Health & Fitness
The Confused Achievement Gap
Jerry Weast says "the achievement gap" is closed. Valerie Ervin says the "gap" is as big as it has ever been. Confused?
Every time Montgomery County Public Schools releases its annual Scholastic Assessment Test scores (usually in late August), it is clear to me that during the Jerry Weast years the SAT score gap did not close. When Weast arrived as superintendent in 1999, the combined math and verbal/reading mean for white graduates was 1150 points and for black graduates it was 922—a gap of 228 points. In 2010, the combined mean for white graduates was 1169 points and for black graduates it was 936—a gap of 233 points. These numbers do not reflect the closing of the SAT score gap.
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The SAT facts, however, never stop Weast from telling others that he closed the gap. Here he is on Jan. 21, 2010, informing a congressional committee that MCPS closed the gap:
“Montgomery County, Maryland, Public Schools (MCPS) is the nation’s 16th largest school district. Located just outside Washington, D.C., the district serves 142,000 students with approximately 22,000 teachers, support professionals, and administrators. The district is proud of its accomplishment during the last decade in improving the level of student achievement and closing the gap between white and Asian American students and African American and Hispanic students.”
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Click here to read the entire Weast testimony
The good news is not everyone agrees with Weast. In a recent Bethesda Magazine article, Valerie Ervin, Montgomery County Council president and former Board of Education member, threw some cold water on the reality that the gap is closed. Here is what she said.
“… But one could say that the achievement gap is as big as it has ever been. Montgomery College has said that students coming from Montgomery County have to be remediated in math and reading. So even though the story that we were told was a hopeful one of great success for individual students, there is still a persistent achievement gap in Montgomery County Public Schools.”
Confused?
Ervin is not confused. Perhaps she read her own report on MCPS achievement gaps. One of the best scorecards on MCPS achievement gaps is a report issued by the Council County’s Office of Legislative Oversight. That report is worth a read and can be found on the county’s Web site.
Click here to read the report.
My only request to Ervin is to update the scorecard annually. Such a report will not stop Weast from shooting from the hip or bending the gap facts, but it might help the next MCPS leader, Joshua Starr, focus on a true starting point rather than the world of make-believe left behind by Weast.
