Montgomery County Schools urges 1‑year delay for high‑school end‑of‑course assessments

Montgomery County Public Schools asked the State Board of Education to delay implementation of high‑school end‑of‑course assessments for one additional school year, saying districts do not have the information needed to incorporate the tests into course grades and district report‑card timelines.

Donna Blaney, Montgomery County’s local accountability coordinator, told the board that although the department has published general testing windows, MSDE has not provided a schedule for when vendor scores will be returned or issued a complete set of updated FAQs and supporting resources. Without those details, Blaney said, districts cannot publish testing calendars that allow them to calculate an assessment’s 20% weighting into a course grade and communicate plans to students and families in time for the 2023–24 school year.

Blaney also flagged a recent change to which content areas are included on the EOCs: the original FAQs had listed four content areas—algebra, English, government and life science—while the recently proposed amendments exclude algebra and English. “What is the rationale for excluding those core academic assessments, and is it reasonable to make that decision just one month before the school year begins?” she asked the board.

She asked the State Board to adopt a one‑year delay to give districts time to align calendars, publish guidance and create comprehensive communication plans, and recommended that MSDE adopt COMAR changes at least one year before implementation so local districts have time to prepare.

MSDE officials told the board they are working on timelines, scoring procedures and outreach; board members said they would take the request under advisement and discuss next steps with the superintendent and department staff.

Next steps: the board will consider the request and MSDE indicated it will provide additional information on scoring timelines and guidance as part of its upcoming communications to LEAs. No formal board decision was recorded during the public comment segment.