By Adam Pagnucco.
Part One related the story of how MCPS started a pilot program in East Silver Spring Elementary School, a school with a large Black and brown student population and a majority of students receiving free and reduced price meals, that led to dramatic improvements in reading. MCPS announced in July 2021 that it was expanding the program to eight other schools with similar demographics.
So what happened next? That’s hard to say. I have found no other presentations to the school board on the results at these other schools. And by November 2022, the contractor – Lavinia Group of Brooklyn, NY – had stopped working on the project.
I asked three school board members and MCPS’s communication department about this project. Here is the response I received from MCPS’s communications team.
*****
Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) conducts comprehensive evaluations of MCPS programs and initiatives to provide quantitative and qualitative information on the fidelity of implementation of programs and initiatives and their outcomes. These program evaluations serve as a way of monitoring program implementation, academic performance outcomes, and the effect on student progress to inform decision making.
Program evaluation provides information to instructional staff, principals, and teachers about the overall effectiveness of instructional programs in supporting student learning and can be used to justify resources and decisions pertaining to future funding of programs or initiatives.
The evaluation process also informs decisions regarding program integrity and decisions in requests for proposals (RFPs) and financial decisions in being good stewards of public funds. This process is how we identify programs and services that best support instruction and academic needs of our students. Program alignment to the school district’s strategic plan and Maryland State Department of Education accountability measures are used to determine the effectiveness of a program based on those measures of academic success and progress.
*****
Note the total lack of specific response on the subject of this program. I asked, “Can you comment on the status of MCPS’s contract with Lavinia Group?” I received no reply to this question.
I also asked Lavinia Group whether they were still working on this project. Here is what they said.
*****
Lavinia Group entered into an agreement with East Silver Spring (an MCPS elementary school) in the summer of 2020. A portion of this work was funded by The Rales Foundation.
As the article you linked mentioned, we had strong results that year on multiple levels, including improvements in student reading and high satisfaction from teachers and school leaders.
Additionally, as the article states, we expanded to eight MCPS elementary schools for the 2021-2022 school year. The Rales Foundation continued to provide financial support for the work through the 2021-2022 school year.
In spring 2022, MCPS requested that we expand further the following academic year to support three learning centers with elementary literacy, and two high schools, with a focus on algebra.
In November 2022, we stopped working with MCPS and responded to a Request For Proposal for elementary reading and special education, and high school algebra work.
In March of 2023, we were notified we didn’t get the bid. Since then we have not continued the work at MCPS.
*****
So MCPS had a promising project on one of its most difficult challenges and stopped working on it. I was only able to document this by asking the contractor because MCPS would not comment on it. While a new contract was let to two new companies in March 2023, there is no evidence from information released to the school board that this new contract contains a substantially similar scope of work to the old one.
This is far more than the story of one pilot project. There are four things to be learned here.
1. MCPS can make progress on the achievement gap.
This two-year project demonstrated some encouraging results, even though they occurred at just one school. MCPS showed that they can do more than talk – they can actually do something that works.
2. There are questions about MCPS’s ability to sustain progress.
The flip side is that MCPS did not successfully scale the program, at least not yet. In fact, they stopped working with the contractor. Is this a blip or a sign of great things to come? The jury is out.
3. MCPS needs to work on transparency.
For as long as I have been writing about this county, MCPS’s critics have lambasted them for a lack of transparency. They were proven right by the response quoted above from MCPS’s communications team. I get it – the ferociousness and unfairness of some of these critics could push anyone into a defensive crouch. That said, MCPS should not give them any more ammo than they already have.
4. Oversight is needed.
No one is perfect. All government agencies need oversight, even if they generally perform well as MCPS does. Someone needs to ask questions about this program, but more than that, they need to establish and enforce performance standards at this $3+ billion agency. That is especially important because MCPS will receive a large funding increase this year, likely anchored by a big property tax increase.
Who will exercise oversight? Will the school board do it? They have policy oversight responsibility. Will the county council do it? They have significant funding authority. Will the county executive do it? He has the bully pulpit. Will the state do it? State officials have ultimate authority over all of Maryland’s school districts.
Someone has to step up to help MCPS make progress on the achievement gap and its other challenges.
Who will lead?