10/06/05 - Silver Chips Online - Montgomery Blair High School
10/06/05 - Silver Chips Online - Montgomery Blair High School
10/06/05 - Silver Chips Online - Montgomery Blair High School
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EDITORIALS<br />
Board of Ed, don’t<br />
break Connections<br />
The Class of 2008 started this year riding an unprecedented wave<br />
of success. Freshman GPA reached a <strong>10</strong>-year high last year and according<br />
to a December 2004 <strong>Silver</strong> <strong>Chips</strong> article, the freshman ineligibility<br />
rate was cut in half compared to the year before.<br />
In the same article, Kathi Yu, former PTSA vice-president of<br />
academic achievement, attributed these successes largely to Connections,<br />
a ninth-grade course that teaches skills needed for a smooth<br />
transition to high school. At <strong>Blair</strong>, the class is offered to freshmen not<br />
in the Magnet or Communication Arts Program.<br />
The success of the course makes the Board of Education’s June decision<br />
to drop the mandatory designation on all MCPS Connections<br />
classes rather perplexing.<br />
In a Jun. 30 memorandum to the principals of MCPS schools requiring<br />
Connections classes for graduation, chief school performance<br />
offi cer Donald H. Kress wrote that “while schools can strongly<br />
encourage expected enrollment of all Grade 9 students in this course,<br />
it cannot be a requirement.”<br />
Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Social Organization of<br />
<strong>School</strong>s recommended last January that public high schools institute<br />
Connections-style courses. This confi rms last year’s statistics: Connections<br />
delivers results.<br />
And while the option to drop Connections trivializes a successful<br />
class, it may also facilitate the unintentional isolation of on-level and<br />
less affl uent students from the rest of the <strong>Blair</strong> community.<br />
Studies show that wealthier parents tend to become more involved<br />
in and aware of the school lives of their children. According<br />
to a 2003 survey by ChildTrends, an education think-tank, 90 percent<br />
of well-to-do parents reported attending a PTSA meeting in the past<br />
year, while only 79 percent of poorer parents did so. Wealthier parents<br />
tend to be more aware of school policies and are more likely to<br />
know about the option to drop Connections.<br />
This contrast is amplifi ed at <strong>Blair</strong>, where students span the economic<br />
spectrum. Over 21 percent of <strong>Blair</strong> students are on the Free<br />
and Reduced Meals program according to MCPS, yet many students<br />
are also drawn from <strong>Silver</strong> Spring’s prosperous areas. The fear is<br />
that more affl uent parents may choose to opt their children out for<br />
more challenging but perhaps less useful academic electives. Only<br />
14 students have decided to opt out of Connections so far — a resounding<br />
victory for the Connections team — but their cross-section<br />
prompts some serious questions.<br />
Of the 14 who have dropped the course so far, 13 are white and 13<br />
are honors students, according to resource counselor Marcia Johnson.<br />
Although this sample is not statistically signifi cant, it raises the<br />
alarming possibility of an exodus of white and honors Blazers from<br />
Connections, which would decimate one of the last remaining bonds<br />
between racial and socioeconomic groups at <strong>Blair</strong>.<br />
Proponents of the opt-out argue that honors students do not<br />
need Connections because they already possess the skills it teaches.<br />
While this may be true to some extent, Connections provides honors<br />
students with something that high-level classes do not: an opportunity<br />
to interact with elements of the diverse student population that<br />
they would not otherwise have had contact with.<br />
The Board of Education deserves praise for deeming Connections<br />
“the cornerstone course” in an effort to transition middle-schoolers<br />
into high school, but words amount to nothing without a requirement<br />
steering students in the course’s direction.<br />
Connections has been a great success, but dropping its mandatory<br />
status will create more problems than it will solve. This is one<br />
Pandora’s Box the Board of Education must close before it’s too late.<br />
silverCHIPS<br />
<strong>Montgomery</strong> <strong>Blair</strong> <strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong><br />
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<strong>Silver</strong> Spring, MD 20901<br />
<strong>Silver</strong> <strong>Chips</strong> phone number: (301) 649-2864<br />
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Winner of the 2004 National Scholastic Press Association Pacemaker Award<br />
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Unsigned editorials represent the views of the editorial board and are not necessarily<br />
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October 6, 20<strong>05</strong><br />
silverCHIPS<br />
Stop ignoring our special-ed students<br />
Department deserves funds withheld by school system<br />
Every year, barely one in three<br />
special-education students passes<br />
each of the three Maryland <strong>High</strong><br />
<strong>School</strong> Assessments (HSAs) now<br />
required for graduation, according<br />
to the Maryland Report Card web<br />
site.<br />
In contrast, close to threefourths<br />
of on-level students pass.<br />
Last year, instead of recognizing<br />
that many special-education students<br />
were going to fail to graduate<br />
and increasing funding to prevent<br />
this, MCPS policy-makers and<br />
Superintendent Jerry Weast denied<br />
the county’s Special Education<br />
Department $5.4 million that was<br />
allotted to it.<br />
This denial would have been<br />
misguided if passing the HSAs<br />
was not a graduation requirement.<br />
But at a time when unreasonable<br />
testing standards are a reality for<br />
all high-school students, MCPS’s<br />
decision to deprive county Special<br />
Education departments of muchneeded<br />
money is simply callous.<br />
Lost dollars<br />
The $5.4 million fi gure is divided<br />
into two categories: unexpected<br />
additional special education<br />
revenue and budgeted funds that<br />
were not spent.<br />
The fi rst includes $726,000 in additional<br />
funding from the Regional<br />
Institute for Children and Adolescents,<br />
$523,000 of reimbursements<br />
for private school tuition of specialeducation<br />
students and $618,000<br />
due to higher-than-expected<br />
funding from the Individuals with<br />
Disabilities Education Act.<br />
The second is comprised of $3.2<br />
million MCPS budgeted but did<br />
not spend on special-education students<br />
who were referred to private<br />
schools and $1.9 million budgeted<br />
and not spent on replacing retiring<br />
staff and covering for absent staff<br />
members.<br />
An additional $1.6 million spent<br />
on contracting staff positions to<br />
private companies puts the total<br />
amount of funds that were allocated<br />
to special education but not<br />
spent at $5.4 million. This funding<br />
debacle was detailed in June<br />
14 and July 27 Board of Education<br />
minutes.<br />
Limited resources<br />
The loss of this money was more<br />
painful to other county schools<br />
than to <strong>Blair</strong>, because according to<br />
Principal Phillip Gainous, <strong>Blair</strong>’s<br />
Special Education Department has<br />
more resources than those of most<br />
other schools.<br />
Last year, a large and vocal<br />
group of <strong>Blair</strong> parents and teachers,<br />
including Gainous himself, lobbied<br />
for and received extra funds to<br />
address concerns about the lack of<br />
special-education staff.<br />
The county met their demands,<br />
but, as Gainous said, the special<br />
education funding “pot” is limited.<br />
He and others were informed that<br />
the “extra” money <strong>Blair</strong> struggled<br />
to acquire came straight out of<br />
other county high schools’ special<br />
education departments. “If we<br />
had that extra $5 million, we might<br />
have not needed to rob Peter to pay<br />
Paul,” he said.<br />
Funding shortfalls<br />
Jerry Weast and MCPS must<br />
look for every opportunity to increase<br />
special education funding in<br />
order to prepare special-education<br />
students for the HSAs instead of<br />
denying the departments money.<br />
This school year, according<br />
to MCPS, the county’s special<br />
education budget only increased<br />
7.2 percent compared to a rise of<br />
“Flat out<br />
discrimination.”<br />
-<strong>Blair</strong> special education<br />
resource teacher<br />
Lisa Davisson<br />
13.2 percent the year before. Yet in<br />
this year’s annual budget address,<br />
Weast said that “improving special<br />
education achievement continues<br />
to be our priority.”<br />
Adding $5.4 million to this<br />
year’s budget would have demonstrated<br />
how much of a concern<br />
special education is to Weast and<br />
MCPS, in addition to making the<br />
budget increase a more respectable<br />
9.1 percent.<br />
Instead of distorting MCPS’s efforts<br />
on behalf of special-education<br />
students, Weast must admit that<br />
MCPS denied the Special Education<br />
Department much-needed<br />
funding and commit to increasing<br />
funding more next year.<br />
Special-education students<br />
require more money than other<br />
students to learn the same material.<br />
Special education resource teacher<br />
Lisa Davisson emphasized that<br />
many of her students are struggling<br />
to read at even an elementary<br />
school level.<br />
Disabled students already have<br />
enough diffi culty passing HSAs<br />
for subjects in which they have<br />
learning disabilities without trying<br />
to understand material in a classroom<br />
with a 20:1 student teacher<br />
ratio, which Davisson says occurs<br />
regularly in <strong>Blair</strong> special-education<br />
classes.<br />
These students urgently need<br />
smaller class sizes so that teachers<br />
can spend more time providing<br />
individual attention. The county’s<br />
special education departments<br />
need more staff and technology to<br />
enable students to achieve and to<br />
prepare them to take the HSAs.<br />
Davisson and Gainous are<br />
having diffi culty comprehending<br />
why HSAs are required for special<br />
education students. Davisson<br />
called HSAs “fl at out discrimination,”<br />
and Gainous declared that<br />
the Special Education Department<br />
“absolutely should have extra<br />
funding” to help prepare struggling<br />
students for the HSAs.<br />
Our responsibility<br />
It is not MCPS’s fault that special-education<br />
students must pass<br />
the HSAs to graduate, but it is the<br />
county’s responsibility to provide<br />
the resources necessary to even<br />
begin to solve the problem.<br />
Instead, money has been allocated<br />
to less urgent endeavors. Bob<br />
Astrove, budget analyst and parent<br />
of two MCPS special-education<br />
students, found that $300,000 of the<br />
allotted special education funds<br />
may have gone to pay for palm pilots<br />
for elementary school teachers<br />
who wanted to have information<br />
on their students close at hand.<br />
It is our duty to make sure all<br />
students, regardless of disability,<br />
receive a quality education and the<br />
tools necessary for success.<br />
These are high-school students<br />
who cannot read, write or do basic<br />
arithmetic due to disabilities and<br />
who could fail to graduate from<br />
high school under the new HSA<br />
requirement.<br />
Such wasteful spending is an<br />
affront to the county’s special-education<br />
students. These resources<br />
should go toward preparing our<br />
students for the tests they need to<br />
pass in order to graduate. These<br />
resources cannot be withheld.<br />
Our county’s disgraceful treatment<br />
of special-education students<br />
is an embarassing stain on our<br />
school system’s stellar reputation.<br />
Weast and MCPS must be committed<br />
to helping special-education<br />
students succeed, and realize that<br />
we owe them the funding they are<br />
due.