Published on: Thursday, September 09, 2010

By Paige L. Hill

The Maryland State Board of Education is apparently unhappy that Montgomery County Public Schools’ is going ahead with their $4.5 million textbook deal, calling the agreement in an open letter to MCPS “duplicative of state effort, wasteful of resources and further balkanizes [MCPS] from the statewide reform initiatives.” The state education board has deemed the textbook deal “condemned” and dismissed the school district’s appeal of the contract.

Meanwhile, 110 kindergarten classes and one first-grade class have already begun using the curriculum that textbook company Pearson seeks to use as a model for one it will market to other, mostly private schools. MCPS’ intent has been for these kindergarten classes to participate in the curriculum through the fifth grade, at which point Pearson would obtain rights to the curriculum, which integrates technology and the arts. MCPS signed the deal with Pearson, the world’s largest textbook publisher, in June.

In the letter, the state board of education writes the agreement is “duplicative of state effort, wasteful of resources and further balkanizes [MCPS] from the statewide reform initiatives.”

The state board has also started an initiative this school year to align its curriculum and testing programs with Common Core, a national academic standards measuring process. According to the open letter, “all schools systems in Maryland will ultimately be required to assess their students using the new assessments.”

“It will be difficult if not impossible for us and the other school systems to share ideas with MCPS and Pearson who may, wittingly or not, appropriate them as their own for their K-5 project,” the board wrote.

This has not been the first inkling of clashing curriculums at the county level. Janet Sartucci, president of the Montgomery Parents’ Coalition, wrote an open letter to the state board in June after the contract was signed.

“Our kids will have to take the tests the state puts out but not be prepared on their curriculum,” she wrote. “Or are they sitting in a classroom learning the Pearson curriculum, then stopping for a month to do the state curriculum so they can pass the [Maryland State Assessment Tests]?”

The contract with Pearson allows the county school board to withdraw by the end of September, but the school system does not appear to be backing down. Superintendent of Schools Jerry Weast has been at the forefront of implementing the Pearson curriculum even in the wake of his announcement to retire from MCPS at the end of the school year.

“We are a strong and leading school district, and there is no reason why we shouldn’t share our knowledge,” Weast said at the press conference for his announcement. “What we are doing is fully engaging the child through a modern and fully digital system.”

“I need a break, I need to spend time with my grandchildren,” said Weast, who added that he would probably not take another job in the public spotlight. He would not comment on whether he was leaving his post to take a job with Pearson. Now, the board of education — four of whose members are up for re-election this November — is faced with finding a replacement superintendent for one of the costliest and largest school districts in the nation. The search will begin in December following the elections.

“We have an ever-present ‘opportunity gap,’ which means the students with more opportunities in terms of home life and outside help succeed at a higher rate than those who don’t,” Weast said, defending the need to implement a new curriculum. “What you really need to ask yourself is not, ‘Did this child score well?’ but, ‘Is this child prepared for the future?’”

Since Weast became superintendent in 1999, the school district’s graduation rates have fallen from 91 percent to 87 percent, according to MCPS spokesman Dana Tofig; the average SAT scores have also declined slightly during Weast’s career.

Students from low-income families have grown to make up nearly one-third of the school district’s population, a roughly 22 percent increase since 1999, according to Tofig. Students from a Hispanic background now make up almost one-fourth of the school district, and many of them have limited knowledge of English, Tofig said.