Montgomery County Public Schools officials are toning down the district’s arrogant reputation with their “wholehearted” support for Maryland’s adoption of new national standards.
The “Common Core National Standards” for English and math were created through a 48-state partnership, and have been adopted by 28 states, including Maryland and the District of Columbia. Advocates hail them as a more consistent driver of achievement nationwide, while a handful of mostly libertarian critics worry they will lead to an acceptance of below-par expectations.
Typically, Montgomery County opposes major initiatives pushed by the state’s department of education. On everything from standardized tests to teacher evaluations, the school board has held firm in its fight for local control. The county has repeatedly stressed its use of standards that surpass those of the state and other counties.
But in the case of the Common Core, Montgomery is on board with the message that the national standards are superior to Maryland’s current ones.
“There is a difference in the order of some of the content and the depth at which certain areas in mathematics and English-language arts are studied,” said Erick Lang, the district’s associate superintendent for curriculum and instruction. “In the end, the goal [of college readiness] is the same.”
A recent report from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute graded the national standards, giving them a B+ in English and an A- in math. The standards were graded based on their clarity and the rigor of the content covered at each grade level. Maryland’s state standards fell far short, the report found. English standards scored a C, while math standards mustered a D. Virginia, where the state board of education has not adopted the common standards, earned a B+ for English and a C for math.
D.C. standards earned among the highest scores in the nation — an A in both subjects. Even so, D.C. State Superintendent Kerri Briggs vigorously defended the city’s adoption of the national standards, saying that trading a great set of standards for a pretty great one is worth what the city stands to gain.
“A huge part of it for D.C. is being able to work with other states on things we don’t have the capacity to do ourselves,” she said.
For example, the National PTA is creating material in multiple languages to share with parents what their children ought to know by which grade. And D.C. has joined with 25 other states to compete for federal money to build tests around the standards.
“Those are things we couldn’t have done on our own,” Briggs said. “That’s invaluable.”
