Thanks to Bethesda magazine for the following story noting that MCPS graduates out perform the state and the nation on the ACT college admissions test. Like public schools across the nation, we continue to face significant challenges to close achievement gaps. But we should not lose sight of what we continue to accomplish.
MCPS Graduates Outperform State, Nation on ACT Tests
The Class of 2014 also slightly outperformed the two previous graduating classes on the standardized test
Andrew Metcalf
Montgomery County Public Schools graduates outperformed their peers in the state and the nation on ACT college admission tests last school year, according to MCPS.
The Class of 2014 earned an average score of 23.7 out of 36, more than one point higher than the state average of 22.6 and more than two points higher than the 21.0 average in the country.
The score was also a slight improvement over the Class of 2013, which averaged a 23.5, and Class of 2012, which averaged a 23.2.
“MCPS graduates are showing steady improvement on the ACT and are demonstrating increased readiness for college-level work,” MCPS Superintendent Joshua Starr said in a press statement. “This is good news, but we know there is a lot more work to be done to ensure that all of our students are ready for success in postsecondary education and beyond.”
The ACT is similar to the SAT and is used by college admissions officers to evaluate prospective students. It includes four sections—English, math, reading and science—and students receive scores between 0 and 36.
Here’s how MCPS students did on each section:
23.4 on English
23.8 on math
23.8 on reading
23.4 on science
A total of 3153 MCPS students took the ACT last school year, accounting for nearly 30 percent of the total number of graduates, according to the school system.
Increased Child Poverty Rate Disproportionately Impacts The Nation's Youngest Learners "The Annie E. Casey Foundation is out with its 25th KIDS COUNT Data Book, which has been providing the public with an annual glimpse into the well being of American children for the past quarter-century. As big anniversaries do, this one provides a natural opening to look at how we have fared. Trends were both positive and troubling during a time of major demographic shifts: The nation’s population of children climbed from 64 million to 74 million. The percentage of white children declined, Latinos doubled and mothers of young kids entered the labor market in record numbers. On the bright side, more children are attending preschool than in 1990. The teen pregnancy rate is at a record low. Juvenile crime is down, and so is juvenile incarceration, though the United States still has a juvenile incarceration rate disproportionately much higher than other developed countries.
But despite the advances, there has been a recent uptick in the single most important factor for predicting a child’s school readiness and life outcomes generally: whether or not he or she lives in poverty. After recessions end, the child poverty rate tends to continue climbing, and current circumstances appear no different. Even with different ways to measure it and different conclusions, KIDS COUNT shows a reversal of some of the gains made earlier in the past quarter-century, with approximately 16.4 million kids officially living in poverty in 2012. The number of children in single-parent homes was up, too: 35 percent, versus 25 percent in 1990...."
Lily Eskelen Garcia was elected as the new President of the National Education Association at the NEA's annual convention held in July. The Washington Post describes her as "a telegenic, guitar-slinging firebrand".
