The Montgomery County Public School (MCPS)’s 2025 legislation platform calls for state legislators to drop its requirement that the Reasoning Through Language Arts section of the high school equivalency test be taken only in English.
The state set this up “so the test taker can demonstrate English proficiency; however English proficiency is not an explicit requirement of the GED exam,” according to MCPS’ written request.
“Maryland is one of the – actually is the only state – that requires that the Graduate Equivalent Exam, the GED, be administered in English only. This is problematic for a lot of our students, but out of the 50 states in the United States, 49 have figured out that it’s okay to do something in a different language and somehow, Maryland has not,” MCPS Superintendent Dr. Thomas Taylor stated in a recent meeting with the Montgomery County Taxpayers League.
“That feels like something that could be corrected very easily,” Taylor said.
In its legislative platform, MCPS noted that during the previous school year, only three Career Readiness Education Academy (CREA) students, who are all Emergent Multilingual Learners, earned their GED credential.
Passing rate for the social studies portion of the exam was 40%. For science, of the 114 students who took the test, 45 passed. In math, 32 students passed out of the 96 who tried.
When it came to the Reasoning Through Language Arts section, only 10% passed. Out of 66 attempts, seven students passed, according to MCPS’ list of priorities for the Maryland General Assembly to take on in the coming session.
This creates a barrier to passing the GED, according to MCPS. Students need to pass all four GED sections, and the English only section “is the single biggest obstacle to earning the GED credential,” it states in the legislative platform. “Without this added requirement it is likely that the pass rate for CREA students would increase.”
Board of Education members understand that English proficiency “is an important skill for speakers of foreign languages to succeed in this country.” However, according to the platform, including an English-only section “creates an artificial and substantive barrier for an individual who is otherwise able to pass the GED exam.”
The platform notes that students will continue to learn English in the workforce but without a high school diploma, that may not occur.
Four other priorities are included in the platform.
The first urges state legislators to revisit graduation requirements to ensure students are better prepared for the future. The requirements have remained the same for six years.
The second priority is a request to be able to use state security grants for building improvements. Currently, the money is allocated for training, conducting school safety evaluations and outreach to the broader school community regarding availability of existing mental health and other services.
The third priority addresses the state’s requirement for funding for dual enrollment in advanced placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate(IB) exams.
During the previous school year, MCPS spent more than $5.2 million on dual enrollment for 2,198 students who enrolled in 10,118 courses. The state requires school systems to cover the costs of the AP and IB exams.
MCPS wants the state to look into ways to reduce this cost, perhaps by asking families to pay a certain amount depending on their income.
The last priority involves virtual learning, noting that MCPS closed its Montgomery Virtual Academy “due to budgetary constraints.” The district calls on state legislators to develop a statewide virtual learning option for all Maryland public school students.
