Dr Starr puts his spin on falling test scores

[Anonymous]

Are you saying that the ultimate goal of the superintendent of the Montgomery County Public School system is to bring down the performance of the 14% of MCPS students who are Asian Americans, specifically, and all MCPS students in general?

Or are you saying that the ultimate goal of the superintendent of Montgomery County Public School system is to bring down the performance of the 14% of MCPS students who are Asian Americans, which will bring down the performance of all MCPS students in general?

Either way: documentation please.

Good gosh. I am not saying that, you are.

Open your eyes, what are the proportional percentages enrolled in the County magnet programs, highly gifted centers, and TJ? Do you think these students get into these programs largely because of who they know, legacy, and money?

Use your little noggin instead of your large heart.

[Anonymous]

Maybe Starr should let us all know the percentage of third graders who achieved a final average of P in math and reading this year. That is a better measure of how well kids are learning what they are being taught than MSA.
The upcoming test, PARCC, will be much harder than MSA. So, there was already an expectation that scores would go down when those tests start. Should we expect declining test scores for the foreseeable future?

[Anonymous]

Maybe Starr should let us all know the percentage of third graders who achieved a final average of P in math and reading this year. That is a better measure of how well kids are learning what they are being taught than MSA.
The upcoming test, PARCC, will be much harder than MSA. So, there was already an expectation that scores would go down when those tests start. Should we expect declining test scores for the foreseeable future?

Yes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Are you saying that the ultimate goal of the superintendent of the Montgomery County Public School system is to bring down the performance of the 14% of MCPS students who are Asian Americans, specifically, and all MCPS students in general?

Or are you saying that the ultimate goal of the superintendent of Montgomery County Public School system is to bring down the performance of the 14% of MCPS students who are Asian Americans, which will bring down the performance of all MCPS students in general?

Either way: documentation please.

Good gosh. I am not saying that, you are.

Open your eyes, what are the proportional percentages enrolled in the County magnet programs, highly gifted centers, and TJ? Do you think these students get into these programs largely because of who they know, legacy, and money?

Use your little noggin instead of your large heart.

Nope. You (or another PP) said, "One thing is certain, this approach will close/shrink the performance gap between the highest performers in the County -- Asian Americans and the lowest performers Blacks and Hispanics. Starr will achieve his ultimate goal of shrinking the performance gap while ensuring the aggregate County student performance will continue to decline when bench marked against outside exams."

If you did not mean that Starr's ultimate goal is to shrink the achievement gap by lowering the performance of Asian-Americans, what did you mean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Are you saying that the ultimate goal of the superintendent of the Montgomery County Public School system is to bring down the performance of the 14% of MCPS students who are Asian Americans, specifically, and all MCPS students in general?

Or are you saying that the ultimate goal of the superintendent of Montgomery County Public School system is to bring down the performance of the 14% of MCPS students who are Asian Americans, which will bring down the performance of all MCPS students in general?

Either way: documentation please.

Good gosh. I am not saying that, you are.

Open your eyes, what are the proportional percentages enrolled in the County magnet programs, highly gifted centers, and TJ? Do you think these students get into these programs largely because of who they know, legacy, and money?

Use your little noggin instead of your large heart.

WTF does that mean? We are aware that Asian Americans are outscoring other groups. But what you are suggesting is that Mo Co's policies and curriculum are designed to hold back Asian Americans to close the achievement gap. I just don't believe that. And you have no evidence to back that up.

[Anonymous]

...One thing is certain, this approach will close/shrink the performance gap between the highest performers in the County -- Asian Americans and the lowest performers Blacks and Hispanics. Starr will achieve his ultimate goal of shrinking the performance gap while ensuring the aggregate County student performance will continue to decline when bench marked against outside exams.

Amother way of thinking about what the poster is saying - strategic implementation of a system designed to reduce the performance gap by bringing the tail ends of the performance distribution to the middle. Eliminating student advancement for the ready and able and forcing all to receive the same instruction within the same class acheives this goal by bring up the back while retarding the front.

The end result is both tails approach mediocrity somewhere in the middle.

If the superintendent and MCPS are graded and rewarded (paid) by this metric (reducing the performance or achievement gap) their approach and experimental study design will work. When reviewers look under the hood the flaws will be exposed for all to see (failing and or declining aggregate performances).

We are beginning to see this trend which is guaranteed to continue for the rest of the decade unless Mr. Starr reverses course.

The MCPS leadership would be wise to spend the upcoming August month in retreat, catch their breath and claim their senses, before the new school year begins anew.

[Anonymous]

Another way of thinking about what the poster is saying - strategic implementation of a system designed to reduce the performance gap by bringing the tail ends of the performance distribution to the middle. Eliminating student advancement for the ready and able and forcing all to receive the same instruction within the same class acheives this goal by bring up the back while retarding the front.

The end result is both tails approach mediocrity somewhere in the middle.

If the superintendent and MCPS are graded and rewarded (paid) by this metric (reducing the performance or achievement gap) their approach and experimental study design will work. When reviewers look under the hood the flaws will be exposed for all to see (failing and or declining aggregate performances).

We are beginning to see this trend which is guaranteed to continue for the rest of the decade unless Mr. Starr reverses course.

The MCPS leadership would be wise to spend the upcoming August month in retreat, catch their breath and claim their senses, before the new school year begins anew.

I could not have explained it any better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

...One thing is certain, this approach will close/shrink the performance gap between the highest performers in the County -- Asian Americans and the lowest performers Blacks and Hispanics. Starr will achieve his ultimate goal of shrinking the performance gap while ensuring the aggregate County student performance will continue to decline when bench marked against outside exams.

Amother way of thinking about what the poster is saying - strategic implementation of a system designed to reduce the performance gap by bringing the tail ends of the performance distribution to the middle. Eliminating student advancement for the ready and able and forcing all to receive the same instruction within the same class acheives this goal by bring up the back while retarding the front.

The end result is both tails approach mediocrity somewhere in the middle.

If the superintendent and MCPS are graded and rewarded (paid) by this metric (reducing the performance or achievement gap) their approach and experimental study design will work. When reviewers look under the hood the flaws will be exposed for all to see (failing and or declining aggregate performances).

We are beginning to see this trend which is guaranteed to continue for the rest of the decade unless Mr. Starr reverses course.

The MCPS leadership would be wise to spend the upcoming August month in retreat, catch their breath and claim their senses, before the new school year begins anew.

I understand what PP is saying but I don't think there is any evidence that this is the explanation for the Common Core and Mo Co county curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Another way of thinking about what the poster is saying - strategic implementation of a system designed to reduce the performance gap by bringing the tail ends of the performance distribution to the middle. Eliminating student advancement for the ready and able and forcing all to receive the same instruction within the same class acheives this goal by bring up the back while retarding the front.

The end result is both tails approach mediocrity somewhere in the middle.

If the superintendent and MCPS are graded and rewarded (paid) by this metric (reducing the performance or achievement gap) their approach and experimental study design will work. When reviewers look under the hood the flaws will be exposed for all to see (failing and or declining aggregate performances).

We are beginning to see this trend which is guaranteed to continue for the rest of the decade unless Mr. Starr reverses course.

The MCPS leadership would be wise to spend the upcoming August month in retreat, catch their breath and claim their senses, before the new school year begins anew.

I could not have explained it any better.

Again. You are saying that Superintendent Starr and MCPS are deliberately "retarding the front". Or, in plain English, they're holding the smart kids back, on purpose. Please provide evidence for your conspiracy theory.

[Anonymous]

Does elimination of math pathways have anything to do with the common core? Or did they happen coincidentally? Does the common core curriculum a priori mandate the elimination of pathways within the common core for the ready and able?

The point: the national common core initiative has absolutely nothing to do with MCPS "discomfort" with the changing complexion (demographics) of their HGC and magnet programs. A similar "discomfort" (NOVA-AAP, TJ) is occuring across the Potomac with FCPS. The traditional and establishment leadership at MCPS and FCPS is "tweaking" their system to "shrink this gap".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does elimination of math pathways have anything to do with the common core? Or did they happen coincidentally? Does the common core curriculum a priori mandate the elimination of pathways within the common core for the ready and able?

The point: the national common core initiative has absolutely nothing to do with MCPS "discomfort" with the changing complexion (demographics) of their HGC and magnet programs. A similar "discomfort" (NOVA-AAP, TJ) is occuring across the Potomac with FCPS. The traditional and establishment leadership at MCPS and FCPS is "tweaking" their system to "shrink this gap".

As far as I know, the elimination of Math Pathways has to do with MCPS math teachers telling MCPS that Math Pathways was overaccelerating children.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/04/AR2010110407825.html

And about the MCPS "discomfort" with the "changing complexion (demographics)" etc. etc. -- what do you mean, exactly? MCPS is changing their policies about admissions to HGC and magnet programs to reduce the proportion of Asian-Americans in these programs? What evidence do you have for this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does elimination of math pathways have anything to do with the common core? Or did they happen coincidentally? Does the common core curriculum a priori mandate the elimination of pathways within the common core for the ready and able?

The point: the national common core initiative has absolutely nothing to do with MCPS "discomfort" with the changing complexion (demographics) of their HGC and magnet programs. A similar "discomfort" (NOVA-AAP, TJ) is occuring across the Potomac with FCPS. The traditional and establishment leadership at MCPS and FCPS is "tweaking" their system to "shrink this gap".

As far as I know, the elimination of Math Pathways has to do with MCPS math teachers telling MCPS that Math Pathways was overaccelerating children.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/04/AR2010110407825.html

And about the MCPS "discomfort" with the "changing complexion (demographics)" etc. etc. -- what do you mean, exactly? MCPS is changing their policies about admissions to HGC and magnet programs to reduce the proportion of Asian-Americans in these programs? What evidence do you have for this?

So far PP has no evidence.

[Anonymous]

As far as I know, the elimination of Math Pathways has to do with MCPS math teachers telling MCPS that Math Pathways was overaccelerating children.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/04/AR2010110407825.html

And about the MCPS "discomfort" with the "changing complexion (demographics)" etc. etc. -- what do you mean, exactly? MCPS is changing their policies about admissions to HGC and magnet programs to reduce the proportion of Asian-Americans in these programs? What evidence do you have for this?

When certain folk are performing well they are all of a sudden "overaccelerated". I see you bought the smoke screen from the County. What's your explanation this year for the declining performance and math failure rates? Students were over retarded? Not enough acceleration? Boredom with the pace? Lack of test prep? Which is it?

I assure you the number on the honor rolls, and the number of straight As in MCPS has been steadily climbing!

MCPS is simply reeling from one stoop to another.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When certain folk are performing well they are all of a sudden "overaccelerated". I see you bought the smoke screen from the County. What's your explanation this year for the declining performance and math failure rates? Students were over retarded? Not enough acceleration? Boredom with the pace? Lack of test prep? Which is it?

When you're a conspiracy theorist, everything looks like a conspiracy theory.

Here's what the Poolesville High School Math Department said about math acceleration recently:

"Over the last eight years, a large majority of students have been accelerated through the math curriculum, as teachers and principals have been pressured to meet unrealistic targets. As a result, students have accumulated gaps in their understanding. Dr. Starr has been working to slow acceleration, but the effects linger on and could take many years to overcome. In fact, there is still a target for 71% of students to pass Algebra 1 in 8th grade in 2013 in spite of recommendations by math resource teachers and the 2009 K-12 math workgroup that all targets be removed. All stakeholders need to understand that acceleration cannot substitute for depth of instruction. Even for a relatively small number of highly able students, magnet teachers have recommended the specialized curriculum available in magnet programs rather than acceleration through the standard curriculum."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/06/11/teachers-why-so-many-kids-are-flunking-final-exams-in-montgomery-county/

I'm looking forward to your explanation of how that really means "We don't like it when Asian-American students do well in math, and we're going to stop it."

[Anonymous]

"Amother way of thinking about what the poster is saying - strategic implementation of a system designed to reduce the performance gap by bringing the tail ends of the performance distribution to the middle. Eliminating student advancement for the ready and able and forcing all to receive the same instruction within the same class acheives this goal by bring up the back while retarding the front."

this seems to sum things up well. I think that this is the natural consequence of lumping all the kids into a class together so that it becomes much harder to target the more advanced kids since you have so little time for that and the greatest onus is put on bringing the others up to passing.