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Myth #6: “We Can Rely on MCPS to Fix The Illiteracy Program”
Montgomery County Public Schools is the largest public school system in Maryland and 14th largest in the nation. According to Niche, a popular ranking and review site for schools, there
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Myth #5. The Long-Term Solution to Illiteracy is After-School Programming
Last year, Let’s Read! Literacy Tutoring Program recruited 109 volunteers to tutor 68 second graders across four tutoring sites. This year, we hope to recruit 130 volunteers to tutor 80
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Myth #4: Parents need to do more to help their child learn to read.
4th in a series on illiteracy in Montgomery County. Consider: you’re a young dad whose 1st grade son gets a gift in the mail from his grandmother. It’s a book
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Myth #3: The New Curriculum will Solve the Illiteracy Problem.
In the fall of 2025, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) rolled out a new curriculum published by Amplify called CKLA (Core Knowledge Language Arts). It is now used in all
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Myth #2: The pandemic is to blame for illiteracy in the public schools.
(2nd in a series on illiteracy in Montgomery County) One of the trickiest parts of tracking literacy rates over the years is pinning down the data itself. Literacy is defined
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Myth #1: MCPS is making good progress toward literacy proficiency.
Just two weeks from tomorrow, students in Montgomery County will return to school for the 2026 – 2027 academic year. And as they do, our minds once again return to
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Wheat and Weeds
In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells a parable about wheat and weeds (tares). It goes something like this: a farmer plants wheat in his landowner’s field, but an intruder
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Three Great Local Projects
As you know, I’m passionate about literacy as so many students’ academic futures in Montgomery County are getting shafted by an inadequate foundation for learning. It’s a crisis – and
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1,000,000,000,000
You knew it would happen sometime. Either by virtue of the inflating dollar or the sheer thrill of breaking all barriers, someone was going to hit the 13-digit wealth mark.
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Move the Needle!
Our Let’s Read! Literacy Tutoring Program has put in place a program that directly addresses the dire literacy crisis in Montgomery County, where the literacy rate for 4th graders hobbles