Thursday, September 9, 2010

MCPS releases PSAT participation rates

A recently released report from the MCPS Department of Shared Accountability reveals that 10th grade PSAT participation rates at most high schools ranged from 80% to 97%.

Thomas Wootton High School lead the pack with a participation rate of 96.6%. On the low end, the rate at Springbrook High School was 68.9%, more than 11 percentage points lower than any other MCPS high school.

Overall, 90% of MCPS 10th graders took the PSAT in 2009.

The PSAT is offered at "no charge" to all MCPS 10th graders, so it is baffling as to why there is such large variation in the participation rate throughout the school system.

The complete report is available at:

http://sharedaccountability.mcpsmd.org/reports/list.php?selection=868


PSAT score reports for 2009 have been received by MCPS but have not yet been released to the public.

6 comments:

  1. The public will have to wait until Sept. 15 for the list of semifinalists to be revealed, by request of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, which will formally announce the results nationwide on that day.

    I don't know about the scores, though. Is that information supposed to be withheld, too? Obviously, individual students already know their score (I think my son got his in December), but it's conceivable that schools are asked not to release the scores of all their students to keep the suspense until the day of NMS press release.

    For once, MCPS might have a valid excuse for being secretive:-)

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  2. Patricia, I was referring to PSAT score reports at the school level, not the individual student level. MCPS has all of the aggregate school data for 2009, but they have not yet released the aggregate score data in the form of a report.

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  3. I understand, Louis, but I am wondering if schools are even allowed to produce the aggregate school results before the formal announcement of semifinalists by the NMS Corp.

    At this point, to my knowledge, the only sure thing is last year's cutoff score for semifinalist status. It was 221 in Maryland last year. I don't think it changes much from year to year, but if the public could see the 2009 aggregate scores and compare them with the previous year's, it might lessen the interest in the NMS announcement -- from the NMS COrp.'s view point.

    Since I don't know the answer to my question, I'll give MCPS the benefit of the doubt.

    I'll check the blog on Sept.16 to see if there's a link to the report with the 2009 aggregate school data. No more excuses at that point!

    All the best to you on Sept 14. Remember the LAW, people! Lyda (Astrove), Agnes (Jones-Trower), and Louis (Wilen)!

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  4. Patricia, the PSAT score reports to which I am referring are for the test taken in October 2009. The schools received the results in December 2009. The participation rate report cited in my post (above) is based on the October 2009 test. MCPS has all of the October 2009 test data, including score data, but they have released only the participation rate data as of this time.

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  5. And thanks for your support in the upcoming election.

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  6. Louis, we are talking about the same October 2009 scores -- the ones that will determine the list of semifinalists to be announced on Sept. 15, 2010.

    ReplyDelete

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