Education Reform

As the wealthiest country in the world, you would think that America would have an educational system second to none.  Unfortunately, in the 2007 TIMSS international study comparing 4th and 8th graders, American students were consistently beaten in math and science by those from numerous Asian countries, the Russian Federation and England.

 
And despite receiving the Education Week’s #1 ranking for three years in a row, Maryland students are not significantly out-performing those in the rest of the country.  In fact, Maryland ranks a dismal 29th out of 47 states in our students’ knowledge of science in both the 4th and 8th grades.

If we want Maryland to be the world’s technological leader in the biomedical and cyber security fields, we need to continue to strengthen our schools.  Obviously, strengthening our science instruction is one area that needs to be focused on.  But we also need to figure out how to both reduce the achievement gap and keep our students from dropping out. 

Achievement Gap
 

African-American and Hispanic students perform consistently poorer on assessment tests, both in Maryland and across the country.  Once again, science is a particular concern:

 Graduation Rates

Horrifyingly, 31.2% of American high school students from the class of 2007 dropped out between 9th grade and 12th grade, according to the EPE Research Center.  Graduation rates in Maryland are a bit better, but it is deeply disturbing that 26.3% of Maryland 9th graders from this class dropped out.   In a world where it is extremely difficult to support oneself without a high school diploma, we need to figure out effective means to encourage all students to stay in school. 

Anne Arundel County Schools

While a great deal of progress has been made in recent years, Anne Arundel Schools have similar challenges in terms of the achievement gap, drop out rates, and weak understanding of science.  Learn more here.