever happen in Montgomery County?  Let’s just say I’m not holding my breath.  Note that these initiatives are happening in school systems described as “bedraggled” and “low performing” with “abysmal test scores.”  That alone could make the idea a non-starter here in Lake Wobegone, where we’re an urban school district only when it suits our purposes.  Or, one could expect the PR jujitsu approach favored by the good Dr. Weast, wherein–wait for it–it’s touted that MCPS is already doing this!  “We have blah, blah, blah number of X graders taking Y grade math–in elementary school! Blah, blah, blah number of X graders taking Y grade math–in middle school!  Highest number of AP tests in the nation…”  Well, you get the point.

But that’s not to say that this approach isn’t needed.  The current GT screening and articulation process, and the piloted SIPPI process both operate under the official notion that “students may accelerate learning and participate in advanced-level course work at their local schools.” (This from the MCPS Strategic Plan, Our Call to Action).  Sounds lovely, but eyeballing sample screen shots of the Course Placement and Articulation data screens shows that in cases where a grade level of acceleration is recommended (and the school and MCPS recommendations always jibe) the only areas where acceleration can take place are math and reading, with the recommended intervention/remedy for reading being William and Mary.  Local GT advocates remain unconvinced that there is a “continuum of services” available at local schools, rather that–as one advocate waggishly put it–MCPS’s identification and articulation process is “a bridge to nowhere.”  If there is acceleration available, it is only within strictly drawn parameters.  As the Singam case and others show, it takes extraordinary pressure, or a principal willing to buck the system (equally extraordinary) to accommodate the more-numerous-than-one-would-suspect outlier kids who need more than in-grade William and Mary or one or two years of math.  And let’s remember that the whole idea of what constitutes “grade level” is suspect, with MCPS itself having admitted that that a child performing just fine at grade level would not be prepared to meet it’s vaunted 7 Keys to College readiness.

I would love to see MCPS embrace true experimentation of the kind happening in Kansas, Colorado and Alaska.  Charter school anyone?  Oh, never mind.

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Let’s Talk About Choice

Posted in education, In the News, tagged , , , , , , on June 19, 2010 | 4 Comments »

In the reportage following the rejection of the Global Garden Public Charter School, the comment that leapt out to me was one made by Superintendent Jerry Weast on the issue of “choice.”  I wanted to be sure it was transmitted correctly, so I dug around to find his actual words. [Note: the MCPS website's Watch Meeting by Agenda Item feature continues to be an utter fail for this Mac/Firefox/Safari user.  Thank you Parents Coalition, for independently recording board meetings and putting them up on YouTube.]

So what did he say?  (Watch the video here.)

As you know, you are charged with providing an education to students throughout the county, one of the things charter schools are charged to do…I’ve been a proponent of charter schools…in fact I tried to start a KIPP school, if you remember, back when, even to helping furnish the facility and training Alison Serino (sp.?) as the “Kippster” and that didn’t …you know so it isn’t, ah…but it’s business. And you are in very lean budget times. And in very lean budget times you have to share your revenues with other schools. So we look at things about school choice and there’s over 150 private schools in our community, and so there’s choices, and there are our 200 schools with all their thematic approaches. Choice is something that is in abundant supply in Montgomery County.

Wow.  I call bullshit.  The trying to start a KIPP school?  According to someone closely involved with the earlier Jaime Escalante charter school effort, “There was a verbal agreement that MCPS would honestly move towards bringing a KIPP school to the county.  One of the Escalante organizers even traveled to New York City with Superintendent Weast to visit a KIPP school.  A lot of talking took place, but nothing concrete ever developed.  End of story.”  Other sources report that the effort failed because Weast insisted on having the power to appoint the KIPP charter’s principal, rather than the KIPP organization. Understandably, they demurred.   But in the Gazette the other day, an MCPS spokesperson is quoted as saying

“This idea that we’re anti-charter is just not reality; that’s not the case,” said Dana Tofig, a spokesman with the Montgomery County school system.

Tofig also said Superintendent Jerry D. Weast supported a “Knowledge is Power” Program that intended to start a charter school in the county in 2004. But the deal fell through when KIPP, a national network of nonprofit charter schools, decided against moving forward with the plan, Tofig said.

Show me a news story, press release, memo, letter, speech, comment in the media, board minutes, anything, that shows Jerry Weast forthrightly supporting a KIPP charter school in the county.  Show me one example of him exerting his considerable national starpower and local arm-twisting clout to make known his desire for a charter school to happen in MoCo, let alone initiating a concrete step.  Please.  Because I have done The Google and there’s nothing there.  If he really wanted it to get done, we would have heard about it, no?  [Note: To read posts from last year about starting a charter, click So You Want to Start a Charter - Part 1 and Part 2.]

But I didn’t even mean to get hung up on the KIPP thing.  What really grabbed me was the claim that the presence of 150 private schools in the county constitutes “choice,” as do all the “thematic choices” of MCPS’s 200 schools.  I heard that and thought, “Did he really just say that?”  What kind of choice, I have to ask, is Holton-Arms, tuition $29,450?  Oneness Family School, tuition $19,175?  Grace Episcopal Day School, tuition $20,000?  Georgetown Day School, tuition $29,830?  If you can even get in.  If the schools are even in your vicinity.  Assuming you don’t have a deep commitment to the idea of pubic education.  The idea that these schools present a “choice” for the average MoCo family is breathtaking in its arrogance.

So let’s move onto the Montgomery County “choices.”  Certainly MCPS offers more choice than my little town in New England did, which was two elementary schools depending on where you lived, one middle and one high school.  What are the “choices” in MCPS?   (I’ll focus on elementary, as that’s where the charter applications are aimed.)  Well at the early elementary level, there is one GT magnet for the entire county, Takoma Park ES. Assuming your child makes the GT cut and you are outside of the TPES boundary, it is then a lottery for a tiny number of seats at this waaay down county school.  So choice?  Not much.  Then there are the language immersion programs–yes those pesky “boutique programs” that Mr. Weast either loves or threatens depending on the audience.  Check DCUM for the angst surrounding the odds of getting into those, and again, whether they are geographically accessible to families who want to attend (Sorry Olney).  Finally, the Centers for the Highly Gifted which serve small numbers of a special population.  And that’s it at the elementary level.  With the exception of the Centers, what do they all have in common?  Wait for it:  the exact same, to-the-letter MCPS test-test-test curriculum.  Where’s the choice in that?

“But wait!”  I hear the MCPS PR person say. “Each MCPS schools offers a comprehensive program of instruction to challenge and meet the needs of all students. Some schools also offer special programs for students attending the school. These are called local school programs.” (I confess, I got that straight off the MCPS website.) I get it.  That would be things like the whole school communications arts magnet at my neighborhood school, the arts integration program at another area school, the technology focus at another, etc.

  • Problem number one is, that not every school has them, and in these budget times, those that do have them are under threat. (My local school saved its special program teacher by cutting the math content specialist position.)
  • Problem number two is that these programs are super secret. The MCPS website instructs parents to “contact each local school for details.” (Just what parents want to spend their abundant free time on, right?  You have to be really switched on to ferret out the details.)
  • Problem number three is access.  Nice for me if I have an artsy kid and I live in the arts integration school’s catchment area. But if I don’t, if it’s the next school over, too bad.  MCPS is not going to let me transfer just to access that program.  Transfers are only for extreme hardship.  Which means that “choice” in MCPS boils down to moving houses and hoping for the best.  Really no choice at all.

At middle school you’ve heard my rant.  Where I live, if you don’t get into a GT magnet, and you don’t win the middle school consortium lottery, well sucks for you.  You’re stuck.  You literally have to move, which people do.  Or homeschool, a choice that families back into as a least worst option.  I guess that’s Jerry Weast’s version of choice.

So what is his game?  One theory is that he’s trying to trying to link charter schools to private schools in the minds of people who don’t really get the charter school concept and who already  think that charters can select students, don’t follow certification and union requirements and take money from public schools like vouchers.   Not a bad theory.  Mine?  The desire for absolute control.

P.S.  You can read an op-ed by the Global Gardens Public Charter School founders in Sunday’s Washington Post.

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Milestones

Posted in education, Gifted, School, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 15, 2010 | 10 Comments »

The other day Husband Dear pointed out a blogging milestone that slipped my notice:  sometime in the past month I exceeded 200,000 page views.  Thanks to everyone who’s stopped by and who continues to read my musings.

A milestone which most certainly did NOT escape attention took place this morning:  For the very last time, I drove C. to school.  Her last day ever as an MCPS student.  Hard to believe this MCPS chapter, such a huge part of our life for the past 10 years, has drawn to a close.  Seems like just yesterday that I stood with her on the playground as she lined up with her class for her very first day of first grade.  I didn’t have to drive her, and normally I don’t, but hey, it was her last exam and she needed the extra half hour of sleep.  Besides, she’s leaving in three months–I have to spend some time with my baby while I can!

So was C. the least bit wistful?  Um, no.  Not a bit. She attended the drama picnic a week ago and will miss her drama friends, but has no interest in attending her classwide picnic tomorrow afternoon.  Didn’t want to buy the yearbook.  Laughed how all of a sudden people who never talked to her were posting to her Facebook wall about how her leaving is a “betrayal” of the ol’ alma mater.  Nope, no looking back.

It’s a nice half hour drive to her school, so I asked, what were her reflections on this, her last day in MCPS?  What would she do differently, what should have been done differently?  Because one could argue, hey, it didn’t really turn out too badly.  You’re in the best school in the county (Newsweek says so!), and you’re leaving to go to one of the best boarding schools in the country.  Can you really complain?

Her answer, unequivocally, was that she should have been allowed to grade skip.  Really?  I pressed her.  Really, she insisted.  Socially, she has always gravitated to kids a grade, and more often several, ahead of her.  The teachers she looked back on most positively were the ones who understood, and gave her more challenging material beyond what was offered to everyone else.  The second grade teacher who gave her unlimited access to the library.  The third grade teacher who let her read different books from the rest of the class. Aha!  So doesn’t that just prove that MCPS does differentiate and that it works?  Alas, those teachers were, according to her, the grand exceptions.  The counter example would be offering to “reward” a verbally gifted kid with math acceleration and sitting in heterogeneous classes where all the other kids loath you because you “know everything” (being called “The Walking Dictionary” comes to mind) and you resenting them for being so painfully slow.  So much for having bright students serve as “role models” in the class.

I told her that it had recently been suggested that we could/should have pursued a legal remedy back in her middle school days.  Part of me so wanted to, however I also knew that legally gifted isn’t like special education. And really, when you are in the midst of the crisis, stressed beyond belief, does it really make sense to launch a lawsuit?  How is going to make the immediate situation at hand better?  Which sadly means that the system continues along, unchallenged.

I’ve suggested that she document her experiences and maybe even share them with members of the school board. Heck, ask to meet with Jerry Weast and Jay Mathews.  It’s what her friend up in the Boston area is doing.  Only he’s actually been invited by a member of the school committee to speak to them about the needs of “high-end learners.”  When’s the last time AEI ever asked students what they think of gifted education in MCPS?  Oh, that would be never.

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Going Once, Going Twice

Posted in education, Gifted, In the News, School, tagged , , , , , , on June 13, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Sold!  To Pearson Education!

This week brought the news that the school board has sold out MCPS’s elementary curriculum development (We’ll leave aside the fact that the press release was up even before the board voted on the deal.  Ugh.)  While MCPS minced no words on its wonderfulness, others, including Valerie Strauss of the Post were less than enthusiastic.

Count me in. The prospect of MCPS classrooms serving as showrooms and teachers as salespersons is beyond distasteful.  Yes, the deal does help MCPS develop this curriculum faster, but at what cost?  The publisher can can make changes and still sell it under the MCPS “brand”–and MCPS only gets a 60% discount on the end products it buys.  But hey, MCPS lost its shame long ago and one could argue that this deal is what that $10 million MCPS PR machine has been working so hard towards all along.

It’s why MCPS–in a week where Superintendent Jerry Weast said “We are broke” (See video here) in response to Board member Laura Berthiaume’s brave, brave vote against the Pearson deal (See video here)–is hiring a Senior Communications Specialist for a salary of between $71,723-$100,120 with “excellent benefits.”  This, is an climate where we can take teachers out of an award-winning program, the Einstein Visual Arts Center.  This, in a climate where an award-winning middle school choral program is being slashed.

It just freaking boggles the mind.  Have to keep churning out the happy happy news.

So what is this wonderful integrated curriculum, that has already been rolled out in Kindergarten?  You can read the Superintendent’s report here.  The press release claims that “Ten years ago, in order to provide an academic structure to support higher achievement, MCPS rewrote and mapped its curriculum, instruction and assessments to college-ready standards.”  Au contraire.  I and others have blogged about this in the past, but MCPS itself has said that its “grade level” curriculum is not sufficient to achieve the vaunted Seven Keys to College Readiness.  That’s why MCPS now has over 40% of students identified as “gifted,” also known as “ready to work above grade level.”  Just to repeat, that’s not the same thing.

The report and the press release cite “extremely positive reviews” by parents of  the new Kindergarten curriculum.  I don’t know about you, but this thread on DC Urban Moms and Dads doesn’t make me feel the love.

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Living a smART Life

Posted in education, Gifted, School, tagged , , , , , , , on June 7, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Do you remember commenter Rockzana?  I first corresponded with the MCPS middle schooler back in January, when she wrote to alert me to her school’s advocacy page in conjunction with the then looming threats to magnet transportation. [Update:  Magnet and special program busing is safe for another year.  It's just the Superintendent's failsafe way to rile parents up, and persuade them to lobby on behalf of his budget.  Works like a charm.]

Anyway, I got an email from her mom this evening.  She wrote:

I know my daughter Rockzana (Roxy) has been emailing you off and on…
I thought I would let you know that she gave her Keynote Speech “Learning in and Through the Arts” at the Cultural Arts for Education Conference last week to a SRO auditorium (they were actually sitting in the aisles). At the end she received a standing O! As part of her speech she created a video and so many of the attendees wanted to have a copy of it that I today I posted it up on YouTube. I thought you might like to see it.

To really appreciate the video you need to know the intro for it (she had graphics to go along with this as well):

“If I had a magic wand and could grant each of you a wish right now that would magically change your life, how many of you would take that wish? What would you change about life? Would you move, change how much you weigh, how tall you are, the color of your hair, change your job, or maybe even your significant other? Ummhmm…

Well as for me, right now, my life is just fine. And yes, you may think it’s that way because I do acting and modeling and get to travel and meet famous people. However, it really is due to the fact that for the past three years I’ve been Learning in and Through the Arts. I’ve been living a smART life. I want you to take a look at this presentation I put together and see what a smART life is like from a student’s point of view.”

And here it is.  (Middle aged person warning:  you might want to turn down the volume.)

Roxy is lucky that she literally won the lottery and is happy at her school (I’m making the assumption here that she is not an in-boundary student at Loiederman, but rather put her name into the lottery to attend.) C. wasn’t so lucky.  Call me a whiner, but on some level I feel like she’s been denied an appropriate education by MCPS.  I would love for her to love her school, to be with friends.  I guess we’ll just have to hope for high school.

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The Budget Cuts Ahead

Posted in education, Gifted, School, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on June 6, 2010 | 4 Comments »

And so the school year is ending with a whimper.  On Tuesday the Board of Education will vote on the the FY2011 Operating Budget, working from proposed budget cuts put forth by the Superintendent.  Chances are very good that Board will accept them.  Here’s what’s very likely ahead:

  • Class Size Increase -  1 additional student per class over last year’s class size. Consequences include combination classes (where two grade levels are combined) in elementary schools for math and reading.  Middle School and High School will see fewer course offerings due to the cut in staff.
  • Academic Intervention Teachers – Reduced by 24. Total staffing will be 110 for FY2011.
  • Special Program Teachers – Reduced by 12.9 (Specific staffing cuts at College Gardens ES, Sherwood ES, Piney Branch ES, Einstein HS, Poolesville HS, Wheaton HS, Thomas Edison are all mentioned in the memo. In addition, the 5 International Baccalaureate Middle School Years Programme schools will have their coordinators reduced from a FT position.)
  • Secondary School Counselors – Reduced by 6
  • Focus Teachers – Reduced by 9
  • Reading Initiative Teachers – Reduced by 8
  • Reading Teachers – Reduced by 5
  • ES Paraeducators – Reduced by 27
  • Staff Development Teachers – Reduced by 10.4

The allocation of many of these positions will be determined by the Community Superintendents. Schools apply for these positions by submitting a comprehensive plan and the Community Superintendents decide where these resources can best be utilized for maximum impact. Submissions showing excellent staff AND community support are viewed favorably.

  • Media Assistants – Reduced by 5.5 This impacts 11 elementary schools.
  • Maintenance Positions – Reduced by 6. Yep, increases the current backlog of repair orders.
  • Textbooks and Instructional Materials – 30 percent cut.
  • Elementary Class I Stipends and Activity Buses – Results in no extracurricular programs except for Chorus, SGA, and Safety Patrol (and PTA-sponsored programs such as Hands-On-Science and FLES).

At the middle school level, arguably the weakest link in MCPS and the one where the lack of gifted options in the home middle school is particularly acute, given the move toward heterogeneous “Advanced for All” classes in science and social studies. Here are some details:

  • Special Program Teachers – $830,038.  (Page 7) The reductions in middle schools include a 1.0 position decrease (a .2 position for each of the five schools) in International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (IBMYP) staffing and a .6 position decrease in immersion staffing (a .2 position for each of the three schools). FY 2011 is the fourth consecutive year of special program reductions at the middle school level. The five IBMYP schools will have their coordinators reduced from a full-time position to teaching one class a day. IBMYP coordinators will have less time to coordinate the unique courses for the program and less time to coordinate the personal projects each IBMYP student must complete. This reduction makes it more difficult for schools to reach the goals of the International Baccalaureate Organization.
  • Middle School Reform – $1,716,701.  (Page 10) The elimination of $1,292,031 in stipend funding for Middle School Reform cohort collaborative work will limit the time classroom teachers and paraeducators have to work together to design, implement, and evaluate effective instruction.  Work after school, on weekends and other non-duty days, or hiring of substitutes to complete tasks, will be limited. This type of work is challenging to complete in a single class period. Cohort collaborative work has been greatly valued by instructional staff and provides cohorts the time to create rigorous lesson plans and assessments that are challenging and engaging to students; determine re-teaching strategies for students who did not master the objectives in cohorts; examine student work and analyze individual student, class, and course data to determine students‚ mastery, identify trends in performance, and inform instructional planning; and identify and integrate a number of strategies to support differentiation and equitable practices in order to meet the range of student learning needs.

The latter is particularly worrisome for GT students.  MCPS’s mantra has long been “trust us, we differentiate.”  And for years frustrated parents have sworn up and down that it’s not happening.  On occasion they’ve been able to wrest a rare moment of candor from MCPS officials, an admission that yes, implementation of differentiation is indeed spotty; it’s a high level teaching skill and they’re trying to do the training to get there.  Well, that thread of hope seems to be breaking and what we will see in middle schools is “advanced” science and social studies classes with the entire wide spectrum of student abilities and teachers who are not receiving the requisite training and preparation time.

Still under the gun:  The Visual Arts Center.  So glad that the Post is finally giving this program cut some coverage. Kudos to parent advocate Sue Katz Miller and others who have worked tirelessly to stop the halving of this program, which will save MCPS a measily, paltry $65,000.  In a multi-billion dollar budget, this cut is just shameful.

[To keep up with some of the egregious examples of MCPS waste, keep an eye on the Parents' Coalition Blog].

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