County residents on Monday night took a peek into what education might look like in the future for Montgomery County Public Schools students.
During a “community conversation” about the future of MCPS programs, dozens of parents, community members and county leaders entertained conversations about what programs they’d like to see offered in county schools, including implementing more career and technical education hubs and increasing access to community-based learning.
“The reality is we need to innovate and think about what the reality will look like for our students,” said MCPS Chief Academic Officer Maria Navarro during the event at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring. “We need to keep ourselves current … to determine what kind of education our students need.”
Attendees were divided into small groups to facilitate conversations intended to answer specific questions, such as what challenges students face when trying to access programming, what areas of study should be available to all high school students and what goals parents have for students.
Proposed ideas ranged from ensuring students know how to read and write in cursive to completely revamping the high school experience.
Some parents talked about the need to incorporate more technology and expand the number of seats available in magnet programs at all grade levels, while others said each MCPS high school should have a specialized, unique program like the Science, Mathematics and Computer Science Magnet Program at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring.
Similar meetings will be held in February at Clarksburg High School and in April at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville.
Based on these community conversations, Navarro said MCPS staff will develop a long-term programming plan in the spring, then in the summer will propose a long-range plan and provide an update to the Montgomery County Board of Education about public input. Following board consideration and approval, MCPS will begin a “phased implementation” of its long-term plan.
“We realize the experiences of our kids and students are different than ours because it’s a different generation,” Navarro said. “Our goal is to figure out what the world will look like for our students not so far from today and help them reach their fullest potential.”
