Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Data from 2009 reveals that students have long struggled with final exams in MCPS math courses.
Few Montgomery County Public Schools students enrolled in high school math courses made high marks on final exams last semester, data released by the school district last week showed. In one class, Bridge to Algebra 2, less than 1 percent made an "A" on the final exam. (See data, above, that details the distribution of final exam grades "A" through "E" for eight math courses last semester.) School officials were prompted to release student math grades after members of the county school board grilled Superintendent Joshua Starr about last semester's final exam grades. Media outlets reported earlier this month that the majority of students in high school math—Algebra, Algebra 2, Geometry and Precalculus—failed their final exams. Starr …
Monday, May 6, 2013
A review of test scores for algebra, geometry, algebra II and precalculus showed that a majority of students failed the final exam last year, local news outlets reported.
More than half of high school students in Montgomery County Public Schools didn't pass last semester's math finals, according to reports in The Examiner newspaper and WAMU.org. Data from MCPS, released after parents at Rockville High began anecdotally comparing test scores, according to WAMU, show that students across the system failed bedrock mathematics course finals—algebra and algebra II, geometry and precalculus. Course Algebra Algebra II Geometry Precalculus Final Exam Failure (%) 61 57 62 48 Those percentages add up to about 11,000 students not passing final math exams out of 19,000 who took the exams, Examiner reported. Dana Tofig, spokesman for MCPS, said the system is forming a task force to investigate the high rate of failures…
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Special needs program will use school space while remaining separate.
The Extensions Program, a Montgomery County Public Schools special needs program, will officially begin using classroom space at Albert Einstein High School in September. According to Gwendolyn Mason, director of Special Education Services for Montgomery County, students in the program have disabilities and require "systematic support.” The program—a self-contained class separate from the rest of the school body—currently uses classes at Quince Orchard High School in Gaithersburg. However, the growing size made expansion necessary, and officials determined that Albert Einstein was the best location. “We were approached last September about housing the classes in some of our empty classrooms, and agreed with the county,” said Albert …
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Albert Einstein High School
11135 Newport Mill Rd, Kensington, MD
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Monday, April 29, 2013
A new model for underperforming schools will work to close the county school system's achievement gap, school officials said.
Ten "Innovation Schools" within Montgomery County Public Schools will receive "shoulder-to-shoulder" support from the system's central office under a new program that will work to close the achievement gap. The new program, announced at the April 23 meeting of the Montgomery County Board of Education, will hire a new position—a chief school improvement officer—to work directly with the leadership staff at the selected schools. This dedicated central office position is new to the system's approach to working with struggling schools, said Deputy Superintendent Beth Schiavino-Narvaez. "We're limiting the number of schools so that (the improvement officer) can be on the ground working shoulder-to-shoulder with the leadership team on their …
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
I still don't like going to IEP meetings where the school and I figure out what special education services my son will get, but they have gotten exponentially easier than when we started.
My 9-year-old, Jack, is a wonderful fourth grader full of intelligence and humor and fantastic hugs. He is creative and loves to read and is a master at Minecraft. He is also autistic and a student who needs a good amount of help at school, which means he needs an IEP—an Individualized Education Program—to help him access the same curriculum at school that other fourth graders use. Jack's IEP team had our meeting yesterday to hammer out the details of his plan for next year, something that the families of all special education students in Montgomery County do at least once a year. As my husband and I sat with Jack's team and breezed through our meeting, it occurred to me how much IEP meetings have changed for my family. I vividly remember …
Monday, April 22, 2013
This most recent incident involved a 10th grade student who was protesting U.S. government policies toward Puerto Rico.
The Maryland Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) recently announced that for the fourth time in eight years, it has taken action against the Montgomery County Public School system regarding a student’s rights to decline to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance. This most recent incident involved Enidris Siurano-Rodriguez, a 10th grade student at Damascus High School, who was protesting U.S. government policies toward Puerto Rico. According to the ACLU’s press release, Siurano-Rodriguez, whose family is from Puerto Rico, was initially sent to the principal’s office, where the assistant principal “improperly demanded to know why she persisted in sitting during the Pledge.” The school then contacted the student’s mother, …
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Learn when each Montgomery County public high school will hold its graduation ceremony.
Montgomery County Public Schools on Thursday tweeted a link to a schedule of high school graduations this spring. All ceremonies at DAR Costitution Hall in Washington, D.C. will be streamed online, the school system's website said. The graduations season begins with a ceremony for the school system's Alternative Programs on May 24 and wraps up with June 12 with ceremonies for Watkins Mill High School, the Longview School and the Gateway to College program. Click here to read the full schedule on the MCPS website.
Friday, April 12, 2013
Unseasonably warm temperatures lead to questions about school air conditioning.
On Wednesday, several Magruder High School students were overcome by the heat. No wonder that MCPS has been getting questions about the process of changing over from heat to air conditioning in the schools. MCPS posted on its website an explanation about the conversion process.
Monday, March 18, 2013
A Kensington-area high school senior was among 21 from Montgomery County to win scholarship money from Comcast.
Van Ha Le, a senior at Albert Einstein High School in Kensington, is among 21 students from Montgomery County to win $1,000 scholarships from Comcast. The students were recognized for their leadership skills, academic achievement and commitment to community service as part of Comcast's Leaders and Achievers Scholarship Program, the company announced Wednesday. “The very best investment we can make as Marylanders is to help our students reach their academic objectives,” Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley said. “I salute each of the scholarship winners as they attain important milestones in scholarship and community service and wish to thank Comcast for its commitment to our students.” Comcast awarded a total of 100 scholarships totaling $109,000…
Sunday, March 17, 2013
A rundown of what MCPS is serving to students this week.
What's for lunch? This week's menu for Montgomery County Public Schools' elementary school cafeterias is listed below. Visit the full menu for calorie information. The menu for Head Start and pre-kindergarten students varies slightly from the elementary school menu. Visit the MCPS website for middle school lunch, high school lunch and middle and high school breakfast offerings.
Barbara
4:08 pm on Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Why they need Math? As long as they reside in Montgomery County they'll get everything for free. It is a free state, right? more ›