Thread by @AlecMacGillis

"Failure rates in math and English jumped as much as sixfold for some of the most vulnerable students in Maryland’s largest school system, according to data released as the pandemic’s toll becomes increasingly visible in schools across the country."
washingtonpost.com/local/educatio…

"In but one stark example, more than 36 percent of ninth-graders from low-income families failed the first marking period in English. That compares with fewer than 6 percent last year, when the same students took English in eighth grade."

"In Montgomery, a diverse system of more than 161,000 students, Black and Hispanic students from families at or near the poverty line were among the most severely affected groups, along with English language learners."

"It breaks my heart to see so many of these numbers,” Rebecca Smondrowski, a school board member, said after the numbers were shared at a board meeting Thursday. “We knew that gaps were going to get bigger, but these are huge.”

Worth noting: Montgomery County MD has long been held up as an exemplar of a large, diverse school system where Black and Latino students perform well above national averages. These numbers are a huge setback for the county.
Which, to be clear, has been fully remote since March.