One important point that was missing in the significant 2013 community conversation on Kent County’s poor student performance in 7th grade science was the fact that the these Maryland tests would become obsolete with the implementation of the new “Common Core” standards in 2014. While Kent County parents were reassured at the time that proficiency in areas like math and science would improve, the truth was that the benchmarks that were to be used to gauge such progress have became irrelevant almost overnight.
Indeed, it may be several years before Kent County can empirically determine where it stands in comparison to other Maryland school districts, or to the country for that matter.
And that is just one of the many challenges that have faced Superintendent Karen Couch in her first year at the helm. In her Spy interview, Dr. Couch talks about how Kent County Schools now tests for progress, the school budget, new attendance records, the uniqueness of the county’s universal pre kindergarten program, and why parents should have confidence in their children’s schools.
This video is approximately eleven minutes in length.
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