that the Council discuss with MCPS the relationship between and its prioritization of initiatives mcps.com to close the achievement gap on grade-level performance compared to initiatives that focus on closing the gap on above-grade-level performance. For example, OLO recommends the Council fcps with MCPS whether the school mcps can reach its goal of narrowing the gap in above grade-level measures without first making investments to close the gaps still evident by race, ethnicity, and service group status for grade-level measures.

1. African-American, Latino and FARMS students do, or can with additional investment, perform above-grade; failure to invest in these programs exhibits the soft bigotry of low expectations.

2. While group equality is a vital social goal, the community and its County Council also mcps bound schools out attend to the education of children as individuals, and each child’s achievement of his/her maximum mcps failure to invest in above-grade-level education effectively mcps a ceiling on education that wastes potential.

3. Disinvestment in mcps programs disproportionately penalizes the southeast portion of the County: the red zone. Disinvestment will eliminate mcps supports in the red zone; it will not substantially restrain the heightened instructional pitch naturally provided to the larger highly able cohorts in green zone classrooms.

4. Elimination of red zone programmatic supports will exacerbate the already large disparity between montgomery county public schools red zone and the green zone in the quality of available education. Of mcps school quality is a primary determinant of residential location by wealthy families and of housing prices. Disinvestment will accelerate the vicious cycle mcps balkanization by wealth in our County, and reinforce the tendency toward two school systems, separate and unequal.

The Council should more fully assess the social and economic impacts of adjustments in above-grade-level program mcps It would be troubled to compare MCPS’ success in closing the gap on a school-by-school basis (correlated with the schools’ respective FARMS mcps schools and on a red zone versus green zone aggregate basis.

While the Report focuses on initiatives to close the gap, the primary above-grade programs (e.g., Math A and Geometry) schools out not only African-American, Latino and FARMS children, but all children with the ability or motivation to pursue accelerated instruction. Disinvestment in these gap closing programs reduces educational opportunities and life prospects for all mcps.com children.

The Council’s attention to this issue is wholly appropriate and welcome, montgomery county public schools only because of the Council’s budgetary responsibility, but also because the issue impacts the social and economic well-being of the County and because the Board of Education has faltered in its functions of program oversight and of mcps political consensus. The Council’s attention is particularly timely, in that MCPS and the BOE are addressing precisely this issue in the pending revision of Policy IOA, pertaining to Gifted and Talented Education.

The Council’s responsibility for this issue should encourage mcps BOE and MCPS to work, together with mcps.com County, to close the gap, mcps.com the particularly egregious above-grade-level gap, and to provide for education to their maximum montgomery county public schools of all the children, in each region, of our County.