MCPS boasts about 54.9% 3rd ELA proficiency rate in latest MCAP results

[Anonymous]

With some schools at 10% proficiency in basic elementary math, it’s time to either publicly acknowledge that some kids can’t learn or to fire the entire school district for incompetence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly the levels are so low because of parents, not schools. They just don't care anymore. And many can't. They are struggling, in poverty, or living paycheck to paycheck.

The middle class is shrinking and UMC just uses tutors, and UC go to privates. So most families going to public school are barely staying afloat and the kids and parents are addicted to screens. School is not a priority and parents are now against schools and don't support teachers.

And yet social programs and support for these demographic groups are more extensive than they’ve ever been before, and the public school districts continue to drive away anyone who can afford alternatives with all their focus on socioemotional learning and tolerance for behavioral issues rather than actual academics and discipline. So things aren’t ever going to get any better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With some schools at 10% proficiency in basic elementary math, it’s time to either publicly acknowledge that some kids can’t learn or to fire the entire school district for incompetence.

Anyone who has engaged beyond the surface level with MCPS knows that incompetence runs RAMPANT in the system. I've never seen an organization with so many people who DO NOT know what they are doing. It is scary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another look at MCAP results from another source: https://wtop.com/maryland/2024/08/maryland-test-results-show-small-gains-nagging-achievement-gaps-among-demographic-groups/

MCPS claims we're beating state averages, which I guess might be true, but when you roll up all the grade levels and the results, here's how things shake out by Math:



Carroll, Worcester and Howard County Public Schools outperformed MCPS in math.



For ELA, it's worse. Harford, Queen Anne's, Frederick, Calvert, Howard, Carroll, Worcester all outperformed MCPS in ELA.

Well that test is seriously flawed if no jurisdiction can score over 50% on the math portion.
Even on the ELA, the scores are not great for anyone.
Something is not right with that test.

Or maybe our system is not doing its job? The MCAP is not the only proof point that says our kids are not reading and doing math at proficiency levels that previous generations were capable of doing.

When you said "our system ", what are referring to? Because no jurisdiction is "doing is job", no one is getting 50% on the math and some are barely making the grade on the ELA.
It tells me that it's not the jurisdictions, but the test to be evaluated.

When I said the system, I was talking about MCPS in particular. MCPS has specific failures and shortcomings that this test is highlighting.

The bigger system, which is the MSDE and all of our school systems in aggregate (which also includes MCPS), is also failing. Which is why the the MD State Superintendent Carey Wright said she wants to re-examine MSDE's school report cards because the state's schools can't be as good as they're claiming with these levels of proficiencies.

The state of public education has been failing for a long time now. We're just now catching on to that fact.

To your last sentence: some of us have suspected it for awhile. I remember when the Hopkins audit on MCPS came out in 2018. Some of us on here were ringing alarm bells. Most of you dismissed it.

You know what, you're right. I forgot about the 2018 audit. MCPS just gets away with this aura of quality because of its historical reputation, but the truth is the decline has been in the making for at least a decade. And of course the pandemic only worsened the situation.

Can you link that report or elaborate on the BLUF? My kid was too young for me to have dug into that data (although after testing Mcps for one year we quickly moved onto a private...so don't disagree that the ship is sinking. Just curious what the pre covid data looked like).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another look at MCAP results from another source: https://wtop.com/maryland/2024/08/maryland-test-results-show-small-gains-nagging-achievement-gaps-among-demographic-groups/

MCPS claims we're beating state averages, which I guess might be true, but when you roll up all the grade levels and the results, here's how things shake out by Math:



Carroll, Worcester and Howard County Public Schools outperformed MCPS in math.



For ELA, it's worse. Harford, Queen Anne's, Frederick, Calvert, Howard, Carroll, Worcester all outperformed MCPS in ELA.

Well that test is seriously flawed if no jurisdiction can score over 50% on the math portion.
Even on the ELA, the scores are not great for anyone.
Something is not right with that test.

Or maybe our system is not doing its job? The MCAP is not the only proof point that says our kids are not reading and doing math at proficiency levels that previous generations were capable of doing.

When you said "our system ", what are referring to? Because no jurisdiction is "doing is job", no one is getting 50% on the math and some are barely making the grade on the ELA.
It tells me that it's not the jurisdictions, but the test to be evaluated.

When I said the system, I was talking about MCPS in particular. MCPS has specific failures and shortcomings that this test is highlighting.

The bigger system, which is the MSDE and all of our school systems in aggregate (which also includes MCPS), is also failing. Which is why the the MD State Superintendent Carey Wright said she wants to re-examine MSDE's school report cards because the state's schools can't be as good as they're claiming with these levels of proficiencies.

The state of public education has been failing for a long time now. We're just now catching on to that fact.

To your last sentence: some of us have suspected it for awhile. I remember when the Hopkins audit on MCPS came out in 2018. Some of us on here were ringing alarm bells. Most of you dismissed it.

You know what, you're right. I forgot about the 2018 audit. MCPS just gets away with this aura of quality because of its historical reputation, but the truth is the decline has been in the making for at least a decade. And of course the pandemic only worsened the situation.

Can you link that report or elaborate on the BLUF? My kid was too young for me to have dug into that data (although after testing Mcps for one year we quickly moved onto a private...so don't disagree that the ship is sinking. Just curious what the pre covid data looked like).

Here it is!

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/siteassets/district/curriculum/integrated/executivesummarymcps.pdf

It was a big reason we also opted for private.

And before people start jumping on us for being on this thread: the state of MCPS is relevant to everyone.

[Anonymous]

1/2 kids are not proficient to their very low standards. Not something to be proud of mcps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another look at MCAP results from another source: https://wtop.com/maryland/2024/08/maryland-test-results-show-small-gains-nagging-achievement-gaps-among-demographic-groups/

MCPS claims we're beating state averages, which I guess might be true, but when you roll up all the grade levels and the results, here's how things shake out by Math:



Carroll, Worcester and Howard County Public Schools outperformed MCPS in math.



For ELA, it's worse. Harford, Queen Anne's, Frederick, Calvert, Howard, Carroll, Worcester all outperformed MCPS in ELA.

Well that test is seriously flawed if no jurisdiction can score over 50% on the math portion.
Even on the ELA, the scores are not great for anyone.
Something is not right with that test.

Or maybe our system is not doing its job? The MCAP is not the only proof point that says our kids are not reading and doing math at proficiency levels that previous generations were capable of doing.

When you said "our system ", what are referring to? Because no jurisdiction is "doing is job", no one is getting 50% on the math and some are barely making the grade on the ELA.
It tells me that it's not the jurisdictions, but the test to be evaluated.

When I said the system, I was talking about MCPS in particular. MCPS has specific failures and shortcomings that this test is highlighting.

The bigger system, which is the MSDE and all of our school systems in aggregate (which also includes MCPS), is also failing. Which is why the the MD State Superintendent Carey Wright said she wants to re-examine MSDE's school report cards because the state's schools can't be as good as they're claiming with these levels of proficiencies.

The state of public education has been failing for a long time now. We're just now catching on to that fact.

To your last sentence: some of us have suspected it for awhile. I remember when the Hopkins audit on MCPS came out in 2018. Some of us on here were ringing alarm bells. Most of you dismissed it.

You know what, you're right. I forgot about the 2018 audit. MCPS just gets away with this aura of quality because of its historical reputation, but the truth is the decline has been in the making for at least a decade. And of course the pandemic only worsened the situation.

Can you link that report or elaborate on the BLUF? My kid was too young for me to have dug into that data (although after testing Mcps for one year we quickly moved onto a private...so don't disagree that the ship is sinking. Just curious what the pre covid data looked like).

Here it is!

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/siteassets/district/curriculum/integrated/executivesummarymcps.pdf

It was a big reason we also opted for private.

And before people start jumping on us for being on this thread: the state of MCPS is relevant to everyone.

Thank you for linking to the original, PP.

To me, this is the most damning statement:

The instrument of analysis was an MCPS-appropriate version of the Student Work Analysis Tool that is part of Student Achievement Partners’ Instructional Practice Toolkit (IPT). In total, the team reviewed 36 different assignments and 530 student work samples in math, and 34 assignments and 455 student work samples in ELA. Overall, the student work samples indicate a misalignment between the learning standards and most student assignments.

Math:
- Student work samples did not consistently show mastery of the learning standard. Student work samples show that fewer than a third of students master their assignments in either ELA or math, although mastery in mathematics is higher than in ELA.
- In K through 2nd-grade math, student work samples did not consistently show full or close to full mastery of the targeted standard.

ELA:
- ELA lessons did not consistently show alignment to the targeted standard. In the analysis of student work samples, fewer than a quarter of students show complete mastery of the assignments’ targeted standards.
- In the majority of student work samples analyzed, students did not consistently show mastery in the comprehension of their texts.

So for posters who want to claim that the MCAP is flawed, how can that be the case when the MCAP is revealing what the Hopkins audit revealed in 2018, which is that the system is not producing students who can meet district, state or federal standards? Cut the crap. MCPS has failed in its mission.

[Anonymous]

State averages are going to include Baltimore, where you have an entire city of youth who can’t read or do basic math at all. Comparing yourself to that is hardly something to be proud of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:State averages are going to include Baltimore, where you have an entire city of youth who can’t read or do basic math at all. Comparing yourself to that is hardly something to be proud of.

MCPS’s proficiency rates show this county isn’t much better.

So you can act like you’re superior to that “city of youth,” but we’re not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am writing to request my kid's report now. Grrr I get so annoyed that they have the reports and don't distribute them for months on end.

My now 5th grader has never received the 3rd grade test results.

I don't understand how it was more efficient in the 90s. We would receive our scantron-based state test results in 6 weeks or less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am writing to request my kid's report now. Grrr I get so annoyed that they have the reports and don't distribute them for months on end.

My now 5th grader has never received the 3rd grade test results.

I don't understand how it was more efficient in the 90s. We would receive our scantron-based state test results in 6 weeks or less.

They don’t want you to know because then you’ll realize how much the school is failing your kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another look at MCAP results from another source: https://wtop.com/maryland/2024/08/maryland-test-results-show-small-gains-nagging-achievement-gaps-among-demographic-groups/

MCPS claims we're beating state averages, which I guess might be true, but when you roll up all the grade levels and the results, here's how things shake out by Math:



Carroll, Worcester and Howard County Public Schools outperformed MCPS in math.



For ELA, it's worse. Harford, Queen Anne's, Frederick, Calvert, Howard, Carroll, Worcester all outperformed MCPS in ELA.

Well that test is seriously flawed if no jurisdiction can score over 50% on the math portion.
Even on the ELA, the scores are not great for anyone.
Something is not right with that test.

Or maybe our system is not doing its job? The MCAP is not the only proof point that says our kids are not reading and doing math at proficiency levels that previous generations were capable of doing.

When you said "our system ", what are referring to? Because no jurisdiction is "doing is job", no one is getting 50% on the math and some are barely making the grade on the ELA.
It tells me that it's not the jurisdictions, but the test to be evaluated.

When I said the system, I was talking about MCPS in particular. MCPS has specific failures and shortcomings that this test is highlighting.

The bigger system, which is the MSDE and all of our school systems in aggregate (which also includes MCPS), is also failing. Which is why the the MD State Superintendent Carey Wright said she wants to re-examine MSDE's school report cards because the state's schools can't be as good as they're claiming with these levels of proficiencies.

The state of public education has been failing for a long time now. We're just now catching on to that fact.

To your last sentence: some of us have suspected it for awhile. I remember when the Hopkins audit on MCPS came out in 2018. Some of us on here were ringing alarm bells. Most of you dismissed it.

You know what, you're right. I forgot about the 2018 audit. MCPS just gets away with this aura of quality because of its historical reputation, but the truth is the decline has been in the making for at least a decade. And of course the pandemic only worsened the situation.

Can you link that report or elaborate on the BLUF? My kid was too young for me to have dug into that data (although after testing Mcps for one year we quickly moved onto a private...so don't disagree that the ship is sinking. Just curious what the pre covid data looked like).

Here it is!

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/siteassets/district/curriculum/integrated/executivesummarymcps.pdf

It was a big reason we also opted for private.

And before people start jumping on us for being on this thread: the state of MCPS is relevant to everyone.

Thank you for linking to the original, PP.

To me, this is the most damning statement:

The instrument of analysis was an MCPS-appropriate version of the Student Work Analysis Tool that is part of Student Achievement Partners’ Instructional Practice Toolkit (IPT). In total, the team reviewed 36 different assignments and 530 student work samples in math, and 34 assignments and 455 student work samples in ELA. Overall, the student work samples indicate a misalignment between the learning standards and most student assignments.

Math:
- Student work samples did not consistently show mastery of the learning standard. Student work samples show that fewer than a third of students master their assignments in either ELA or math, although mastery in mathematics is higher than in ELA.
- In K through 2nd-grade math, student work samples did not consistently show full or close to full mastery of the targeted standard.

ELA:
- ELA lessons did not consistently show alignment to the targeted standard. In the analysis of student work samples, fewer than a quarter of students show complete mastery of the assignments’ targeted standards.
- In the majority of student work samples analyzed, students did not consistently show mastery in the comprehension of their texts.

So for posters who want to claim that the MCAP is flawed, how can that be the case when the MCAP is revealing what the Hopkins audit revealed in 2018, which is that the system is not producing students who can meet district, state or federal standards? Cut the crap. MCPS has failed in its mission.

Both things can be true. The Johns Hopkins study revealed that curriculum 2.0 (developed in house) did not align with the common core standards. So, if MCAP were true to the standards, MCPS kids were already at a disadvantage. Then they switched to new ELA and Math curricula, which people have hated for various reasons. The reading curriculum still did not align with science of reading, so a significant chunk of kids were poor readers. The math curriculum was so structured that teachers could not answer student questions in the available time, it did not have an accelerated math pathway, it was not interesting to children. There are layers upon layers of problems built in to the low proficiency rates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another look at MCAP results from another source: https://wtop.com/maryland/2024/08/maryland-test-results-show-small-gains-nagging-achievement-gaps-among-demographic-groups/

MCPS claims we're beating state averages, which I guess might be true, but when you roll up all the grade levels and the results, here's how things shake out by Math:



Carroll, Worcester and Howard County Public Schools outperformed MCPS in math.



For ELA, it's worse. Harford, Queen Anne's, Frederick, Calvert, Howard, Carroll, Worcester all outperformed MCPS in ELA.

Well that test is seriously flawed if no jurisdiction can score over 50% on the math portion.
Even on the ELA, the scores are not great for anyone.
Something is not right with that test.

Or maybe our system is not doing its job? The MCAP is not the only proof point that says our kids are not reading and doing math at proficiency levels that previous generations were capable of doing.

When you said "our system ", what are referring to? Because no jurisdiction is "doing is job", no one is getting 50% on the math and some are barely making the grade on the ELA.
It tells me that it's not the jurisdictions, but the test to be evaluated.

When I said the system, I was talking about MCPS in particular. MCPS has specific failures and shortcomings that this test is highlighting.

The bigger system, which is the MSDE and all of our school systems in aggregate (which also includes MCPS), is also failing. Which is why the the MD State Superintendent Carey Wright said she wants to re-examine MSDE's school report cards because the state's schools can't be as good as they're claiming with these levels of proficiencies.

The state of public education has been failing for a long time now. We're just now catching on to that fact.

To your last sentence: some of us have suspected it for awhile. I remember when the Hopkins audit on MCPS came out in 2018. Some of us on here were ringing alarm bells. Most of you dismissed it.

You know what, you're right. I forgot about the 2018 audit. MCPS just gets away with this aura of quality because of its historical reputation, but the truth is the decline has been in the making for at least a decade. And of course the pandemic only worsened the situation.

Can you link that report or elaborate on the BLUF? My kid was too young for me to have dug into that data (although after testing Mcps for one year we quickly moved onto a private...so don't disagree that the ship is sinking. Just curious what the pre covid data looked like).

Here it is!

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/siteassets/district/curriculum/integrated/executivesummarymcps.pdf

It was a big reason we also opted for private.

And before people start jumping on us for being on this thread: the state of MCPS is relevant to everyone.

Thank you for linking to the original, PP.

To me, this is the most damning statement:

The instrument of analysis was an MCPS-appropriate version of the Student Work Analysis Tool that is part of Student Achievement Partners’ Instructional Practice Toolkit (IPT). In total, the team reviewed 36 different assignments and 530 student work samples in math, and 34 assignments and 455 student work samples in ELA. Overall, the student work samples indicate a misalignment between the learning standards and most student assignments.

Math:
- Student work samples did not consistently show mastery of the learning standard. Student work samples show that fewer than a third of students master their assignments in either ELA or math, although mastery in mathematics is higher than in ELA.
- In K through 2nd-grade math, student work samples did not consistently show full or close to full mastery of the targeted standard.

ELA:
- ELA lessons did not consistently show alignment to the targeted standard. In the analysis of student work samples, fewer than a quarter of students show complete mastery of the assignments’ targeted standards.
- In the majority of student work samples analyzed, students did not consistently show mastery in the comprehension of their texts.

So for posters who want to claim that the MCAP is flawed, how can that be the case when the MCAP is revealing what the Hopkins audit revealed in 2018, which is that the system is not producing students who can meet district, state or federal standards? Cut the crap. MCPS has failed in its mission.

Both things can be true. The Johns Hopkins study revealed that curriculum 2.0 (developed in house) did not align with the common core standards. So, if MCAP were true to the standards, MCPS kids were already at a disadvantage. Then they switched to new ELA and Math curricula, which people have hated for various reasons. The reading curriculum still did not align with science of reading, so a significant chunk of kids were poor readers. The math curriculum was so structured that teachers could not answer student questions in the available time, it did not have an accelerated math pathway, it was not interesting to children. There are layers upon layers of problems built in to the low proficiency rates.

So let's talk about those layers and the systemic failings and how we will hold MCPS leadership accountable for problem solving instead of dismissing the MCAP data and claiming everything is ok with MCPS and the test is just flawed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am writing to request my kid's report now. Grrr I get so annoyed that they have the reports and don't distribute them for months on end.

My now 5th grader has never received the 3rd grade test results.

I don't understand how it was more efficient in the 90s. We would receive our scantron-based state test results in 6 weeks or less.

They don’t want you to know because then you’ll realize how much the school is failing your kids.

And then some of those same people are pulling double duty by gaslighting parents on this forum that MCAP is a lie and we shouldn't be concerned about these horrible proficiency scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another look at MCAP results from another source: https://wtop.com/maryland/2024/08/maryland-test-results-show-small-gains-nagging-achievement-gaps-among-demographic-groups/

MCPS claims we're beating state averages, which I guess might be true, but when you roll up all the grade levels and the results, here's how things shake out by Math:



Carroll, Worcester and Howard County Public Schools outperformed MCPS in math.



For ELA, it's worse. Harford, Queen Anne's, Frederick, Calvert, Howard, Carroll, Worcester all outperformed MCPS in ELA.

Are there any policies or procedures that the more successful school systems are following that we should consider following?

Which successful school systems are you talking about? Because I don't see any successful school system from these results.

Worcester’s 70% ELA proficiency is good, but yeah — no one is doing well with math.

Worcester has about 7,000 students total. Therefore maybe 100 to 200 students at most take MCAP. That helps keep your average higher.