A report in yesterday’s Des Moines (Iowa) Register shows how Maryland’s school improvement efforts have left other states, including Iowa, in the dust.
Aside from giving Maryland’s former state superintendent of schools, Dr Nancy Grasmick, the first name of “Mary” in the print edition of the article, the piece steeps high praise on Maryland’s public schools. And this level of praise is well deserved on a national scale:
From 1992 to 2011, Maryland recorded the fastest rate of improvement in math, reading and science when compared with 40 other states in a Harvard University report published in July. The study included states that have participated in a set of rigorous national tests since 1992.
Iowa finished last.
“We put schools on notice,” the paper quoted Dr Grasmick as saying. “We stopped letting children be the victims of underperforming schools, period.”
For example, Maryland’s high school students have had to pass tests in biology, civics, algebra I, and English in order to graduate from high school. About half the states in the country now have high school exit exams, but they were started in Maryland in 1972, when students had to demonstrate proficiency in math, reading, and writing before they could receive a diploma.
Iowa’s legislature considered the idea of high school exit exams last year but dismissed the idea.
For more information, please read the article in the Register.
