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.

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.

All we hear are excuses from Starr and the leadership:

1) The majority of MCPS high school students fail end of year exams in algebra and geometry (yet many are year round honor roll and straight A students in the system)
2) MSA scores declining

Will the excuses ever end...as Starr wants you to believe:

1) Elimination of Math pathways for advancement for able students will reverse this trend and improve scores
2) Keeping all students of all abilities in the same classroom as teacher differentiation of instruction will reverse this trend and improve scores
3) Holding back advanced Grade 2 and 3 students in the valley of death while teachers get instruction in curriculum 2.0 will reverse this trend and improve scores
4) How much did this new Pearson curriculum cost MCPS and the County? Do they have the resources to complete the task or has the money run out?

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.

The educational goal is to provide pathways for a quality education for all County students (all) and not waste precious resources trying to game the system through "teaching to the revolving test". We have learned what happens with the latter approach when one looks under the polished hood...the majority can't even pass a standard, generic, low bar, screening test in the subject matter.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MD officials are admitting that they rushed into a curriculum so fast that they did not have a chance to modify the tests to gauge if the children were successful in learning what they were taught. The new curriculum is unproven, and now MD educators don't think their own tests are valid points of measurements to gauge if the curriculum is successful.

No, this is inaccurate. Maryland (along with most other states) has switched to the Common Core. The MSAs were not designed for the Common Core. There are tests that are designed for the Common Core, which Maryland will start using soon. Starr wanted to stop using the MSAs, which were not designed for the Common Core, but was not allowed to.

Who didn't allow it? I'm sincerely curious not being antagonistic. And I agree - we are not the only district or state dealing with the switch to Common Core. I hear comments from my friends in NY state as well.

The state didn't allow it, I think. Presumably based on a federal requirement -- but I don't know that for a fact, I'm just assuming.

I thought this was informative, from the Baltimore Sun:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-msa-results-20130723,0,188682.stor

Thanks - good article.

I read the report released and did not see how the drop in math scores in middle school was explained. The c2.0 hasn't been implemented there yet but all groups dropped in math. Seems something bigger than just misalignment of test and curriculum is going on with math in MCPS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MD officials are admitting that they rushed into a curriculum so fast that they did not have a chance to modify the tests to gauge if the children were successful in learning what they were taught. The new curriculum is unproven, and now MD educators don't think their own tests are valid points of measurements to gauge if the curriculum is successful.

No, this is inaccurate. Maryland (along with most other states) has switched to the Common Core. The MSAs were not designed for the Common Core. There are tests that are designed for the Common Core, which Maryland will start using soon. Starr wanted to stop using the MSAs, which were not designed for the Common Core, but was not allowed to.

Who didn't allow it? I'm sincerely curious not being antagonistic. And I agree - we are not the only district or state dealing with the switch to Common Core. I hear comments from my friends in NY state as well.

The state didn't allow it, I think. Presumably based on a federal requirement -- but I don't know that for a fact, I'm just assuming.

I thought this was informative, from the Baltimore Sun:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-msa-results-20130723,0,188682.story

Anonymous wrote:The evidence is around around you in every county in this country. Now let's get back to the real issues with dumb Starr and his cronies.

Evidence that schools are focusing on closing the gap between Asian Americans and others? I don't think so. You don't even have evidence that is what is happening in Mo Co.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MD officials are admitting that they rushed into a curriculum so fast that they did not have a chance to modify the tests to gauge if the children were successful in learning what they were taught. The new curriculum is unproven, and now MD educators don't think their own tests are valid points of measurements to gauge if the curriculum is successful.

No, this is inaccurate. Maryland (along with most other states) has switched to the Common Core. The MSAs were not designed for the Common Core. There are tests that are designed for the Common Core, which Maryland will start using soon. Starr wanted to stop using the MSAs, which were not designed for the Common Core, but was not allowed to.

Who didn't allow it? I'm sincerely curious not being antagonistic. And I agree - we are not the only district or state dealing with the switch to Common Core. I hear comments from my friends in NY state as well.

Anonymous wrote:MD officials are admitting that they rushed into a curriculum so fast that they did not have a chance to modify the tests to gauge if the children were successful in learning what they were taught. The new curriculum is unproven, and now MD educators don't think their own tests are valid points of measurements to gauge if the curriculum is successful.

No, this is inaccurate. Maryland (along with most other states) has switched to the Common Core. The MSAs were not designed for the Common Core. There are tests that are designed for the Common Core, which Maryland will start using soon. Starr wanted to stop using the MSAs, which were not designed for the Common Core, but was not allowed to.

It seems like a pretty dumb excuse for lower test scores. MD officials are admitting that they rushed into a curriculum so fast that they did not have a chance to modify the tests to gauge if the children were successful in learning what they were taught. The new curriculum is unproven, and now MD educators don't think their own tests are valid points of measurements to gauge if the curriculum is successful. Seems like both Starr and the MD Superintendent are incompetent. That's a whole lot of money wasted on testing if you buy their excuses. As a parent, its even more worrisome that the testing might be showing what we see at home, the lowering of state standards and the dumbing down of the curriculum.

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Anonymous wrote:The evidence is around around you in every county in this country. Now let's get back to the real issues with dumb Starr and his cronies.

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The evidence is around around you in every county in this country. Now let's get back to the real issues with dumb Starr and his cronies.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:eliminating math pathways (under the guise of closing the gap between Asian Americans and everyone else with a deeper curriculum2.0),

Please provide documentation that MCPS eliminated Math Pathways in order to close the achievement gap between Asian Americans (or Asian Americans and whites) by lowering their achievement. Otherwise it's a conspiracy theory.

Its absolute B.S. If there is any gap they are trying to close it is NOT between Asian Americans and whites.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are we so sure he is wrong? They changed the curriculum and left the tests the same. I am not a supporter of Starr or 2.0 but there seems to be some sense here.

Yes, there does.

I agree. I think future data will be telling. I am not going to base any conclusion on one year of data.

Anonymous wrote:eliminating math pathways (under the guise of closing the gap between Asian Americans and everyone else with a deeper curriculum2.0),

Please provide documentation that MCPS eliminated Math Pathways in order to close the achievement gap between Asian Americans (or Asian Americans and whites) by lowering their achievement. Otherwise it's a conspiracy theory.