Starting Monday, parents and community members will get their first chance to offer feedback on a long-awaited middle school reform plan for Montgomery County.
The initiative, more than two years in the making, closely examines seven areas judged to be deficient in a 2004 audit, including after-school offerings, the difficulty levels in schools’ curriculum and parental engagement.
“We primarily learned from the audit that there was nothing consistent in our 36 middle schools, from school schedules to course offerings,” said Linda Ferrell, director of middle school instructional achievement for the county.
“Parents also shared major concerns about the lack of rigor in subject areas and about academic performance.”
So in 2005 Ferrell and 200 other stakeholders formed a steering committee to embark on a full-scale study of the county’s middle schools.
They looked to Fairfax County and Philadelphia’s schools for inspiration, divided up into teams of leaders by specific concentration and examined their own hiring practices.
Ferrell said what the public will glimpse at Monday’s meeting and a duplicate session two weeks later are the preliminary suggestions from all this effort.
Proposed changes include expanding reach to the increasingly diverse — and in many cases, non-English-speaking — parents in the district, increasing the number of literacy programs and adding interactive after-school programs at every middle school.
“In the past, extended learning was primarily for intervention, but we want to change it to do more for all students and help them develop the skills they need for high school,” Ferrell said.
Erick Lang, the county’s director of the Department of Enriched and Innovative Programs, also said middle school reform team members are looking at a trio of experimental magnet middle schools as models for elective classes.
Once the public comment period ends next month, a final implementation plan will be crafted, and changes will be incorporated into select schools in waves.
Montgomery County’s focus on the middle school students concurs with a major trend nationwide over about the last five years, according to the U.S. Department of Education, which tracks reform efforts.
Meeting Schedule
» The public can hear about middle school reform plans and offer up suggestions at the following meetings:
» 7 to 9 p.m. Monday
Shady Grove Middle School
8100 Midcounty Highway, Gaithersburg
» 7 to 9 p.m. Nov. 29
Silver Spring International Middle School, 313 Wayne Ave., Silver Spring
» If you can’t attend, you can provide feedback online at: www.mcps.k12.md.us/info/msreform/comments.shtm
