Montgomery Tops Failing Schools List For First Time
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With Montgomery county number one on the list of failing schools in the state, what if anything is being done to change that?
It is a first for MPS and district officials say they are trying to improve things.
This is the second year that the state board has put together a failing list.
Because of the way they make that list, it’s a challenge to come off.
It’s hard when your school has been branded failing. It’s even harder to change that fact.
The state looks at the last 6 years and if your school is in the bottom tier for at least 3 years, then you’re on it.
That makes it hard to show change from year to year.
The eight MPS schools on the list fall into state board of education member Ella Bell’s district.
“It’s so unfortunate that we feel so necessary, and feel it necessary to call schools failing when we know we don’t fund them properly and we’re absolutely doing that. That almost seems like an unjust thing to me,” said Bell.
Montgomery hasn’t always held the top spot in the state. According to Al.com, Birmingham and Huntsville have both closed and consolidated schools, taking them off the failing list.
Montgomery County School Board President Melissa Snowden says that’s one way to help school systems.
“It costs a lot of money to run a school especially if you have a dwindling student enrollment, I’m not sure, but I assume these schools are consolidating because they have small enrollments. That’s just a way to save some money and put it back in the classroom,” said Snowden.
She’s not surprised to see MPS having a hard time with failing schools.
Most are middle schools like Capitol Heights and McKee, and Snowden says the board is taking that seriously.
“We’ve been working really hard with some middle school initiatives, doing some different programs to help encourage and promote student achievement for those schools. The concentration is in our middle schools,” said Snowden.
