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In: Community Feedback, Drugs and Alcohol, Environment, Government, Incident Response, Interviews, Local Government, Maryland, MCPS, Mental health, Overcrowding, Safety, School, Student Interviews

Last week I sat down to interview a really bright MCPS 9th grader who was introduced to me because they didn’t feel safe at their school and wanted to speak out about it. Our almost 2 hour long talk ranged over a vast array of topics but chief among themContinue Reading

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In: Demographics, ELA, English Learners, Maryland, MCPS, School, Testing, Virtual

Just recently, MCPS highlighted some performance data showing improvements over the downturns from 2020 with pandemic school closures. Unbeknownst to most, today the state of Maryland also released their state spring 2022 MCAP assessment data for English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics, so let’s take a look at that. FullContinue Reading

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In: Colleges, Community Feedback, Community Reports, Construction, County Council, County Executive, Development, Election Results, Government, Local Government, Roving Correspondent, School

Have you heard?  A “game-changing” health institute is coming to ‘North Bethesda’. Note: back in my school days, say early 2000s, we simply called “North Bethesda” Rockville or White Flint.  Re-elected “At Large” Council Member Evan Glass proclaimed in his ‘Glass Gazette’ E-Newsletter: “With the signing of a new partnership betweenContinue Reading

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In: BOE, Demographics, ELA, English Learners, Local Government, Maryland, MCPS, Multilingual Learners, School, Testing

Posted 10/28/2022. See our other reports on MCPS test data here Executive Summary Data for English Language Arts (ELA) grades 3, 5, 8, and 10 were analyzed for 2019 and 2021, specifically: 2021 number of students tested, the number of proficient students, and the percent of proficient students by gradeContinue Reading

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In: BOE, Enrollment, Government, Maryland, MCPS, School

Background Information Full report from Maryland Planning Department. The report tables are here. The 2021 version of this document is here. Historical Enrollment Data “Maryland’s 2021 public school enrollment of 853,307 is its lowest since 2015. Since 2000” – Public School Enrollment Projections 2022 -2031 Projections 2022 Projections 2021 ProjectionsContinue Reading

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In: 2022 Elections, BOE, Elections, Government, Local Government, Maryland, MCPS, School, Virtual

Basic Information Facebook www.facebook.com/Esther4BOE Website https://voteforesther.com/ Twitter https://twitter.com/estherlwells Questions & Responses (All Candidates) 1 – What lessons learned do you have since the start of the pandemic? As a parent of a developmentally disabled 4th grader in MCPS, I have learned that when systems collectively struggle to meet the needs ofContinue Reading

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In: County Council, Ethics, Government, Local Government, Maryland, MCEA negotiations, MCPS, Parks and Planning, Planning Board, School, Superintendent

MOCO Roundup Since so much is going on in the County, I’ve decided to do what I hope will be weekly roundups of all the most important going ons across all local government. The election is coming up and we will have some coverage on that separately – this willContinue Reading

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In: 2022 Elections, BOE, Community Feedback, COVID-19, Election Results, Elections, Ethics, Local Government, Maryland, MCPS, Non Profits, Public Funding, School, STEM

MCPS Ethics Policy You can view the official MCPS and MCPS BOE Ethics Policy here. After reading the ethics policy and hearing that Joftus has said he will recuse himself from these decisions regarding KID Museum, it became clear to that he is following ethics guidelines by the rules. JoftusContinue Reading

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In: County Executive, COVID-19, DASHBOARD, Governor, Hospitals, Local Government, Maryland, MCPS, Research, School, Visuals

7/29/2022 – Update – Earl Stoddard and MOCO DHHS Respond 7/26/2022 – MOCO Dashboard, DHHS, Elrich Claim High Communities Levels See the MOCO Covid Dashboard here which began showing “Community Level Status: High” a few days ago: https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/covid19/data/ Here are some official tweets about it from DHHS and the CountyContinue Reading

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In: MCPS, School, Testing, Uncategorized

Executive Summary The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) requires standardized tests to measure proficiency in ELA. Data for MCPS Grade 8 ELA scores in 2018, 2019, and 2021 were analyzed to answer 3 questions: 1. What is the percent of proficient students at each school by year? 2. What is the change in the percent of proficient students atContinue Reading