So Dana had the questions you list here when he said no? What was his reason?

Did you offer Superintendent Starr wine? He attends events with parents where alcohol is served. If he does that, why is he opposed to a real interview with serious questions?

These are great questions. There's a lot of talk about how great Montgomery County schools scores are. And that's true, but as I'm learning, having moved to Silver Spring/Wheaton area, there are two Montgomery Counties. Starr seems to be smart and well-intentioned, but the county needs to seriously address how it bridges the East-West divide. There's a lot of touting the things the county does right, but that appears to have meant ignoring problems like Glen Haven Elementary -- and it's not just a "population" issue. This is a leadership issue. Too many parents in my neighborhood have either pulled or won't send their kids to Glen Haven because of the principal. They'd rather have their children in immersion programs. That's pretty desperate. This shouldn't be the case when Oakland Terrace, two miles away and Sligo Elementary (4 miles away) are much higher performing.

so Bill Gates gives 1 billion-
1. do they use the money to bring the lowest scoring kids closer to the higher scoring kids
2. do they try to equitably apply it across the board, more teachers per student
3. do they try to increase parental assistance in getting more active in the kids's lives
4. do they remove all obstacles from learning, like hungry bellys
5. do they incent the kids with full participation in class (no disruption, no chatter)
6. do they take the higher scoring kids to an even higher level
7. do they fund tutor classes for any student seeking additional learning assistance

Well, if the Gates Foundation did give a billion with no-strings attached, but you could only pick three things then I guess you could 1) spend it eliminating hunger (that's a damn good goal); 2) purchase or fund unlimited tutoring (after all, folks in Bethesda and Potomac seem to have such a resource); and 3) you fill-in the blank here with one more thing ___________________________________.

I think whether Starr agreed to an in-person interview or not, you've sent in your questions and MCPS can write back answers. You should not simply be told "No."

Good point Theresa, but at this point in time, I'm not expecting any official answers. Do you think it would be wise for Starr or even his mouth-piece Dana Tofig to publicly say, "Black parents are apathetic?"

@Janis, the education is free, but it should be the parents responsibility to provide.
1. pencils, paper, notebooks, rulers, calculators
2. a child that is well nourished
3. a child that has enough sleep
4. accountability for a child who refuses/disrupts classrooms.

Students are only in the school setting 10% of the time. The rest is out of the school setting. How do you make the parents accountable? That is the issue all school systems are facing.

Because we failed the parent we should now blame them and fail their children? Perhaps exploit the parent is appropriate for how we got to this point.
Blame is not the solution but if we are to educate all children we will have to go back and both educate as well as include their parents.

jack

Accountability is the lesson plan or in this case not part of the curriculum.

"Let’s fast forward to 2020: You're in your third term as MCPS superintendent. The above performance gaps remain—you have not closed this specific performance gap or others."

This question alone begs the question, do you want to interview the person or chastise him for what he may or may not do in the next seven years? Way too negative a stance for a bi-partisan interviewer.

Second bad question:
"If Bill Gates called you tomorrow and said, “Dr. Starr I’m giving $1 billion dollars to MCPS to spend on gap-closing efforts and programs at the high school."

If the Gates foundation made a donation it would be in the $10-50 million dollar range and when they make any donation, it comes with myriad stipulations. Not sure that is always a win-win scenario, better to look at the KIPP schools for your anwers

Finally, I would revoke your interview because you appear to have an agenda and lack the credibility of a true journalist. I would hazard to guess you have what you consider to be the proper answer to all your questions, so why would anyone need to meet with you?

Online addict: Duh, anyone who reads me quickly comes to the observation and conclusion that I have an agenda. I have never hidden my agenda: make MCPS address its historical achievement gaps! And I have never pretended to be a journalist. I don't want to put my fellow bloggers down, but frankly, anyone who can string paragraphs together can blog. For me it is the perfect way to get stuff off your chest.

Online addict points out that I'm void of ideas. I will confess that there are some blog pieces without suggestions, but for the most part, I've probably offered more ideas over the past 25 years on how to close achievement gaps than most have. I'm probably one of the first people in this County to go on the record saying that MCPS should abolish tracking and I'm firmly on the record as saying pay teacher more and my idea of pushing more high school students of color into IB programs goes back to the late 1990's. But thanks--Mr. Online addict--you're given me an idea for a future blog: list out every single idea or suggestions I've ever made for correcting the achievement gaps.

Online, a seasoned journalist or should I say hundreds of well fried news hounds got nowhere in Fast and Furious and the Benghazi hearings. Mum was the word and still is.

Sean Hannity from| Fox News laid out a time that connected the dots and spoke with no one in the WH on the Benghazi issue. A moment to moment account of the attack. He did not enter the spin zone and didn't have to. You let the facts do the talking.

Now they may think some of us are stupid, but the body count and the military people they spoke with paint a different picture.

Any successful writer, no matter what their background is should always write in drafts and have them reviewed by other professionals before publishing.

One of the best movies on journalism and how it is done successfully is "All the Presidents Men." Required reading before one puts pen to paper.

I agree with you on the issue of the interview. I would have used an e-mail for a response or lack thereof but that would not have been the focal point of the article.

I would have also stated the facts as opposed to asking for them. Your argument becomes more forceful when you present them and then refer (documentation by e-mail) they had no answers. That way you remove the agenda issue and the onus now becomes their silence..

Janis, great point. I use PIA's all the time. Even sued Balto. Co. one time over a story I did.

I think that if Joe takes a look at the "War on Poverty," and correlates those issues he'll find they are applicable across the country and that battle left no dollar, excuse me, stone unturned.