END MIS-USE OF GLOBAL SCREENING PROCESS

On October 24, 2005, at a press conference held outside the Carver Educational Services Center in Rockville, the Equity in Education Coalition demanded that the Board of Education and MCPS end the use of the Grade 2 Global Screening Process as a vehicle for separating children into two arbitrary educational tracks, one of which provides inferior and inequitable educational opportunities. After introductory remarks by the moderator, Denise Young (MCEF), comments were made by a number of speakers including Mark Adelman (MCEF), Carla Richardson-Lambert (African-American Parents of Montgomery County), Yvette Butler (GapBuster Learning Center), George Vlasits (teacher at Blair HS), Saron Yitbarek (Junior at Blair HS), and Anna Sol Gutierrez (Delegate to the Maryland State Legislature).

The press conference received coverage in Gazette newspapers. In an article entitled "School official calls for new gifted test", by Sean R. Sedam (October 26, 2005), a spokesperson for MCPS acknowledges the problem. Quoting from the article: The school system needs to change the way it identifies gifted and talented students, a top school official says. "Short term, we need to come up with something different for this year," Deputy Superintendent Frieda K. Lacey said. "Long term, we need to revamp this whole global screening and just do something completely different."

To see the full Gazette article, click here.

To see the MCPS Report on the results of Grade 2 Global Screening for 2005, click here.

To see the Press Release, click here.

For material prepared by MCEF on the Logic of Ending Global Screening, click here.

For Mark Adelman's comments, click here.

For Carla Richardson-Lambert's comments, click here.

For Saron Yitbarek's poem, click here.

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Last modified: Tuesday, November 22, 2005