Maryland State Superintendent of Schools Lillian Lowery visited new teachers in Hagerstown, in Washington County, on Aug 11, the Herald-Mail reports.
She told more than a hundred teachers at North Hagerstown High School, on the first day of a three-day academy for new teachers, that they should focus on student growth rather than trying to have every student reach the same benchmark despite starting the school year at different achievement levels.
“I think new teachers need to understand that [the state has] realistic and achievable goals for them,” the paper quoted her as saying. “And that major goal is that each year when a child leaves your classroom, that child leaves better than he or she … came in. It’s not necessarily about the (new) teacher-principal evaluation, but it is setting an expectation that we expect you to do a great job with students, and we expect students to grow over the course of a school year.”