Academic Performance

Here is the latest status of the academic testing done by the state and locally here in Frederick County. The state results are frighteningly low (see State Results below), and while the local testing is not yet available, and indications are the results are better than the state results, both sets of testing come with qualifiers that the testing results may not be fully reliable. (see below for the positions and statements of the state and county).

This situation should alarm Frederick County parents:

• The low results of the state testing should not be ignored but taken into context with other testing. It should be considered an indicator of just how devastating the pandemic was on the academic proficiency of FCPS students.
• A shortage of local resources: FCPS identifies students whose academic proficiency is lagging and has a number of programs, including a robust summer program, to assist students in improving their performance. The ESSA Strategic Plan states FCPS will “identify where students are in their learning and to determine tutoring, supplemental instruction, intervention, or enrichment areas to meet each student’s needs but that effort suffers from a shortage of teachers and resources, and funding will become more of a problem as the COVID relief money, designed to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic, ceases to be available.
• The results of the FCPS testing are not yet available for public review. In our meetings with the FCPS they have indicated that the results will be communicated to the parents beginning this month and then published more broadly sometime in September, and it’s acknowledged that compiling testing properly takes time, but given a disruption of well over a year the school systems, shouldn’t academic recovery be the most important priority of the BOE and the FCPS?

   

Bottom Line

Given that we know that academic performance in Maryland and in Frederick County was dropping prior to the pandemic (according to national organization Public School Review), that the pandemic had a crippling effect on the academic education of all students, and that we are still struggling to determine what our actual academic proficiency is, shouldn’t academic proficiency and recovery be the number one priority of the BOE and FCPS? It’s hard to argue that it is a priority since the topic hasn’t been on the agenda in any of the public BOE meetings this year.

• Academic Proficiency should be a standing agenda item on every BOE meeting with quantifiable results tracked and reported by accountable FCPS leaders.
• The BOE should authorize the creation of an Academic Proficiency Committee to lead the recovery and populate it with the leaders of the FCPS and members of the community.

   

State Assessments

The results of the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP) academic proficiency testing for the 2021 school year, completed in the Fall, have been discounted by many Maryland school districts (including FCPS) and the Maryland teacher’ union (MSEA) because it was an abbreviated process that was administered several months after the completion of the 2021 school year.

The MSEA also takes the position that testing “takes time away from learning” and opposes standardized testing like the MCAP.

State Results

We compiled the state MCAP results for FCPS: they can be viewed here. The results are reported separately for Math, English Language Arts, and Science. Within those academic categories are breakouts by race, grade, sex, and economically disadvantaged and students w/disabilities. For the county, MCAP reported a math and ELA proficiency of 19% and 41% respectively. Science was only available for 5^thand 8^th grades, scoring 57% and 40% respectively.

Local Assessments

We met twice with the FCPS System Accountability and School Improvement team on these results and how FCPS is addressing the academic challenges. As mentioned, the FCPS has conducted its internal testing and have been working through a plan to help students falling below acceptable levels of proficiency,

Indications are the results of the FCPS testing are higher than the MCAP results. However, according the FCPS ESSA Strategic Plan dated November 15, 2021 “Local assessments were administered; however, caution should be given to interpretation of the results for a variety of reasons, including lack of test proctoring at home, measuring growth during pandemic, etc.”