YESTERDAY'S ARTICLE IN THE WASHINGTON POST TELLS THE STORY OF SCHOOL SYSTEMS THAT ARE COMING TO GRIPS WITH FAILURE AND ARE TAKING ACTION TO GAIN CONTROL OF WHAT OUR STUDENTS ARE LEARNING.  THE OUTFLUENCE PROGRAM "YOU ARE HERE . . . NOW WHAT?" IS ON TRACK TO SUPPORT THE EFFORT TO PREPARE CHILDREN FOR COLLEGE OR CAREERS.  THE PROGRAM FOCUSES ON PERSISTENCE AND COMPLETION, AND IN 24 90-MINUTE SESSIONS OVER TWO SEMESTERS, PREPARES STUDENTS FOR SUCCESS. 

From the Washington Post:

"EDUCATION OFFICIALS in Maryland and the District had pretty similar responses to the release of test scores showing that most high school students in the two jurisdictions are not on track to graduate ready for college or careers. “Obviously, this is a cold shower. There’s a lot of work to be done,” said Maryland Board of Education member Chester Finn. “These results are not easy to see, and certainly we have a lot of work to do,” said D.C. State Superintendent Hanseul Kang. As sobering as the results are, they also must be seen as a credit to efforts to require new rigor in Maryland and D.C. classrooms and provide honest assessments of what students have learned.

The first results of testing on the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC — geared to the heightened academic standards of Common Core — were released Tuesday. In Maryland, only 31 percent of studentsmet proficiency standards for Algebra I and 40 percent of students met the standard for 10th-grade English. In the District, 27 percent of students were proficient in 10th-grade English and 12 percent met standards for geometry. The dismal first-year results mirror the experiences of other states that switched to PARCC and had been anticipated by officials who nonetheless recognize the value of tests that accurately measure college or career readiness."

“Why are we here?” Maryland’s interim superintendent of schools, Jack R. Smith, asked. “Because we raised expectations considerably.” That inflated scores from previous state-administered tests did not reflect what graduating students need to know could be seen in the large number of students required to take remedial classes before they could enroll in credit classes at Maryland community colleges. And, as Maryland officials ruefully learned this week with release of scores on another national test, gamesmanship with the assessments does great disservice to the educational needs of students. Maryland was the only state to have falling scores on the Nation’s Report Card in both reading and math and in both grades tested; one factor cited was the exclusion in previous years of high percentages of students with disabilities or English-language learners who would lower scores.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) spoke about “a false sense of security” that was created by exclusion of these students. He could just as easily have been talking about how inflated scores from undemanding tests allowed students to coast through school and graduate without the knowledge needed for life. Maryland and D.C. officials are right in setting ambitious new goals for students, and these first-year test results, while disappointing, should not discourage those efforts.