Schools Set to Open for the 2012-2013 Academic Year

[Howard Hartman]

For Immediate Release	August 16, 2012

Schools Set to Open for the
2012-2013 Academic Year

Maryland Schools Begin Opening Next Week

BALTIMORE (August 16, 2012) – Maryland public schools begin opening next week, as more than one million students prepare to start the 2012-2013 school year.

All Maryland school systems will be in session before September for the second straight year. By the time all schools have opened their doors on August 27, more than 850,000 K-12 students will fill classrooms and another 250,000 children will be involved in some form of pre-K, Head Start, or licensed childcare program.

Maryland’s highly regarded public school system, ranked first in the nation for the fourth straight year by the leading education newspaper, is continuing to move forward under the direction of new State Superintendent Lillian M. Lowery. The State’s system is entering the third year of its $250 million Race to the Top program, which is remaking Maryland classrooms by strengthening educational standards, building a new technology infrastructure, improving teacher and principal preparation and evaluation, and providing support to low-performing schools.

“Our State is committed to supporting innovative education programs for all schools, making absolutely certain there are improved classrooms in every neighborhood,” Dr. Lowery said. “We are working to strengthen instruction and boost rigor for our students. Maryland schools are looking forward to another safe, productive, and exciting year.”

Among the headlines for the new school year:

• Race to the Top Begins Year Three. Maryland’s multi-faceted school reform package, fueled by the largest federal grant in State education history, is strengthening the State’s schools.
  
  
• Piloting Educator Evaluations. Maryland school systems will pilot new teacher and principal evaluation systems this school year, which include student growth as 50 percent of the measure.
  
  
• Maryland Curriculum is Incorporating National Standards. More than 7,000 teachers this summer took part in the Educator Effectiveness Academies, which focused on the Common Core State Standards that will help raise the bar for students throughout the State.
  
  
• Improved Federal Accountability Rules Now in Place. The federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program helped schools and systems focus on problems with certain subgroups, but unfairly labeled too many schools that were making progress. Maryland this spring received a waiver from many of NCLB’s most onerous aspects.
  
  
• Improving Student Discipline Processes. The State Board of Education is nearing completion of new regulations designed to keep more students in school, making certain strong discipline does not mean shutting out students from the educational process.
  
  
• Preventing Serious Head Injuries in Interscholastic Athletics. The State Board last month approved emergency regulations designed to help prevent concussions.
  
  
• More High-level Career Education Programs are Being Launched. Project Lead the Way program in Biomedical Sciences Career and Technology Education Programs of Study in Maryland have nearly doubled in the past two years.
  
  
• Public Charter Schools are Continuing to Grow in Maryland. Two new charter schools are scheduled to open this fall, bringing the total to 52.
  
  
• Few Teacher Shortages. While spot shortages exist in certain fields and certain schools, most classrooms will be filled with highly qualified teachers when their doors open in the next two weeks.
  
  
• New Avenues to Connect with Maryland Public Schools. The Maryland State Department of Education has joined Twitter, adding another way for educators, parents, and others interested in Maryland Public Schools to get the latest news and information.

Enrollment in Maryland public schools has been on a steady rise for the past three years. After reaching a high point of 869,113 students in 2004, enrollment fell to 843,861 by 2009. Since then it has rebounded, reaching 854,086 students last school year – the State’s highest enrollment level since 2007.

Maryland’s student population also has experienced major changes over the past decade. Maryland has been a majority-minority State for several years. White students represent 42 percent of the student population, followed by African American students, who make up nearly 35 percent of the student population. Both the White and African American student populations have been in decline in recent years. Hispanic students represent 12 percent of the student body, while Asian students account for nearly 6 percent. Both percentages are on the rise. Also increasing is the percentage of students identifying themselves as two or more races. This accounts for nearly 4 percent of Maryland students.

Also increasing in the State’s schools is the percentage of students coming from circumstances of poverty. Last year, 43 percent of Maryland students were eligible for free- or reduced-price meals, the federal proxy for poverty. Ten years earlier that tally stood at 29.7 percent – nearly a 50 percent increase over the decade.

• Racing to the Top

Maryland’s public school system continues to lead the nation’s rankings for the fourth straight year, but the State in 2010 received a $250 million Race to the Top grant from the federal government to take its school improvement program to an even higher level. The result included the development of a new evaluation system for teachers and principals (see below), introduction of higher standards known as the Common Core (also below), a vastly improved data system, and strategic help for struggling schools.

The State has been developing a data warehouse which will provide improved student and school performance information to teachers and parents. A curriculum management system also is part of the new technology, providing support to educators as they move to the new Common Core State Curriculum, and will be online this fall.

Maryland’s Breakthrough Center is already working with some of Maryland’s lowest performing schools, providing targeted technical assistance to school and system leaders as they work to improve student achievement and school climate. During July, 77 executive officers and principals from seven Maryland school systems participated in a two-day Academy for School Turnaround. The Academy provided district and school leaders with practical turnaround strategies, supported by research. Two follow-up sessions will be held during the upcoming school year.

For more on Race to the Top, go to http://www.marylandpublicschools.org/rttt.

• Educator Evaluation

Maryland’s Educator Evaluation System will be piloted throughout the State this fall, having been piloted in seven systems during the 2011-12 school year, with full implementation set for 2013-14.

The Maryland statewide evaluation system provides for local flexibility within the State framework, and is designed as a professional development program rather than a punitive system. While the State developed a default model, local systems had the opportunity to put together their own system as long as it conformed to broad guidelines, such as including student growth as 50 percent of the evaluation and the use of multiple measures. Twenty-one systems are in the process of developing and piloting their own evaluation systems.

This year’s pilots will take place without consequences for teachers or principals. Maryland’s Council for Educator Effectiveness will continue to monitor the pilots, and is scheduled to reconvene on December 3 to review the progress being made in the pilots. For more on educator evaluation, go to: http://www.marylandpublicschools.org...e_top/MCEE.htm

• Common Core State Standards

Nearly 7,000 educators from across Maryland took part this summer in the State’s second round of Educator Effectiveness Academies, which have helped put in focus the Common Core State Standards. The Standards are a State-led movement to raise the bar throughout the nation. Forty-six states have signed on to the Standards.

Once again, participants in this summer’s academies became immersed in the Standards (http://marylandpublicschools.org/MSDE/programs/ccss), and will use their experience to provide feedback to MSDE. Master teachers culled from across the State led the Academies. Four-member teams from every Maryland school attended the Academies and will now serve as resources as they begin working on implementation. Academies also will be held next summer.

While the new curriculum will start to be rolled out this year, its effects come later. New assessments, based on the Common Core, will be administered in 2014-15.

• Improved Accountability

Maryland’s school performance has improved steadily since the advent of the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law. Composite elementary reading scores have increased 26.2 points since 2003, while math scores are up nearly 28 percentage points. At the middle school level, the percentage of reading students scoring at proficient ranges is up 22.2 points since 2003, while in math that total has jumped 36.6 points.

While the federal law helped boost performance, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the law had unintended consequences. The law unfairly branded too many schools as failing, despite a record of continued improvement, because of the formulas used. It required that by 2013-14, all students would be proficient in reading and mathematics. Secretary Duncan last year announced his intention to provide flexibility from the law to states that maintained strong accountability systems. Maryland applied and in May was granted a waiver from some aspects of NCLB.

Under the plan, Maryland will reset the annual progress goals for the next six years on a trajectory to 2017, at which time each individual school is expected to reduce its percentage of non-proficient students by half. It also eliminates the school improvement continuum that has been part of NCLB, which labeled schools and targeted some for restructuring.

For more on the State’s flexibility plan, go to: http://www.marylandpublicschools.org...rams/esea_flex

• Student Discipline

The Maryland State Board of Education has begun a school discipline reform effort based on a two-year study, which resulted in the report, “School Discipline and Academic Success: Related Parts of Maryland’s Education Reform.” The study can be found at http://msde.state.md.us/School_Disci...rt02272012.pdf

The linchpin of the school discipline reform effort will be the transition in local school systems from a punitive discipline model to a rehabilitative discipline model. The focus will help more students who misbehave to stay in school, but if out-of-school suspensions or expulsions are necessary, to provide at least minimum education services to those students to keep them sufficiently connected to the school so they may return to class on track with their peers.

Proposed regulations that will guide this reform effort are scheduled to be published for comment on Oct. 5 in the Maryland Register. The public will have one month to comment, and the State Board is likely to act on the final regulations in December.

• Safety in Athletics

Fall athletics practice has already started in some systems. There are new rules governing athletic participation this fall, designed to curb concussions and other brain injuries, approved last month by the State Board of Education.

By August 31, each local school system is required to train each coach in concussion risk and management, including the criteria for removal and return to play and recognition of concussion symptoms. In addition, each school system must implement policies that assure athletes and their parents or guardians receive information regarding the nature and risk of brain injuries. The emergency regulations require a medical assessment if a student athlete is suspected of sustaining a concussion or other brain injury. The athlete will not be allowed to return to the field of play until cleared by a licensed health care provider authorized to provide sports physical exams.

The regulations are based on guidelines from the Maryland Public Secondary School Athletic Association that are already in place. The new rules govern athletics for 180 days, during which time the State Board plans to work with healthcare and athletics experts to draft permanent regulations regarding brain injuries. Those regulations will go through the typical approval process, allowing for public comment before being made final.

• Strengthening Career Education

Over the last two years, Maryland has invested $1.8 million in the Project Lead The Way Biomedical Sciences Career and Technology Education Program of Study. These funds have allowed the State to nearly double the number of these high-level career education programs from 19 schools to 37. The 18 additional sites are expected to reach about 1500 students in the upcoming school year.

Biomedical Sciences careers are growing in Maryland – Maryland is home to more than 370 bioscience companies, and it is one of the fastest growing industries in the United States. Maryland’s private-sector bioscience companies employ approximately 30,000 people with an additional 30,000 workers employed at federal and academic institutions located throughout the State. Preparing students to enter these careers is critical to keeping the biomedical sciences industry in the state.

The Project Lead The Way Biomedical Sciences program engages students in the field of biomedicine using real world scenarios and hands-on projects combined with rigorous academics. For example, in Principles of Biomedical Sciences, students investigate various health conditions including heart disease, diabetes, sickle-cell disease, hypercholesterolemia, and infectious diseases. They determine the factors that led to the death of a fictional person, and investigate lifestyle choices and medical treatments that might have prolonged the person’s life. The activities and projects introduce students to human physiology, medicine, and research processes. For more on Project Lead the Way in our state, go to http://www.pltwmd.org/.

• New Charter Schools

Two new public charter schools will open in Maryland this school year, bringing the total number of charters in the state to 52. Maryland’s charter schools will enroll more than 20,000 students this fall.

This year’s new schools are: Carroll Creek Montessori Public Charter School in Frederick County – the county’s second charter; and Community Montessori Public Charter School in Montgomery County – the county’s first charter school. For more about Maryland’s charter schools, see http://www.marylandpublicschools.org...arter_schools/.

• Teacher Hiring

Maryland school systems are winding down the hiring process for the 2012-2013 school year, with few shortages reported. Maryland schools are scheduled to welcome more than 4,500 new teachers this fall.

The number of new teachers is up from last year, but far below the number hired several years ago. For example, nearly 8,000 new teachers were hired in the 2005-2006 school year. Although the teacher staffing problems that affected many Maryland systems in recent history have diminished in the past three years, local systems report some shortages in the areas of chronic need including special education, computer science, world languages, technical education, and middle and high school science and mathematics.

Maryland schools have dramatically increased the percentage of classes taught by highly qualified teachers. Last year 93.6 percent of classes were taught by teachers with Advanced or Standard Professional Certification in the subject area they were teaching. In 2003 that percentage was 81.4 percent. In addition, Maryland has 2,214 Nationally Board Certified Teachers, ranking 11th in the nation. The State welcomed 241 new Nationally Board Certified Teachers last year, the nation’s eighth largest tally.

• Twitter is a New Way to Connect with Maryland Public Education

MSDE continues to search for ways to connect with stakeholders and the public interested in our State’s public schools. MarylandPublicSchools.org, MSDE’s webpage, offers a pathway to information on everything from curriculum to assessment scores. In addition, MSDE has a regularly updated Facebook page, providing users with information and photos about events and issues in the news.

Now comes MSDE on Twitter, @MdPublicSchools. Brief, timely bits of information are shared with followers who count on Twitters easy-to-use format. Please consider following MSDE @MdPublicSchools today, and becoming a fan MSDE on Facebook!

• School Start Dates

All Maryland schools are opening their doors in August, Prince George’s County Public Schools opening first next Monday, August 20. The SEED School of Maryland, the Statewide public residential school, also is scheduled to start that day.

The remaining systems:

• August 21 – Calvert, Dorchester (grades 1-6, and grade 9; all grades Aug. 22), and Talbot.
• August 22 – Cecil, St. Mary’s, and Washington.
• August 27 – Allegany, Anne Arundel (Grades 1-6, 9; all grades Aug. 28), Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Caroline, Carroll, Charles, Frederick, Garrett, Harford, Howard, Kent (K-9; all grades on Aug. 28), Montgomery, Queen Anne’s (1-9; all grades on Aug. 28), Somerset, Wicomico (1-6 and 9; all grades on Aug. 28), and Worcester.