Testimony of Lang Lin
Montgomery County Council of
Parent Teacher Association, Gifted Child Committee (MCCPTA, GCC)
January 16, 2018
Good Evening, Dr. Smith, President Durso, and Members
of the Board. I am Lang Lin, sitting
chair of Montgomery County Council of PTAs Gifted Child Committee. 15 months ago, I testified before you on
behalf of our Committee, parents that we represent, and students that we
advocate for, in support of MCPS’s response plan to the Choice Study.
The students in our community include ~3% county
wide in Center/Magnet/IB programs, ~15% county wide in the accelerated Math
pathway, ~35% county wide labelled as gifted in the SIPPI process, and whoever
is interested in pursuing academic excellence in their 13 years in MCPS. They are White, Asian, African American, and
Hispanic / Latino from all social economic backgrounds. We have hearts for all students.
Our community is aware of the budget
situation. In this decade, the total
operating budget has been shrunk noticeably at the per student level counting
inflation and there has been a constant influx of new students, some of whom
are in deep need of help. Instead of
asking for any zero-sum solution, we voiced for inclusion and for transforming
MCPS into an effective and efficient public education institution in our
last testimony.
This holiday season, our community was shocked to
hear that in the proposed budget, the Division of Accelerated and Enriched
Instruction (AEI) was halved and its director position was eliminated. We have been confused by short PR
messages. Moreover, we are deeply deeply
concerned.
We fear that MCPS leadership does not realize how
valuable this small AEI office is for the community and how crucial it is for our
students. So, please allow me to
elaborate here from 3 aspects.
1. The
Division of AEI has been the bridge between MCPS and our community.
Within MCPS, there are numerous programs and
pathways serving the needs of the diverse students in our community. The in-depth information on various programs
and pathways sometimes is either not available or not reaching the target
students/parents.
The Division of AEI is the most accessible MCPS office
for our community. Regardless of whether
students are in a special program or in an on-grade level classroom, parents
can reach out to the AEI office through emails, phone calls, and personal meetings. AEI personnel including the director have
always made themselves available for responding promptly and many times, even for
making school visits when both parents and schools need support.
Overall, our students have diverse needs and program/pathway
implementations are always imperfect. The
easy accessibility and high availability of AEI as a bridge is critical for our
school system to achieve high level operational performance. Both our community and MCPS cannot afford to
lose the bridge and more importantly, to lose the office which provides a great
level of the transparency from various programs and pathways.
2. Interventions
from the Division of AEI have been crucial for efficacy and efficiency. For years,
AEI has been working on critically important issues well beyond admission tests
and process management as well as small curriculum tweaks. We have many examples to share. Here are a few.
Math 4 and Math 4/5 are two distinct math curricula
serving the diverse needs of on grade and advanced students.
In Spring 2016, MCPS Elementary School #1, which has
a large number of students in need of on grade level Math 4 and a similarly
large number of students in need of Math 4/5, announced a plan to put all
rising 4th graders into Math 4/5.
Parents were concerned both that on-grade level students might not be ready
for the program and that advanced students might be faced with a watered-down
program as a result.
In Fall 2017, MCPS Elementary School #2 divided its
23 Math 4/5 students evenly among the 4 fourth grade classrooms, rather that regrouping
them together for the math block. This
decision would artificially overload classroom teachers since they must prepare
for 2 set of distinct contents/materials each and every day. And the outcome wouldn’t be desirable.
Both cases have been reported to us by local parents
and PTAs in our community. AEI subject
matter experts’ opinions and their interventions through communications and coordination
have been vitally important in resolving both situations. For School #1, in Fall 2016, it has two Math
4 classes and two Math 4/5 classes. And for
School #2, in Spring 2018, it has three Math 4 classes and one dedicated Math
4/5 class.
These cases manifest how crucial the Division of
AEI is. In the two elementary schools
alone (neither of which is an elementary magnet), hundreds of students including on-grade and advanced students get
their needs met and teachers won’t be overloaded.
Besides, there are situations in secondary schools
(and not just in the middle school and high school magnets) where AEI has
responded to student and parent concerns.
The involvement of AEI was decisive to resolve concerns because of
their expertise and because parents knew exactly who to contact for assistance.
Both our community and MCPS need this office of
dedicated personnel, who dare to take
the leadership and to make the right call at crisis moments, to continue
their duty.
3. Abandoning
the Division of AEI, which is a successful model, and to take an unproven pathway
at this time, imposes great risks.
The Division of AEI consists of a group of
multi-disciplinary subject matter experts.
Their knowledge, experience, and dedication are precious resources. With their
deep ties to our community, together with the team environment, the
Division of AEI has always been able to assess situations raised by families
and to provide the right advice and actions.
Cutting half of AEI’s personnel, embedding them
into other top level branches, and quickly splitting their responsibilities among
multiple offices are a questionable strategic level decision:
- The loss of multi-disciplinary subject matter expert resource will be irreversible. It is crystal clear that after being reallocated to other offices, former AEI personnel will not be able to focus on the same issues to the same degree.
- This change is taking place in the middle of the response plan implementation of the Metis’ Choice Study. The Division of AEI is at the center of sensitive and critical changes in home elementary and secondary schools as well as in special programs. AEI’s multi-disciplinary expertise and support experience in professional development and ongoing support are irreplaceable assets directly affecting the outcome.
- Issues that used to be handled by the Division of AEI will be likely handled inefficiently and ineffectively among multiple offices. Immediately, any school visit that used to be from the Division of AEI will now have to involve people from multiple offices.
If there is a need for increasing support due to
recent program expansions, why not let the AEI office train personnel from
other offices? Why not expand the successful
model of the AEI office and make the overall support structure more effective?
We embrace the Superintendent’s vision for
expanding programs including those in the response plan of the Choice Study,
Career and Technology Education (CTE), STEM subjects, and Equal Opportunity
Schools (EOS).
We are in full support of Dr. Smith and our Board’s
vision for pursuing efficacy and efficiency demonstrated in the 5 questions in
FY2019 operating budget:
- Are our children learning?
- Are they learning enough to move ahead to the next grade level and be college and career ready?
- How do we know they are learning?
- If they are not learning, why are they not learning?
- What are we going to do about it?
Even though there are great challenges ahead, we
strongly believe that pursuing efficacy
and efficiency based on the principle of inclusion is a viable path for serving
the needs of MCPS’s diverse and growing student body.
We strongly recommend that Dr. Smith and the Board take
an extensive look into the successful model of the Division of AEI to fully
appreciate how it has, and must continue to, benefit MCPS students.
Thank you,
Lang Lin, Ph.D.
Chair, MCCPTA Gifted Child Committee
GT Liaison and Delegate, Cold Spring ES PTA
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