Reply to Only 57% of MCPS students proficient in reading, 36% proficient in math

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My kid did terrible at the MCAP. Just average scores. She is however 99th on MAP-R. Testing and knowledge are two different things. [/quote]

Oh interesting.  I wonder how common this is?  Not this exact disparity (99th percentile MAP kid scoring low on MCAP) but just in general kids being rated as "not proficient" on MCAP despite actually being proficient...[/quote]

Teachers and administrators have raised concerns about MCAP specifically for a long time. My 99th percentile kid did very well on MCAP for two years, then tanked it one year. What was different? Not the ability (MAP scores remained consistent), and not the effort (my kid is a Hermione Granger type who would die before purposefully throwing a test). Just...a bad day. Maybe she was coming down with something. Maybe she forgot to eat lunch. I have no idea, but it ultimately meant nothing. [/quote]

It’s hilarious how whenever the test scores are bad, school system defenders will insist there’s something wrong with the test and not the school system. And yet, when the scores are good, the system has no qualms about using them as evidence to crow about how great the system is.[/quote]
You have no idea of what you're talking about. 
MCAP started in 2021 and no school district in MD has done great on it since it started. There have been improvements but no district has done great. No school district has used MCAP as evidence to crow about how great they are. None.
It a bad assessment test. Schools administrators don't like it and students don't care about it. That's why the State had to make it a graduation requirement.
The new state superintendent was supposed to take a review of the MCAP. [/quote]

[b]You keep talking about MCAP. [/b]

My criticisms about the system outcomes are not relegated to just this instance of MCAP. It's talking about the ongoing pattern of decreased proficiencies on a MULTITUDE of assessments including:
- MCAP
- PARCC
- MSA
- EOL
- SAT/ACT scores
- AP/IB scores

Here's a throwback to MCPS's PARCC results from in Sept 2018: https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/reports/2018/18.09.13%202018%20Final%20PARCC%20Student%20Results.pdf

From 2018: https://wtop.com/maryland/2018/08/2018-parcc-scores-top-scoring-maryland-school-systems/

51% of MCPS 3-8 students demonstrated proficiency in ELA standards. 44% of MCPS 3-8 students demonstrated proficiency in math standards.

As I stated: The proficiency problems in MCPS [b]PRECEDE[/b] MCAP. Blaming the test does not work because the proficiency levels weren't great on state-tests that preceded MCAP and [b]they've continued to NOT be great systemwide for external tests such as SAT/ACT and AP/IB scores.[/b]

Pull your head out of the sand and stop blame shifting. MCPS has long had an instructional quality problem.[/quote]
Because that's the  subject of this thread. 
-Let's look at PARCC.  What was the national proficiency average and state proficiency average at the time? National proficiency average was 32%, State proficiency rate was 38% while MCPS was 51%.
Why did MD and every other state that used to administer the PARCC assessment get rid of it? Because it was a very bad assessment. 
-What "ongoing pattern of decreased proficiencies" in SAT/ACT,  AP/IB scores are you talking about?
SAT scores are  higher, AP scores have never been higher,  hovering in the 70s%. 20 out 25 HS made the AP list. Do you have a clue of what you're talking about? [b]What do you get from lying and posting false information?[/b] Are you related to the TACO man?
[/quote]

You are not relying on facts and evidence: https://bethesdamagazine.com/2024/10/08/does-mcps-deserve-a-passing-grade/

[QUOTE]As for tests once considered crucial in determining college readiness, fewer MCPS students took AP exams last year than a decade ago, decreasing from 66% in 2013 to just under 60% in 2023. And the percentage of those scoring a 3 or higher—which is considered passing—on at least one exam dropped by five percentage points to just over 46%. MCPS still surpasses national averages by a significant margin: Less than 35% of public high school students across the U.S. took an AP exam in 2023, and of these, less than 22% scored a 3 or higher on at least one exam, according to the College Board, which administers the tests.

On the SATs, county data shows that the average composite score among 2023 MCPS graduates was 1064 (out of a possible 1600). That’s more than 100 points lower than a decade ago, when the average composite score was the equivalent of 1190, based on a conversion from the 2400 scale that was used at the time.[/QUOTE][/quote]
Fro DoE. Increase participation rate and 76% passing rate
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED671680.pdf[/quote]

So, I was trying to figure out how these numbers squared with those shared by PP above, and I think this is it.

With regards to AP classes, the number of kids getting a 3 on at least one test dropped (the Bethesda Magazine statistic).

BUT, the number of 3s and above received by MCPS kids is up (your statistic, from DoE).

This makes sense if you have a current high schooler, or have just been paying attention, or if you scroll down on your link, where you can see breakdowns by race/ethnicity and school. About 40,500 AP exams were taken in 2024 by MCPS students. Of those, about 31,000 were graded at 3 or higher. More than a third of those were from only four high schools in the county.

To put it in simpler terms, at a school like Whitman, about 89% of AP exams got a passing grade. But at Kennedy, about 37% of tests got a passing grade.

This is how the statistics square. You have a subset of kids taking a bunch of APs and passing all of them, and then another subset of kids taking the exams but not passing. That's how number of passing tests can be up, but number of kids with at least one passing score is down.

This raises a pretty important question, for me. Why is MCPS letting kids sign up for classes they aren't prepared for? And is anyone looking at the class grade pass rate compared to the AP test pass rate for those classes? If there's a mismatch, why?

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