The percentage of students meeting literacy attainment goals increased during the 2021-2022 academic year over the previous academic year, according to a report from Montgomery County Public Schools.
However, only elementary schools showed an increase in the percentage of students reaching attainment of mathematics learning. Decreases in the percentage of secondary school students reaching attainment are similar to the numbers from last spring, the report said.
“We continued to monitor the data and proactively prepared to support teachers with mathematics instruction,” MCPS Superintendent Monifa McKnight wrote in the report.
McKnight is expected to present the evidence of learning report at Thursday’s school board meeting. The 2021-2022 school year marked the return to in-person instruction for MCPS after remote learning during the pandemic.
The report analyzes readiness and evidence of student achievement in literacy and math at the end of a school year, according to McKnight’s memorandum. According to the report, the district’s Evidence of Learning (EOL) Framework uses an approach involving multiple measures that identifies accountability related to readiness and evidence of student achievement.
MCPS observed progress in the percentage of students meeting evidence of learning attainment, McKnight wrote. There was a 13% increase in the number of second-grade students meeting literacy attainment and an 11% increase for fifth-grade students at the elementary school level. The number of eighth-graders who reached attainment increased by 3% and the number of students in 11th grade by 2% increase. The strategic planning goal for grades five, eight and 11 were met, the report said.
These increases in literacy were observed for almost all racial and ethnic student groups, McKnight wrote. The report did not specify which groups experienced decreases.
With the shift to in-person instruction in the 2021-2022 school year, MCPS committed to “acceleration of learning, rather than remediation of learning,” according to the report.
This included providing planning focusing on understanding mathematical standards at the elementary level and accounting for flexibility to reinforce prior learning at the secondary level, McKnight shared.
MCPS aimed to focus on grade-level literacy practices and corresponding texts at the elementary and secondary levels, according to the report.
This school year, MCPS is implementing new district assessments aligned to the curriculum for math courses in middle school upon receiving feedback that the previous ones needed revision.