Maryland plans to spend $16.6 billion by 2029 to improve public schools, and billions more after that.
But will it work?
The state Legislature created a seven-member oversight committee to ensure that.
Maryland's Blueprint for the Future, a transformative education law passed in 2021, aims to improve student achievement and the quality of education across Maryland's schools. This goal is outlined in his five pillars: expanding preschool, hiring and retaining high-quality and diverse teachers and leaders, college and career readiness, additional resources, and accountability and governance.
Lawmakers created a Blueprint Accountability and Implementation Committee to monitor the progress of the Blueprint. The Board oversees the implementation of funding and initiatives and provides guidance to school districts with the goal of improving Maryland's academic performance.
“I think part of it is understanding that we can do better, we need to do better, and we intend to do better,” said Rachel Heiss, executive director of the Accountability Commission. “I will.” “That’s the promise of Blueprint.”
School leaders around the state tend to agree, but say the blueprint comes with complex issues that go beyond the fiscal challenges it poses for the state and its 24 public school districts. Educators said they were concerned about the blueprint's deadline, lack of detailed procedural information and the plan's overall place in the education system.
“Implementing a law as comprehensive as Maryland's Blueprint for the Future would be a daunting endeavor under the best of circumstances,” Baltimore City Public Schools officials told the Board of Accountants in May. This was stated in the report on the 1st. “However, the challenges are compounded by the increased complexity of recovering from the pandemic, delays due to very limited pre-implementation planning time for districts, and the slow pace of regulations and guidance related to the blueprint.” It has been.”
Blueprint evaluation
The Accountability and Implementation Committee will oversee each public school system's progress in implementing the Blueprint Initiative.
The board is required by law to:
- Create a plan and set timelines and deadlines for fully implementing the Blueprint in your public school system.
- Monitor the progress the district and state are making on the blueprint. By reporting 92 data measures annually, we collect information about student achievement, teacher preparation, and Blueprint funding outcomes.
- Determine whether changes need to be made to the plan to achieve the plan's original goals.
- An “expert review team” of teachers, faculty and staff will observe schools and ensure they understand how to make recommendations for changes to how the plan is implemented.
- Each year, we donate approximately one-quarter of Blueprint funds to school systems that are doing well.
- Hire an independent contractor to evaluate the success of your blueprint.
- School systems will ensure that at least 75% of the funds received per student result in students attending school.
Under the law, accountability boards can withhold funding from school systems that fail to implement Blueprint initiatives or show significant student progress.
The board meets regularly to hear from Marylanders. Laura Stapleton, director and chair of the University of Maryland's School of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, said the school has a series of tools in place to gather feedback from teachers, parents, students, and other stakeholders. There is also an advisory group.
“There are so many moving parts,” Stapleton said. “It takes a lot of different stakeholders to implement all the different parts of the blueprint.”
Extension of deadline
All public school districts in Maryland are responsible for deploying the Blueprint initiative and collecting each of 92 different data measures for evaluation by the Accountability and Implementation Committee, Stapleton said.
But none of this is easy, school district officials said.
“In an education reform of this scale, it is difficult to keep up with the constant changes, timelines, and pillar initiatives,” Carroll County School District leaders wrote in a May 1 submission to the briefing committee. ” he said.
Janine Buckey, Blueprint Implementation Coordinator for Montgomery County Public Schools, said the district is working to properly collect data and implement Blueprint initiatives within the allotted deadlines. .
“We're having a hard time getting the guidance we need to do the work we need to do on a short schedule,” Bucky said. “Another year or two would certainly take some of the pressure off.”
Initially, all 24 school districts were required to submit final Blueprint implementation plans by March 2024.
But the filing schedule was revised because the state provided districts with the necessary materials, including report templates and expectations, just two months before the March deadline.
Bucky said the March deadline has been changed so that only a 10-page preliminary report is required. The deadline for the final report was then postponed to May 1.
The Accountability and Performance Committee also faces tight deadlines. Stapleton said an independent contractor expects him to conduct an evaluation of the blueprint by October.
But Mr Stapleton said he would like to see the evaluation deadline pushed back a few years to give the Blueprint's many initiatives more time to lead to change.
slow flow of information
Meanwhile, Blueprint information appears to be moving slowly through the state's school districts.
“Because the Blueprint implementation is large-scale and district-wide, one of the biggest challenges will be communicating to employees how their work already aligns with the Blueprint,” Prince said. George County Schools officials said in a March 2024 accountability filing. board.
The Accountability Executive Committee will hold regular meetings on Zoom that are open to all. All meetings will be held online and will be published in an online archive for everyone to view.
But Javier Varela, a math content specialist at a Montgomery County public middle school, said he and other teachers have no idea the depth of information contained in the blueprints.
He said the state needs to do more to provide information to teachers.
Change is coming next year, but “we don't know anything about that,” Varela said. “That's concerning because we're going to be implementing that plan. … There should be a lot more transparency, and they need to talk to us and let us know what this is.”
Sparkle Jefferson, assistant principal at Flintstone Elementary School in Prince George's County, echoed Varela's sentiments about the need for more details on the blueprint.
“There's obviously a lot of information that needs to come out,” Jefferson said. “I think it needs to be disseminated in a clear and concise way that, of course, principals can understand and understand the impact it has on each school.”
Accountability Committee members encourage community members to provide feedback. Rachel Amstutz, director of policy at the Accountability Commission, said at a principals' meeting late last year that principals, parents and teachers were encouraged to communicate about the blueprint.
“We need to hear from the local level what is going on and what is needed,” Amstutz said. “We need to hear from parents what works for their children and what doesn't.”
deep-seated concerns
The implementation of the blueprint has not gone as planned so far. The standards and implementation plan deadlines have been extended at least three times. School officials across the state expressed a variety of concerns in district-level blueprint plans submitted this spring.
“From funding uncertainties to staffing shortages to delays in critical instruction, the district has ensured the success of its Blueprint efforts,” Caroline County Schools officials said in a statement to the board in March. We have to overcome various obstacles to achieve this goal.”
Meanwhile, Allegany County school officials said workforce issues are making implementation of the blueprint a challenge. “Due to staff turnover and turnover, it is difficult to maintain district-level initiatives in all schools,” officials wrote in a May 1 report.
In an update on the blueprint, St. Mary's Parish school officials said they are concerned about all the elements of public education that the blueprint ignores. Funding could be cut in other important parts of the learning experience as districts seek to meet Blueprint mandates, they said.
“The universal challenge inherent in achieving the Blueprint's goals is that the Blueprint is silent on support for everything else: the arts, athletics, education, after-school programs, transportation, facilities, health care, etc.” ” wrote Marys County school officials. “These elements of school are necessary and essential to supporting the whole child.”
Amid all the concerns, Buckey, Montgomery County's blueprint coordinator, said further delays may be necessary. Rushing to complete the various measures in the blueprint could make the plan to reinvent Maryland's public schools less effective than it would otherwise be, she said.
“It's not something you can just come in and say something is going to change overnight,” Bucky said. “You’re changing your heart, your mind, your mindset, your strategy.”
Local News Network Director Jerry Zremski contributed to this report.