Programs, Initiatives, and Strategies: Overview

Provide increased access to early childhood programs through a mixed-delivery system comprised of private and public providers and ensure affordability by subsidizing the cost for families.

Expand early learning hubs, such as Judy and Patty Centers, that utilize a two-generation approach to ensure families are supported in the development of their children ages 0-5.

Develop Early Learning Standards that implement age-appropriate learning practices and materials, and foster high-quality learning environments for children’s social, emotional, and academic growth.

Utilize assessments to monitor readiness and measure the quality of early learning programs to ensure culturally responsive and academically and developmentally appropriate materials and provide resources to support and empower educators to be successful.

Training and coaching on evidence-based and highly-effective reading pedagogy provided to all Pre-K through 3rd grade teachers, including special education teachers, principals, and other relevant staff aligned to the Science of Reading.

Ensure the adoption of high-quality, content-rich, and culturally responsive instructional materials and assessment tools aligned to the Science of Reading.

Create and implement systems for progress monitoring* to ensure all students are reading by the end of third grade and have the appropriate supports if still struggling with reading beyond third grade.

*This includes the use of Universal Screeners as required by Maryland’s Ready to Read Act

With an Early Warning System (EWS), the state will provide tools for local school systems to identify students who are at risk of not being college and career ready to get back on track. By utilizing indicators such as attendance, behavior, and course grades, educators do not have to wait for students to fail to know they are at-risk.

Provide teachers and staff access to an integrated data system that updates regularly with students’ indicators across academics, behavior, attendance, and social-emotional learning.

Create a multi-tiered response system focused on addressing the needs of all students, a group of students, and individual student interventions.

Monitor and modify interventions that are not working, and scale those which are successful.

In addition to EWS, implementing the following best practices will leverage the developmental opportunities of early adolescence in the middle grades:

Adopt flexible scheduling strategies such as block scheduling to support the academic and developmental needs of students and include common planning time for teachers to plan instruction collaboratively.

Ensure that classroom organization and staffing patterns support the needs of students through interdisciplinary teaching, or team teaching, to improve the academic and social-emotional outcomes for middle school students.

Provide access to enrichment and elective courses to support student engagement, and schedule advisory periods to support student connectedness.

Set a new evidence-based College and Career Readiness (CCR) standard that moves beyond standardized tests, and ensure equitable access to post-CCR pathways.

Ensure the adoption of High-Quality Instructional Materials (HQIM) across every school, including the necessary training required for successful implementation.

Adopt an Early Warning System (EWS) tied to high-quality and timely interventions, including strengthening the implementation of Maryland’s 9th Grade On-Track measure across local school systems.

Build and sustain an infrastructure for High-Quality, School Day Tutoring across Maryland, including the use of flexible scheduling strategies such as block scheduling to support the academic and developmental needs of students.

Provide ongoing professional learning series focused on evidence-based pedagogy and ensuring meaningful use of assessments and other data to drive effective instructional practices (e.g. Learning Labs, Lesson Studies, etc.).

Evolve Maryland’s school Accountability System to align with Blueprint outcomes and prioritize student growth as a primary indicator of school quality and enhance reporting features.

Enhance and scale tools that enable effective local school systems’ operations and teaching and learning practices at both the district and school level (e.g. School Accountability Projection Tools).

Develop a new Statewide Finance and Data System to accurately measure and enforce accountability, collect and report new data, and advance public transparency and understanding of how State Aid calculations work.

Ensure the adoption of High-Quality Instructional Materials (HQIM) that are content-rich and culturally responsive, as well as assessment tools aligned to the Maryland College and Career Ready Standards.

Establish and adopt a statewide Early Warning System (EWS) across the prekindergarten through 12th grade spectrum to identify students who are at risk of:

• Not being ready for kindergarten
• Not being ready to read by the end of third grade
• Not being proficient in math by the end of fifth grade
• Not being ready for high school (e.g. attendance, behavior, and course grades in middle school)
• Not being on track to graduate from high school in four years
• Not being college and career ready by the end of tenth grade

Strengthen regulations to increase the rigor of educator preparation programs.

Support Grow Your Own staff programs to expand teacher and school leader pipelines, increase diversity to better align with student demographics, and address educator shortages.

Develop guidelines for comprehensive educator Induction Programs for new teachers and school leaders to provide quality mentoring and support to ease the transition into the classroom.

Implement teacher and school leader Career Ladders that expand opportunities for growth and collaboration and increase compensation to attract and retain a high-quality and diverse educator workforce and to incentivize educators to work in low-performing schools.

Expand community schools and provide professional learning for community school coordinators and staff rooted in the Collective Impact framework to provide effective wraparound services that meet the needs of students and the community.

Enhance Tier 1 school-based mental health promotion services and supports to foster positive, social-emotional and behavioral skills for all students. Tier 1 activities are implemented school-wide, at the grade level, and/or at the classroom level, and services are delivered by both school- and community-based professionals working within schools (e.g. school-wide mental health literacy; school climate improvement efforts; restorative practices; classroom-based social emotional learning for students; etc.).

Scale the Maryland School Mental Health Response Program to support local school systems in addressing student and family mental health needs by enriching and enhancing the work of site-based student support services personnel utilizing a consultancy approach.

Utilize results from the Maryland School Survey to spotlight connections between student and educator perceptions of their schools and school achievement and other outcomes, and to drive school level practices for improvement of student outcomes.