Monday, April 30, 2012
The Montgomery County Public Schools superintendent repudiated an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that investigated cheating at National Blue Ribbon Schools.
Do statistically improbable gains in standardized testing scores indicate that a school is cheating in some way? The Atlanta Journal-Constitution turned the spotlight on Wheaton’s Highland Elementary School this weekend in a story about National Blue Ribbon Schools, “Cheating our children: Suspect scores put award’s integrity in question.” Highland Elementary School was named a National Blue Ribbon School in 2009, the government’s highest educational honor. But just four years earlier, the state of Maryland had threatened to take away county control of the school because of poor scores. Although the Atlanta Journal-Constitution article never directly accused Highland of tampering with results, it cast doubt on whether the school honestly …
Monday, April 2, 2012
MCPS Superintendent Joshua Starr recommended Rock Creek Hills Park as the site for a new middle school for the Bethesda-Chevy Chase cluster.
The Montgomery County Public Schools superintendent agrees that Rock Creek Hills Local Park in Kensington would be the best site to build a new middle school. According to the Gazette, Superintendent Joshua Starr announced his recommendation on Friday. The new middle school is needed in the Bethesda-Chevy Chase cluster to resolve overcrowding at Westland Middle School. The site selection committee recommended Montgomery County Public Schools build the new school at the Kensington Park at 3701 Saul Rd. on March 14. The committee listed North Chevy Chase Local Park (4105 Jones Bridge Rd.) as the alternate site. For more on what Starr said, read the Gazette.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
The meeting is the last on the schedule before the superintendent weighs in.
Montgomery County Public Schools' site-selection committee will meet again tonight to discuss where to put a new middle school for the Bethesda-Chevy Chase cluster. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the cafeteria of Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School. Members of the committee will grade each site according to a list of criteria at Wednesday's meeting, inputting their scores into a spreadsheet that MCPS will use to rank the properties. The group's preferred sites will be sent to Superintendent Joshua Starr, who will submit a recommendation of his own to the Board of Education next month. At its last meeting, the committee narrowed down the list of sites to two public and three private parcels. Rock Creek Hills Park and North Chevy Chase Park …
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Request will go to the county executive in March.
The Montgomery County Board of Education voted to approve a $2.13 billion fiscal 2013 budget request Tuesday, asking for a 2 percent increase from 2012. The extra $41 million is the smallest request in more than decade, Superintendent Joshua Starr said, and will mostly go toward handling enrollment growth, covering employee benefits and purchasing materials. The fiscal 2013 request includes about $8 million for employee raises, which Starr said is needed after staff has forgone cost-of-living and step increases for the past few years. MCPS is asking for $1.39 billion of the total from Montgomery County, matching 2012's per-student spending of $9,759 per pupil. That number falls in line with Maryland's Maintenance of Effort law, which …
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Two parks and three private sites remain.
Montgomery County Public Schools has narrowed the scope of its search to site a new Bethesda-Chevy Chase cluster middle school, cutting the list of locations to two public sites and three private ones at a meeting Wednesday. Rock Creek Hills Park and North Chevy Chase Park are the remaining public sites under consideration. MCPS has not disclosed the three private sites, in order to preserve its ability to negotiate a price should one be chosen. The current site-selection committee was convened after Superintendent Joshua Starr in November proposed re-opening a controversial site-selection process for a second middle school in the crowded B-CC cluster, responding to concerns about MCPS's transparency and civic engagement. Among the sites …
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Watch party organized for Bethesda Barnes & Noble.
There are no seats left for Superintendent Joshua Starr's book club event Tuesday night, but you can still tune in on TV or online. Starr will discuss Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink, and the author will join him to answer questions. The event starts at 7 p.m. at the Carver Educational Services Center, and it will be broadcast on MCPS TV and available for streaming on McpsBookClub.org. The Barnes & Noble in Bethesda will also host a watch party in its café, and you can RSVP to the event by e-mailing Crm2750@bn.com. During the discussion, Starr will answer questions from members of the audience and from viewers at home using e-mail and Twitter, where he tweets as @mcpssuper. In Drive, Pink argues that the …
Friday, January 27, 2012
Schools would put $230K to other uses.
Superintendent Joshua Starr wants to stop administering the TerraNova 2 test to second graders next year, planning to use the money saved to fund other school programs. The proposed cut is part of Starr's proposed amendments to his fiscal year 2013 budget request, and he will present the additions to the Board of Education on Feb. 14. Montgomery County Public Schools already administers three assessments per year to all students from kindergarten to second grade, and eliminating TerraNova 2 will allow MCPS to put the $230,000 saved each year on programs like pre-kindergarten education and staff engagement, Starr said. “While the TerraNova does provide some useful information, I believe we can assess student progress with existing tools and…
Thursday, January 26, 2012
The two departments disagree on the use of open space.
Montgomery County Public Schools now considers Rock Creek Hills Park to be an available site for a new middle school in the cramped Bethesda-Chevy Chase cluster, but the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission may need to lend its stamp of approval if the site is chosen. Officials discussed the potential school site Wednesday at a second meeting of the committee tasked with finding a site for a new Bethesda-Chevy Chase cluster middle school. Rock Creek Hills Park is just one of the 25 sites still under consideration by the site-selection committee. The Board of Education selected Rock Creek Hills, a Kensington park, in a site-selection process last year that lead neighbors and officials to question MCPS's transparency and …
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
After the last process sparked controversy, a new group will consider where to build the school.
When Montgomery County Public Schools chose Rock Creek Hills Park as the site for a new middle school, neighbors and some public officials questioned the district's transparency and community involvement. Now, following a November recommendation from Superintendent Joshua Starr, MCPS is restarting the process, and the new site-selection committee meets tonight (Jan. 11) at 7 p.m. in the cafeteria of Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School. Over the course of four meetings, the committee will consider all of the sites proposed last year, including Rock Creek Hills Park, and any additional locations suggested by committee members. After the last meeting, the group will make a recommendation to the Board of Education. At tonight's meeting, the …
Thursday, December 29, 2011
The superintendent has chosen Drive, by Daniel Pink.
Superintendent Joshua Starr will host his second book club on Jan. 31, discussing Drive by Daniel Pink. The discussion starts at 7 p.m. at the Carver Educational Services Center, and it will be broadcast on MCPS TV. During the event, Starr will answer questions from members of the audience and from viewers at home using e-mail and Twitter, where he tweets under @mcpssuper. In the book, Pink argues that the key to motivating people is not simply rewarding success but instead engendering a sense of autonomy and purpose. This is the second of three book club events planned for the school year, and Starr has said that the discussions give him a chance to reach out to the schools' community, students and staff. "The book clubs will provide a …
mina
6:24 am on Wednesday, May 16, 2012
I find it very offensive to down grade a school because of the dynamic view point of the financial status, I am a mother who volunteers at the school and participates daily in assisting the staff. It's majority Hispanic culture and a mixture of African American and some Caucasians, so because its Not dominated by the Caucasian it race its considered low/middle class, poor unintelligent children… more ›