MCPS Test Scores breakdown school by school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand the focus on geometry. Most kids don’t take geometry till high school.

It would be a bellwether of high-achieving students then.

yes, and the weather says, "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs". Abysmal, across the board. MCAP results were also terrible.

Whatever happens with covid in the future, I hope adminstrators realize just how terrible VL has been for the vast majority of students, and not just low income kids.

[Anonymous]

The combination of VL, cuts to curriculum, and delayed testing without consistent instructions that told students certain formulas were in the test tool box show bad results. Surprise!?

Congrats to North Bethesda for being #1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is the first of a series of detailed school by school (and cluster by cluster) breakdown of MCPS test scores from 2017-2021.

For this one looking at middle school geometry, the results are pretty devastating with huge drops in proficiency across the board.

“All schools showed a dramatic decrease in proficiency

There was a 62.4% average decrease across the 38 schools reporting data in 2021. Decreases ranged from the best – 44.6% fewer proficient students at Francis Scott Key Middle to the worst – 82.2% fewer proficient students at Shady Grove Middle.

8 schools (21%) had decreases between 44.6 and 50%.
20 schools (53%) had decreases between 50 and 75%.
10 schools (26%) had decreases of 70% or more.”

Full report and data:

https://moderatelymoco.com/mcps-middle-school-geometry-proficiency-test-score-data-by-school-over-time-and-analysis/

Most students have no business taking geometry in middle school, and a lot should be taking Algebra I in 9th, too. There shouldn’t be such a rush. Lots of talented kids thinking they’re terrible at math because they’re struggling in precalc in 9th or 10th grade.

-Someone with an engineering degree who first took Calculus in college

[Anonymous]

I have three children and I can tell you Geometry is particularly difficult to learn online.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have three children and I can tell you Geometry is particularly difficult to learn online.

Yep, my kid had virtual geometry in 8th grade last year and it was pretty awful. The teacher was trying very hard, and my kid went back in person for hybrid last quarter, so expectations were met on the test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand the focus on geometry. Most kids don’t take geometry till high school.

It would be a bellwether of high-achieving students then.

Not really. At some schools the number of middle school kids in geometry is low enough that the sample size is meaningless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I forget: Were the tests given at the end of last year or the beginning of this school year?

Beginning of this year in September after a summer of forgetting whatever they managed to learn. Abbreviated test and only required to sit, not pass anything. In other words, completely useless for understanding actually where kids are. The results from this spring will be more meaningful. I still expect a drop from prepandemic but not the ridiculousness of last fall’s testing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have three children and I can tell you Geometry is particularly difficult to learn online.

Yep, my kid had virtual geometry in 8th grade last year and it was pretty awful. The teacher was trying very hard, and my kid went back in person for hybrid last quarter, so expectations were met on the test.

My ADHD kid with Luddite tendencies had a terrible time trying to adjust to the online tools. They finally had to get permission to submit a photo of the solution on paper, because they couldn’t focus in the online environment, and trying to solve the problem on paper and convert the work to the online tool for submission was inevitably a disaster.

[Anonymous]

Stunning failure! So happy to see they got right on it by spending big money on a racism survey instead of teaching students anything as soon as we crawled out of quarantine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the first of a series of detailed school by school (and cluster by cluster) breakdown of MCPS test scores from 2017-2021.

For this one looking at middle school geometry, the results are pretty devastating with huge drops in proficiency across the board.

“All schools showed a dramatic decrease in proficiency

There was a 62.4% average decrease across the 38 schools reporting data in 2021. Decreases ranged from the best – 44.6% fewer proficient students at Francis Scott Key Middle to the worst – 82.2% fewer proficient students at Shady Grove Middle.

8 schools (21%) had decreases between 44.6 and 50%.
20 schools (53%) had decreases between 50 and 75%.
10 schools (26%) had decreases of 70% or more.”

Full report and data:

https://moderatelymoco.com/mcps-middle-school-geometry-proficiency-test-score-data-by-school-over-time-and-analysis/

Most students have no business taking geometry in middle school, and a lot should be taking Algebra I in 9th, too. There shouldn’t be such a rush. Lots of talented kids thinking they’re terrible at math because they’re struggling in precalc in 9th or 10th grade.

-Someone with an engineering degree who first took Calculus in college

But students went from a 95 in some schools to an 8. You completely missed the point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the first of a series of detailed school by school (and cluster by cluster) breakdown of MCPS test scores from 2017-2021.

For this one looking at middle school geometry, the results are pretty devastating with huge drops in proficiency across the board.

“All schools showed a dramatic decrease in proficiency

There was a 62.4% average decrease across the 38 schools reporting data in 2021. Decreases ranged from the best – 44.6% fewer proficient students at Francis Scott Key Middle to the worst – 82.2% fewer proficient students at Shady Grove Middle.

8 schools (21%) had decreases between 44.6 and 50%.
20 schools (53%) had decreases between 50 and 75%.
10 schools (26%) had decreases of 70% or more.”

Full report and data:

https://moderatelymoco.com/mcps-middle-school-geometry-proficiency-test-score-data-by-school-over-time-and-analysis/

Most students have no business taking geometry in middle school, and a lot should be taking Algebra I in 9th, too. There shouldn’t be such a rush. Lots of talented kids thinking they’re terrible at math because they’re struggling in precalc in 9th or 10th grade.

-Someone with an engineering degree who first took Calculus in college

But students went from a 95 in some schools to an 8. You completely missed the point.

^PP eng major probably got a D in English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stunning failure! So happy to see they got right on it by spending big money on a racism survey instead of teaching students anything as soon as we crawled out of quarantine.

+1 ITA Stupid waste of money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand the focus on geometry. Most kids don’t take geometry till high school.

It would be a bellwether of high-achieving students then.

Not really. At some schools the number of middle school kids in geometry is low enough that the sample size is meaningless.

Do you have issues reading the chart? Please take a closer look at the chart.

[Anonymous]

Some of the tests are only done in person so it may not be a real sample size either. My kids haven't tested last year or this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I forget: Were the tests given at the end of last year or the beginning of this school year?

Beginning of this year in September after a summer of forgetting whatever they managed to learn. Abbreviated test and only required to sit, not pass anything. In other words, completely useless for understanding actually where kids are. The results from this spring will be more meaningful. I still expect a drop from prepandemic but not the ridiculousness of last fall’s testing.

I'm an ES parent so I've not really be following this. Is it actually a comparison of tests given at the end of the course in previous years with one given the school year after they took the course for last year? Because that really doesn't seem like a meaningful comparison at all.