Embrace the New: State of the Schools Address Looks to Future Changes

“Hope. Four letters,” said Blessed Sherriff, a junior at Montgomery Blair High School, one of many speakers at the Nov. 11 State of the Schools address, hosted by county superintendent Dr. Joshua Starr. The event was held at Strathmore music hall, where Sherriff read aloud the poem she had composed for the occasion to emphasize the importance of hope in education. As an accomplished reader and writer of poetry, she received a standing ovation after her performance, but she was not the only one there who showed the talent found in MCPS.

Later Starr took the stage and began his speech by thanking all the partners of MCPS, the student performers at the event, and all of the United States Veterans as the event occoured on veteran’s day. From there, he launched into the major problems facing the county, and how he plans to address them. With the growing use of technology, Starr expressed that factual information is easier to access, so other skills like applications for such information are becoming more important to be successful in life.

The main themes of his speech were innovation, hope, and “embrace the new,” all of which were in reference to his plans to fix the most important problem facing Montgomery County: the achievement gap. To combat this issue, MCPS has introduced a new Project Based Learning system in several high schools around the county. Wheaton High School, which is also being remodeled, is the first school to incorporate the project based system into their curriculum. The main idea of the program is to give students hands on experience and allow them to apply what they learn.

Starr aims to have all children graduate with academic excellence in math and science, text interpretation and idea expression in order to be on par with the rest of the world. To achieve this, he is tailoring teachers and learning programs to the schools they serve, as each one has a different set of circumstances. Though the subject matter covered will have to stay the same, the approaches of teachers and administrators will be more customized.

Another theme was that of creative problem solving, which tied in with innovation. Starr hopes that students will be able to address a set of circumstances, devise a strategy to fix or improve it, and express those ideas effectively by the end of their time with MCPS. One of the strategies for this is interdisciplinary learning; ESOL students will write narratives about their lives, and students in drama classes will create scenes based off of these stories. Finally, the ACES program has been introduced to help students through high school and college, giving them a solid life bases.

WJ’s Madrigals, or Advanced Choir, performed nine songs in the main lobby before the event started, and joined up with students from the Seneca Valley music program to sing on the path to the exit after Starr’s speech. On the stage in the concert hall, Pop Fly wowed the audience with three song and dance numbers, one of which was a salute to the army in honor of Veterans Day. Jazz Ensemble also performed on the Strathmore stage as they played the instrumentals for Pop Fly’s vocals.

Starr spoke for a long time, but several key issues were not mentioned. For example, the controversial school start times proposition that he supports was noticeably absent.

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