Recently released data on the number of Montgomery County students not on track to graduate this spring have underscored what many county residents are reluctant to believe: Once-vaunted Montgomery County schools are struggling.
As of last spring, 82 percent of the county’s seniors had passed the tests in algebra, English, biology and government required this year for a diploma. Among Hispanic students, the number dropped to 69 percent. Among blacks, it dropped to 68 percent. Students from low-income families fared worse — barely three in five of them were on track for a diploma.
“One thing these tests have done is increase accountability,” said Gordie Brenne, a parent at Kensington’s Albert Einstein High School and an advocate for increased vocational education. “In the past we’ve wrung our hands, but now it’s the school’s problem and they have to live with the numbers, and the numbers are pretty plain.”
Should students fail to pass the test or complete lengthy alternative projects, the county’s graduation rate could be in the bottom third of a state it spent years outperforming. It could also be significantly lower than Virginia’s Fairfax County, often regarded as a comparable district.
At the same time as state and national accountability measures have shined light on long-struggling student populations, Montgomery has seen those populations swell.
In 20 years, the district has gone from about 80 percent white to about 39 percent white, 23 percent black, 22 percent Hispanic and 15 percent Asian. Since 1990, the number of low-income students has more than doubled from about 16,000 to nearly 36,000. The number of English-language learners has tripled from just over 5,000 to more than 16,000.
“Montgomery County has always celebrated its diversity,” said Ross Wiener, vice president at D.C.-based Education Trust and a county resident. “But it’s never reconciled the pride in that with the very different outcomes that different students achieve in Montgomery County high schools.”
Wiener commended the district’s nationally recognized focus on closing the achievement gap in the early grades, but said greater efforts are needed to reach all students at the high school level.
“I do worry that parents are used to thinking about evaluating high schools in terms of how many students are National Merit semifinalists, and how many go on to the Ivy Leagues,” Wiener said. “Those aren’t bad things, but we have to put equity at the same level as excellence, so we’re pursuing both at the same time.”
