Kimberly Moffitt, American Studies, in The Baltimore Sun

In a Baltimore Sun op-ed, Kimberly Moffitt, assistant professor of American studies, criticizes the number of “promotion ceremonies” held for schoolchildren and questions whether “milestones” are being overemphasized. While acknowledging the appeal for parents of celebrating their children’s accomplishments, Moffitt noted that such ceremonies can involve valuable time and considerable financial resources from our already-strapped school systems, and proposes an alternative awards program more modest in scope for the whole of a school, with divisions in terms of elementary and middle school. Moffitt wrote that the recently-released Maryland School Assessment (MSA) scores for Baltimore “[confirm] that more instruction time, not less, is needed for all of our children. And limiting …