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High School Assessment Regional Hearings, in PGC, at CHFHS,
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Joyce Dowling
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Sep 10, 2007 13:25 PDT
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For those interested in improving our public schools, there will be a
High School Assessment Regional Hearing on Mon., Sept. 10 7:00 - 9:30
p.m. at Charles Herbert Flowers High School in Springdale. More
information at: http://www.marylandpublicschools.org/ See further
comments below:
Dear Parent / Advocate / Community Leader / Concerned Citizen:
Please plan to attend the upcoming and IMPORTANT HSA Hearing and
Briefing by Dr. Nancy Grasmick, on September 10, 2007, at 7:00pm at
Charles Herbert Flowers High School (Auditorium).
Come prepared to ask questions of Maryland State Superintendent, Dr.
Nancy Grasmick and the architects of the one-size-fits-all high stakes,
HSAs.
A few questions (for example):
- 1. Why does it STILL take so long (months!) for the HSAs to be graded
and the results made available to schools for planning and intervention?
- 2. Of all students in Maryland who have, thus far, passed the HSAs,
what percentage are minorities/ What percentage are non-minorities? Does
this not matter to Maryland state education leaders and officials? Does
this matter?
If so, what is MSDE doing or what has MSDE and the State BoE done (or
plan to do, soon) about this inequality of high-stakes results in
Maryland?
- 3. What is Maryland state planning for the thousands of students who
conceivably will not obtain a high school diploma come 2009 (and
beyond)? Is this not a statewide problem? Does this not bother
Maryland's education bureaucracy at all? Is this only our (parents')
problem and not the state's or county's?
- 4. What is MSDE doing about the fact that the majority of students who
are struggling or not passing the HSA thus far are FARMS students and
Special Needs and Limited English BUT then we have MSDE planning some
adjustments for Special Need and Limited English but apparently NONE for
FARMS students?
- 5. Maryland state has a burgeoning shortage of highly-qualified
teachers especially in the critical areas of special needs, mathematics,
etc, with these shortages sometimes quite severe in schools in
economically diosadvantaged communities. What has MSDE and the State BoE
done to fix this
- and will it be substantially fixed before 2009 when students will
begin to be denied diplomas (even if they have been taught by non-highly
qualified teachers and did not pass the HSAs?
- 6. Of the several policy recommendations suggested by the Prince
George's County Council's Blue Ribbon Committee on High Stakes Testing
and specifically targeting the state of Maryland (MSDE / SBoE /
Legislature,
etc) how many and which ones has MSDE actually started to implement, act
on, or take a role in implementing? If none, why not?
- etc, -etc.
Dear Parent: Please plan to be there at the HSA hearing on September 10,
at 7pm at CHFHS.
Thank you.
Jacob Andoh
jyan-@yahoo. <mailto:<mailto:jyan-@yahoo.com>jyan-@yahoo.com>
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Joyce Dowling http://www.drix.net/jdowling/Joyce.html
http://www.dmuuc.org/ Creating a diverse caring community.
Click to feed the hungry.: http://www.thehungersite.com/
"Be the change you wish to see." Gandhi
My journal: http://uu-mom.livejournal.com/
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