Race to the Top. Maryland Report. Year 3: School Year 2012-2013. [State-Specific Summary Report]
Author: Department of Education (ED)
Date: 2014-03-19
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Academic Achievement,Academic Standards,Accountability,Achievement Gap,Administrator Effectiveness,Alignment (Education),Budgets,Career Readiness,Charter Schools,College Readiness,Core Curriculum,Data,Educational Assessment,Educational Change,Educational Improvement,Elementary Secondary Education,Federal Legislation,Federal Aid,Educational Legislation,Federal Programs,Formative Evaluation,Grants,Higher Education,Language Arts,Leadership Effectiveness,Literacy,Low Achievement,Mathematics Achievement,Measurement Objectives,Models,Outcomes of Education,Partnerships in Education,Poverty,Principals,Professional Development,Program Effectiveness,Program Implementation,School Districts,School Effectiveness,School Turnaround,State Government,State Standards,STEM Education,Teacher Effectiveness,Teacher Evaluation,Student Characteristics,National Competency Tests

This State-specific summary report serves as an assessment of Maryland's Year 3 Race to the Top implementation, highlighting successes and accomplishments, identifying challenges, and providing lessons learned from the implementation process. During Year 3 Maryland continued to prepare educators to fully implement the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in SY 2013-2014 and Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessments in SY 2014-2015. Building on the model units and lessons that Maryland educators developed for each grade in English Learning Arts (ELA) and mathematics in Year 2, the State developed additional ELA and mathematics units and lessons, and created social studies and science curriculum resources. Additionally, all participating local education agencies (LEAs) conducted an abbreviated pilot of the new teacher and principal evaluation system in Year 3 in preparation for implementation of all components of the system in SY 2013-2014. Maryland continued to score well above the national average on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in 2013. The State showed slight increases in reading from 2011. Although the State had a negligible decrease in overall mathematics scores since 2011, the percent of students scoring in the advanced range increased by eight percent in grade four mathematics and five percent in grade eight mathematics. In Year 3, The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) began holding Race to the Top Stat meetings to discuss the status of each project, successes, challenges, and the quality of implementation. Using the Maryland Common Core State Curriculum (MCCSC) Frameworks and PARCC Model Content Frameworks as guides, Maryland educators continued developing model units and lessons in ELA and mathematics for each grade level for use across the State. Maryland's Breakthrough Center continues to lead the State's efforts to turn around its lowest-achieving schools. While Maryland made some progress implementing its Race to the Top initiatives in Year 3, the State continued to struggle with finding highly qualified staff to conduct project activities related to the State's technology and Instruction Improvement (IIS) projects and experienced technical challenges, resulting in further delays and impacting the State's ability to meet the timeline outlined in its Race to the Top application. Throughout SY 2012-2013, Maryland did not have a strategy in place to collect formative feedback on participating LEA capacity and the quality of implementation at the local-level across its reform agenda. In Year 4, Maryland will fully implement the CCSS and will administer PARCC assessments in SY 2014-2015. Maryland educators will have access to additional resources to support CCSS implementation through the State's Curriculum Management System (CMS) and Learning Management System (LMS). In SY 2013- 2014, the State plans to complete development of several technology-based resources and systems, including enhancements to the Maryland Longitudinal Data System (MLDS), data dashboards and accompanying multi-media training modules, online science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses, and the repository of CCSS materials. Finally, Maryland will implement its teacher and principal evaluation system for all teachers in its participating LEAs in SY 2013-2014. To ensure successful implementation, the State must provide comprehensive training and support for LEAs. More detailed information is provided in this report and a glossary is included. [&quot;Race to the Top. Maryland Report. Year 2: School Year 2011-2012. [State-Specific Summary Report]&quot; is available in ERIC at ED539238.]