The 2023 Comprehensive State Accountability "Star" Ratings shows how our students are performing on the statewide MCAP assessments for math and english. The answer is, not too well. The first chart below gives an overall average pass rate for the six central region jurisdictions. Although there was some improvement in English, the Math scores dropped to below scores that were attained before the pandemic.

This second chart is the first page of a list of how ALL Maryland schools performed on the MCAP English test. The chart can be sorted by school, and you can search results for a particular school. The article also shows a similar chart showing the performance for all schools on the Math MCAP test. (Link to the article)

For Howard County, our schools, individually, did not do as well as some in other counties. Nonetheless, overall, Howard ranked just behind Carroll in both English and Math. This means that we do not have any or very many schools that perform poorly. Overall, the schools in Howard provide our students with a good education.

Although Maryland schools have been anticipating "a tsunami of new state and local money to wash over them," the reality is here, and "instead of euphoria, there's shock," even from educators who have strongly supported the program.

The most problematic provisions are the requirements the state is imposing on the local jurisdictions, with no regard to their differences. For example, the state now designates exactly how much money must be re-distributed and where it must go. In one county, this arrangement would put two teachers in classrooms of one school and raise the class size to 35-40 in another.

Howard County has always prioritized students with special needs, and will continue to do so. Nonetheless, parents may not be happy with the state's plan to significantly reduce funding for students who are not at special risk. READ MORE

The Maryland State Board of Education unanimously passed a resolution requiring all schools to teach the research-backed 'science of reading,' a practice that embraces phonics, comprehension, vocabulary, and knowledge of the word. The Resolution also "set an ambitious goal for Maryland to be one of the top 10 states for fourth grade reading." READ MORE

During the pandemic, parents got a first-hand view of what their children were being taught in school and saw many disturbing things. Now that window has closed, but has anything changed?

The Howard County Public School System (HCPSS) has a staggering amount of information on its website, including the comprehensive curricula. What it doesn't show, indeed, can never show, is what actually happens in the classroom. Here is an example of how easily one-sided political views can be woven into the coursework.

It happened shortly after January 6, 2021. The official HCPSS directive told teachers not to initiate any conversations with students about what happened that day. Nonetheless, teachers and administrators in one school decided to ignore the directive. They created Discussion Guidelines for teachers who were told to use them to discuss Jan. 6 with their elementary school students. These Guidelines referenced several online sites, including one called "Beyondthestoplight” that suggested the following: 

"Note to Black teachers: I hope that you have time and space to care for yourselves, as you support your students. I hope that you have white colleagues who are talking about this, too, so you do not have to be the only one. I hope that you can find co-conspirators in your schools (or here)."

"Note to White teachers of white students: You HAVE to talk about what is happening. This is on us, every time and all the time. We cannot pretend to be surprised anymore. We have to do what we said we were going to do all summer when we were reading those anti-racist books and completing those anti-racism checklists. Our white students are not ‘too young’ to learn about this."

"Note to White teachers of students of color, especially Black students: Please make sure you know what you are doing before you do it. Please make sure you know how to support your Black students and other students of color if you try to have these conversations. Make sure you to do not do more harm by entering into these conversations without careful thought and planning.

"PUSH BACK AGAINST NEUTRALITY: Remember that it will do more harm to teach 'both sides.'"

NOTE: Thanks to a few courageous teachers, who put their jobs on the line, the HCPSS Central Office intervened and, although the original directive was not to initiate discussions of “January 6” with students, they had one of the system’s best history teachers rewrite these Discussion Guidelines to eliminate any trace of bias. The final Guidelines did read in a fair and reasonable way. . . but who’s to say what actually went on in the classroom