According to Education Week, the Montgomery County Public Schools have the highest graduation rate of the nation's 50 biggest school districts. Following is a statement from MCPS Superintendent Jerry Weast.
Friends,
Montgomery County Public Schools' graduation rate is number one among the nation's 50 largest school districts, according to the Diplomas Count 2010 report, published today by Education Week. The MCPS graduation rate of 83.1 percent is significantly higher than the rate for the state of Maryland or for the nation. This is the second year in a row that MCPS has topped this list. In last year's report, MCPS was tied for first with a graduation rate of 80.7 percent.
The results of the Diplomas Count report are yet another indicator that validates the reform efforts MCPS has put in place over the past 11 years. Among the other milestones we are celebrating this year: the number of Advanced Placement exams taken by MCPS students has more than tripled over the past decade, and nearly three-quarters of those exams earned a score of three or higher; the Class of 2010 is expected to have the highest SAT score in MCPS history, a combined average of 1651; and this year’s graduates already have secured nearly $232 million in college scholarships, an increase of almost $50 million from last year. MCPS also earned national recognition this spring when the district was named a finalist for the $1 million Broad Prize for Urban Education, which recognizes large school districts that have successfully raised student achievement and narrowed performance gaps.
On behalf of the Board of Education, our outstanding staff and the 142,000 students in our schools, I want to thank you for your continued support.
Respectfully,
Jerry D. Weast, Superintendent
Thursday, June 10, 2010
MCPS Has Top Graduation Rate of Nation's 50 Largest School Districts
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Where is the plan to cut the 17% in half by emphasizing the classroom and deemphasizing administration. Aristotle didn't teach Alexander the Great by having 1100 non-teaching administrators looking over his shoulder!
Where is the plan to fight childhood obesity! I applaud what Michele Obama is doing. Fat kids is not where it is at!
1100 administrators for 200 schools, each earning more than $100,000 a year for a school year of 175 days!
1100 administrators for 200 schools, each earning more than $100,000 a year for a school year of 175 days!uras
If you're interested in the real statistics (as opposed to the MCPS press release), go to www.mdreportcard.org
Click on counties
Click on graduation rates.
For example:
http://www.mdreportcard.org/Graduation.aspx?K=15AAAA&WDATA=Local+School+System#DROPOUTgrade3all
MCPS reported for 2009, a graduation rate of:
93.15 for white kids
77.15 for Hispanic kids
80.46 for kids receiving special ed services
78.61 for kids with limited English proficiency
81.6 for African American kids
And if you look at the following table:
http://www.mdreportcard.org/StatDisplay.aspx?PV=27:12:15:AAAA:2:N:6:1:1:2:1:1:1:1:3
You see that the graduation rate for african american and hispanic kids has actually been GOING DOWN in MCPS since 2002. That's not exactly consistent with the message that the MCPS Department of Communications has been putting out, but nevertheless, all this data is available at www.mdreportcard.org
Clearly, it shows that it is way too early to celebrate.
Lyda Astrove
Post a Comment