Hundreds of seniors in Montgomery County’s class of 2009 have failed to pass four standardized tests required this year for a diploma, according to data from Montgomery County schools.
Of nearly 10,000 seniors with adequate grades and attendance, more than 400 have yet to pass the algebra exam; 400 have not passed the English test; nearly 200 have fallen short on the government exam; and 150 have not made the mark for biology. Those numbers do not include students who have failed the tests but would be ineligible for graduation for other reasons.
The seniors must pass all the tests by June — or complete an alternative project — in order to graduate.
The numbers underlie the school district’s strident opposition to the tests as the deadline approaches. Last week, Montgomery’s board called for Maryland’s State Board of Education to delay linking the tests to a diploma for at least one more year. Next week, Weast will argue against the tests before the state board.
The assessments “are extraordinarily flawed tests,” said board member Steve Abrams. “They don’t measure anything, and what they do try to measure doesn’t relate back to measured competencies in the high school courses.”
Regarding the more than 1,100 failed exams, Abrams asked “Tell me how much kids prepare for an exam when the exam is meaningless to them — when they get nothing out of it?”
Parents and teachers in Montgomery have responded by asking the school board to continue funding initiatives designed to nurture underperformers, special education students and English language learners, even as the district anticipates severe budget cuts.
“The five high schools I represent will continue to need extra resources to target students at risk of failing the [tests] or to support their participation in” the alternative project-based exam, said Sally Taber, who coordinates PTA efforts at five troubled high schools in the county’s rapidly changing Silver Spring area.
Taber testified before the school board at a community forum last week, adding she hopes to see teachers’ extra efforts to encourage passage of the tests “compensated by [the district] despite the tight fiscal constraints.”
