Time for Change in Baltimore County Public School Leadership

I am writing this because I care about the education of all BCPS students. BCPS needs the best and most tested leadership available right now.

All schools are different. Some schools do not provide adequate physical facilities. Some schools are brand new with all the bells and whistles. Some schools have fewer parents able to provide in-person support because they may be working multiple jobs to keep a roof over their family’s head, to feed and to clothe them. Some schools have lots of parents providing support.

BCPS has been operating in the dark with regard to academic achievement in recent years. There has been no student achievement data that anyone paid attention to because the old test results, MSA and HSA, were discounted because it was alleged “students did not take them seriously.” Also, the very valuable annual BCPS Minority Report produced since the 1980’s stopped being produced several years ago.

The centerpiece of the current superintendent is STAT (Students and Teachers Accessing Technology). Under this initiative digital tablets (one for each student) will be distributed throughout BCPS. I was concerned when I read the when I read the following written by an anonymous teacher last Friday in the Dundalk Patch Blog:

The program had been in place for less than a full school year and was still in a limited testing phase, yet was getting national and even international attention, with the superintendent traveling to a technology symposium in South Korea to discuss the implementation.

While a certain level of promotion of an initiative can be expected, the close relationship between school system administrators and the technology vendors that serve the system raises questions of conflict of interest. Two vendors have produced infomercial-style videos at two of the test schools, praising the hardware and software that the school has adopted. The superintendent also sits on the advisory committee for the Education Research and Development Institute, with a mission to “provide a forum for dialogue between outstanding educational leaders and committed corporate partners,” many of which are vendors for the system. Shortly before the beginning of the technology push, the superintendent also repurposed the Baltimore County Public Schools Education Foundation, a nonprofit organization that had typically handled donations to local schools from area businesses. The new mission was to focus on “system-based projects,” including the STAT program and associated curriculum. In organizing the annual “State of the Schools” event for BCPS, the Educational Foundation has received sponsorships from numerous vendors of both hardware and software for the system, including a $50,000 sponsorship from Advance Path Academics.

The BCPS Education Foundation seems to be playing the role of funneling money from vendors to events to promote BCPS initiatives that also promote the superintendent. When was the last audit of the BCPS Education Foundation done and how were the results shared with the public and parents in Baltimore County? How does the BCPS Education Foundation’s Annual Financial Statement get shared with public stakeholder and parents including receipts, expenditures, salaries, etc.

In late 2015, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessment results were published. BCPS did not do well especially the schools with students of lower socioeconomic status. I picked 2 schools from the NE area and 2 schools from the Towson area. Here are a few BCPS High School that I analyzed PARCC data for:

Overlea High School & Finance Academy-188 students took the test-for English 10/Language Arts/Literacy and only 19 of the 188 students met or exceeded expectations; 76 students took the test and for Algebra I and not 1 student met expectations; and 102 students took the test and for Algebra II and not 1 student met expectations;

Parkville High School and Center for Math/Science-421 students took the test-for English 10/Language Arts/Literacy and only 54 of the 421 students met or exceeded expectations; 216 students took the test and for Algebra I and not 1 student met expectations; and 330 students took the test and for Algebra II and not 1 student met expectations;

Towson High Law & Public Policy -379 students took the test-for English 10/Language Arts/Literacy and 279 of 379 students met or exceeded expectations; 47 students took the test and for Algebra I and 5 of the 47 students met expectations; and 265 students took the test; and for Algebra II 265 students took the test and 43 of the 265 students met expectations;

Hereford High School-322 students took the test-for English 10/Language Arts/Literacy and 239 of the 322 students met or exceeded expectations; 57 students took the test and for Algebra I and not 1 student met expectations; and 138 students took the test and for Algebra II and 17 of the 138 students met expectations.

It is clear from this limited amount of data that some BCPS schools are much more literate than others. How can anyone in high school be successful without being literate? I hope that Baltimore County residents will begin to become knowledgeable about the schools in their neighborhoods and advocate for the effective and equitable education for its students with the Board of Education of Baltimore County.