MCAP results are pretty bad

[Anonymous]

That looks pretty good. Any given year, lots of kids aren't going to do well.

[Anonymous]

I honestly think if we all had to go back in time and take MCAP when we were in elementary school the scores would have been just as bad. The Common Core State Standards are ridiculously complicated and not developmentally appropriate. Too little time is spent on basic skills and instead, first graders are synthesizing information from texts in written responses. Can we at least foster a love of reading before cramming endless, boring informational text down their throats?
I agree with another poster that MAP is a better indicator. Though, the winter MAP scores at my school aren't too hot either. More proof that in-person instruction cannot be replaced by Zoom. Can't wait to hear how the virtual academy did on MAP in comparison to in-person schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I honestly think if we all had to go back in time and take MCAP when we were in elementary school the scores would have been just as bad. The Common Core State Standards are ridiculously complicated and not developmentally appropriate. Too little time is spent on basic skills and instead, first graders are synthesizing information from texts in written responses. Can we at least foster a love of reading before cramming endless, boring informational text down their throats?
I agree with another poster that MAP is a better indicator. Though, the winter MAP scores at my school aren't too hot either. More proof that in-person instruction cannot be replaced by Zoom. Can't wait to hear how the virtual academy did on MAP in comparison to in-person schools.

MCPS already has a dumbed down curriculum.

Why do you need to attack Virtual Academy? What if students do better, not worse?

[Anonymous]

5th grader met expectations for English and exceeded them in Math (15/16, but Math is very much his strong suit). He was in the middle of the "met expectations" range for English, so I guess that would be about 90th percentile (he's usually 92-96 on the MAP-R). Though it seems nearly meaningless without actual percentiles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, having missed 1+ years of school, this isn't a surprise.

Ok but we have an antiracism audit so let's not act like the schools aren't doing anything

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just received in the mail fall 2021's MCAP results.

MCAP = Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program

It has a section called "How Students in Maryland Performed."

For Grade 4 level:

Math

Approached Expectations: 79%
Met Expectations: 12%
Exceeded Expectations: 9%

ELA

Approached Expectations: 77%
Met Expectations: 21%
Exceeded Expectations: 2%


Basically nearly 80% of Maryland's current 5th graders do not demonstrate grade level understanding.

Nearly 80% of PUBLIC school 5th graders. Private school kids didn’t miss a year of school and are doing fine. Pretty depressing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just received in the mail fall 2021's MCAP results.

MCAP = Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program

It has a section called "How Students in Maryland Performed."

For Grade 4 level:

Math

Approached Expectations: 79%
Met Expectations: 12%
Exceeded Expectations: 9%

ELA

Approached Expectations: 77%
Met Expectations: 21%
Exceeded Expectations: 2%


Basically nearly 80% of Maryland's current 5th graders do not demonstrate grade level understanding.

Nearly 80% of PUBLIC school 5th graders. Private school kids didn’t miss a year of school and are doing fine. Pretty depressing.

Private schools are much smaller and had the resources to do things like distance. Private schools generally self select students and the kids who are struggling get kicked out. Given SN and ESOL kids those are good numbers. Some kids also don't test well and the MCAP was a really strange test and not easy for some kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just received in the mail fall 2021's MCAP results.

MCAP = Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program

It has a section called "How Students in Maryland Performed."

For Grade 4 level:

Math

Approached Expectations: 79%
Met Expectations: 12%
Exceeded Expectations: 9%

ELA

Approached Expectations: 77%
Met Expectations: 21%
Exceeded Expectations: 2%


Basically nearly 80% of Maryland's current 5th graders do not demonstrate grade level understanding.

More evidence that MCPS is a paradise. compared to the rest of the state largely thanks to the strong leadership of our BOE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I haven’t looked at this in-depth but there was a major problem with mcap in that it wasn’t matched to the curriculum, so it was a worthless test for one or two cycles. I’m forgetting the years of the adjustments but it had to do with the whole Pearson problem. There was a year where the schools were required by law to administer it but everyone knew it would not be used and was not meaningful—even the kids—so I think there was extremely little effort put in. Does anyone remember whether this was last year or the year before? It’s all a blur at this point. Look to the MAP, that is a slightly better indicator (and shows learning loss but still shows kids doing pretty well). The McAp saying they don’t meet standards is meaningless when the county had already decided to jettison the standards contained in the mcap because they were found to be so poorly matched to actual learning.

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just received in the mail fall 2021's MCAP results.

MCAP = Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program

It has a section called "How Students in Maryland Performed."

For Grade 4 level:

Math

Approached Expectations: 79%
Met Expectations: 12%
Exceeded Expectations: 9%

ELA

Approached Expectations: 77%
Met Expectations: 21%
Exceeded Expectations: 2%


Basically nearly 80% of Maryland's current 5th graders do not demonstrate grade level understanding.

More evidence that MCPS is a paradise. compared to the rest of the state largely thanks to the strong leadership of our BOE.

Have you checked the resumes of the hires? The BOE is hiring administrators from school systems that are a mess. It’s not surprising that MCPS is circling the toilet because of who the BOE is hiring to key leadership roles.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn’t put too much stock in this assessment. Sometime we need to evaluate the validity of assessments.

And to the person trying to compare public schools to private, do private schools take the MCAP? I’m assuming they don’t. Furthermore, I wonder how public schools would do if they made students qualify for admission, and exclude any highly impacted students such as those with special needs or new to the English language, or those that can barely afford to feed their children, let alone pay for private tutors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t put too much stock in this assessment. Sometime we need to evaluate the validity of assessments.

And to the person trying to compare public schools to private, do private schools take the MCAP? I’m assuming they don’t. Furthermore, I wonder how public schools would do if they made students qualify for admission, and exclude any highly impacted students such as those with special needs or new to the English language, or those that can barely afford to feed their children, let alone pay for private tutors.

Some privates do standardized testing but its not comparable when privates self select students and MCPS cannot. MCPS has SN and ESOL kids who privates don't have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just received in the mail fall 2021's MCAP results.

MCAP = Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program

It has a section called "How Students in Maryland Performed."

For Grade 4 level:

Math

Approached Expectations: 79%
Met Expectations: 12%
Exceeded Expectations: 9%

ELA

Approached Expectations: 77%
Met Expectations: 21%
Exceeded Expectations: 2%


Basically nearly 80% of Maryland's current 5th graders do not demonstrate grade level understanding.

More evidence that MCPS is a paradise. compared to the rest of the state largely thanks to the strong leadership of our BOE.

Or, maybe blame the parents for not working with their kids at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven’t looked at this in-depth but there was a major problem with mcap in that it wasn’t matched to the curriculum, so it was a worthless test for one or two cycles. I’m forgetting the years of the adjustments but it had to do with the whole Pearson problem. There was a year where the schools were required by law to administer it but everyone knew it would not be used and was not meaningful—even the kids—so I think there was extremely little effort put in. Does anyone remember whether this was last year or the year before? It’s all a blur at this point. Look to the MAP, that is a slightly better indicator (and shows learning loss but still shows kids doing pretty well). The McAp saying they don’t meet standards is meaningless when the county had already decided to jettison the standards contained in the mcap because they were found to be so poorly matched to actual learning.

This.

My children normally do well in the other tests and really struggled with this one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven’t looked at this in-depth but there was a major problem with mcap in that it wasn’t matched to the curriculum, so it was a worthless test for one or two cycles. I’m forgetting the years of the adjustments but it had to do with the whole Pearson problem. There was a year where the schools were required by law to administer it but everyone knew it would not be used and was not meaningful—even the kids—so I think there was extremely little effort put in. Does anyone remember whether this was last year or the year before? It’s all a blur at this point. Look to the MAP, that is a slightly better indicator (and shows learning loss but still shows kids doing pretty well). The McAp saying they don’t meet standards is meaningless when the county had already decided to jettison the standards contained in the mcap because they were found to be so poorly matched to actual learning.

This.

My children normally do well in the other tests and really struggled with this one.

It assesses whether children can test not whether they can read or do math.