Ms. Ma is Lakewood ES PTA VP and parent GT liaison. She started these positions from 2015-16 school year. She remains on the same posts till now. She has been the parent champion for GT education within her school community.
She has been patiently and tirelessly supporting GT education through
- Bringing up issues on homework, mistakes in teaching materials, etc to teachers;
- Organizing PTA events on GT education issues;
- Bridging conversations between the community and the school;
Here is where she truly shines!
In MCPS elementary schools, there are 2 different math programs for 4th graders. Math 4 is for on grade level students and Math 4/5 is for highly able students. Math 4/5 is a program for students to complete full Math 4 and half of Math 5 programs in one year.
While Lakewood ES has a large group of highly able students, there are a large number of students still in need of on grade math. However, in Feb 2016, the previous principal of Lakewood ES made an astonishing decision to put all rising Lakewood ES 4th graders in Math 4/5 program.
Knowing Lakewood ES PARCC score / MAP-M numbers, Ms. Ma had solid evidence that the one-size- fits-all decision was inappropriate. She started from getting parents together to persuade the principal to take better decisions. It did not work out. Parents’ suggestions were pushed back.
In MCPS, it does need tremendous courage for any parent to advocate for GT education. Although Ms. Ma is worried, she did not hesitate to reach out to high level MCPS administrators. In the next 4 months, she had called/met numerous times with
- MCPS elementary integrated curriculum supervisor who overseeing both Math 4 and Math 4/5 programs;
- MCPS office of school support and improvement director who overseeing the school principal;
- MCPS AEI director who overseeing GT education matters in general;
- MCPS associate superintendent who heading the office of curriculum and instructional programs.
She had done superb preparations / studies for those meetings/calls. Even though she is not a native English speaker, she utilized her resource well and had successfully convinced MCPS leaders and gained their support.
Thanks for her courage and persistence, in 2016-2017 school year, Lakewood ES had two Math 4 classes and two Math 4/5 classes.
This is the first principal’s decision on such matters being reversed that I’ve ever known within MCPS.
Having chairing Gifted Child Committee of Montgomery County Council of PTAs for the last few years, I know what a saga it was for Ms. Ma to overcome the hurdles on her way. Ms. Ma has my highest degree of respect. I strongly support her nomination for this recognition. And I believe that this award will benefit MCPS since it could potentially help MCPS parents to work with schools proactively and smoothly.
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