Testimony before the Board of Education,
Good Morning. I am
Cindy Kerr, President of the Montgomery County Council of PTAs and I thank you
for the opportunity to speak today on behalf of the approximately 140,000
pioneer children riding the MCPS Grading and Reporting Wagon Train. I have been
sent back from the trail to report on our progress to date. We allowed
ourselves and our children to be “pioneers” because we truly believed in the
promised destination. We knew that we were entering into uncharted territory
but we shared the vision. We were prepared for the hardships because we
believed all precautions had been taken to deliver our children to the final
destination safely. As we have finished the first quarter of the first year of
our multi-year trip, it is time to take stock.
I am pleased to report that our elementary school pioneers are safe and secure.
Their wagons are plodding along slowly, implementing the first phase of the new
report cards with the separation of grades and learning skills. The planning
for the next phase of the trip is proceeding smoothly and all reports confirm
that our young pioneers will continue on the trail safely at this pace.
Our middle school
pioneers also appear to be making the first leg of the journey safely and
securely, however, their journey has been more arduous. There have been some
bumps in the trail, but our wagon drivers, scouts and leaders are trying to
maneuver through these obstacles with little lasting damage. They have worked
cooperatively with our high school pioneers through the 50% grade milestone and
it appears that they will be able to navigate these rough waters with minimal
damage. The 50% cut off has helped those pioneers who were previously buried by
the burden of a “0” in trying to move forward. The impact of the 50% cut off on
those scouts who are simply not contributing to the effort is still a concern
as well as to those scouts who try to get ahead by stealing the work of
others. The gap between promise and reality is narrowing but not yet
closed. We are confident that all drivers, scouts and leaders will complete
this leg of the trip successfully.
It is our high
school pioneers who are having a treacherous experience on the trail. We
understood that the trip was planned with two pilot wagons leading the pack as
we began on this uncharted territory. Those pilot wagons, named Walter Johnson
and
We are very
concerned because our scouts have reported that we are approaching the first
very dangerous obstacle that has the potential to greatly derail any forward
progress for all the different grade wagons. This first major obstacle is the
reassessment/re-teaching concept. We know that this must be addressed before
any further progress can be assured. While discussing this important component
of the new grading and reporting implementation, we also find that some basic
questions must be answered before we can allow any of our wagons to continue on
the trip. We must identify and reach consensus on what is mastery? What
grade reflects mastery - an A, B, C or even a D? How can we continue to
work out the question of reassessment/re-testing without first allowing all of
our stakeholders to stop and identify the consistent implementation of mastery
throughout every middle and high school wagon that has embarked on this
journey? This will require time and hard work - we cannot allow any quick
fixes or shortcuts. We should not let the pioneers get lost on a false turn;
better to stay on course and wait for accurate directions.
We must then begin
the slow methodical work on the consistent implementation through out all of
our middle/ high schools. We must identify what resources are necessary to
ensure that every student in every course in every department in every middle
and high school is treated consistently and fairly. This will require that we
adopt a grading scale to guide our path that makes sense to those on the
frontier and supports standards-based learning. We will also have to carefully
check our supplies. We must assure that we have all the resources needed to
support reteaching and relearning for mastery.
It is the teacher pioneers who will need our attention and resources to make
this a reality. We cannot continue on this trip until these basic
questions have been answered and implemented.
We have reached a
place in our trip where we should not turn back, but we must stop and circle
our wagons and work cooperatively to find a safe and consistent plan to answer
these basic but important questions before heading back out on the trail again.
Please remember the Donner Party and their experience
on the trail. We must deliver every pioneer child to the promised
land safely and securely. If we cannot ensure that - we must stop and
find a new trail.
Thank you.