The Answer Sheet: Montgomery County Schools


Posted at 12:35 PM ET, 12/10/2012

Moco schools chief calls for three-year moratorium on standardized testing
By Valerie Strauss
Montgomery County Superintendent Joshua Starr, solidifying his role as a prominent critic of President Obama's education policies, says the country needs a three-year moratorium on standardized testing and needs to "stop the insanity" of evaluating teachers according to student test scores because it is based on "bad science."

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:35 PM ET, 12/10/2012 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Montgomery County Schools, Problems With Reform, School Reform

Posted at 05:00 PM ET, 11/05/2010

Montgomery County admits kids were pushed too hard in math
By Valerie Strauss
The highly regarded Montgomery County Public Schools now admits that it has been pushing too many kids into accelerated math when they weren't ready and will stop it. A lot of parents are going to lose bragging rights at cocktail parties.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 PM ET, 11/05/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Montgomery County Public Schools, Montgomery County Public Schools, Montgomery County Public Schools | Tags:  accelerated math, common core standards, math, math programs, moco, moco schools, montgomery county public schools, montgomery county schools

Posted at 11:35 AM ET, 10/15/2010

The limits of Moco schools' economic integration study
By Valerie Strauss
There are big limits to the study released today showing that several hundred low-income students who went to school in low-poverty schools in Montgomery County did better on standardized math tests than kids who went to high-poverty schools.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:35 AM ET, 10/15/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Equity, Equity, Equity | Tags:  casey foundation, david berliner, economic integration, high-poverty schools, low-income families, michelle rhee, moco schools, montgomery county schools, poverty, standardized tests

Posted at 04:30 AM ET, 06/09/2010

MCPS selling its reputation to Pearson
By Valerie Strauss
Some may call Project North Star a pretty smart deal. I would use less flattering words to describe the deal into which Montgomery County Public Schools just entered with the world’s largest for-profit educational publishing company to nationally “brand” a newly created K-5 curriculum.

By Valerie Strauss  |  04:30 AM ET, 06/09/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Montgomery County Public Schools | Tags:  mcps, mcps curriculum, montgomery county public schools, pearson and montgomery county schools, pearson education, pearson education and curriculum, project north star

Posted at 09:00 AM ET, 04/23/2010

Who’s afraid of the TerraNova 2 test?
By Valerie Strauss
A Montgomery County mother writes about trying not to get stressed out about the standardized tests -- the TerraNova2 -- being given to public school kids next week. But, she finds, it isn't so easy.

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:00 AM ET, 04/23/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Montgomery County Public Schools, Montgomery County Public Schools | Tags:  Montgomery County schools, TerraNova2, montgomery county schools and terranova, standardized tests

Posted at 11:55 AM ET, 09/11/2009

P.S.: Who Watched Obama's Back-to-School Speech
By Valerie Strauss
My colleague Nick Anderson on the national schools beat offers a postscript to the flap over President Obama's back-to-school speech: There was much buzz beforehand about whether it was appropriate to show students the speech that Obama gave Tuesday at...

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:55 AM ET, 09/11/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Civics Education, Civics Education, Civics Education | Tags:  Arlington Public Schools, Calvert County Schools, D.C. schools, Fairfax County Public Schools, Howard County schools, Montgomery County Schools, P.G. Schools, President Obama, back-to-school, education speech