With just months until they have to meet a July 1 deadline to raise teacher salaries to a $60,000 minimum, only about half of Maryland鈥檚 24 school districts have reached the threshold and the rest are scrambling to get there, education officials said Monday.

鈥淲e got questions from the LEA [local education agencies] like, 鈥業s there a waiver process? How could we get an exception?鈥欌�� said Rachel Hise, executive director of the Blueprint for Maryland鈥檚 Future Accountability and Implementation Board. 鈥淎nd the answer was, 鈥楴o, there isn鈥檛 a waiver process. This is a statutory requirement by July 1 of 2026.鈥�

Hise said local school officials are still working on their fiscal 2027 budgets and negotiations with their teacher unions.

鈥淚 would say right now we are cautiously optimistic that most, if not all of them, will get there,鈥� she said.

Her comments came ahead of a House Appropriations Subcommittee on Education and Economic Development hearing on the AIB, among other agencies. Hise was joined by Isiah 鈥淚ke鈥� Leggett, chair of the AIB, which is charged with overseeing implementation of the Blueprint by the state鈥檚 school districts.

The $60,000 minimum teacher salary is one of the many requirements of the Blueprint. According to data from the AIB, the minimum teacher salary during the 2025-26 school year was below $60,000 at schools in all nine Eastern Shore counties, along with Harford, Frederick and Garrett counties.

Hise mentioned one school system, which she didn鈥檛 name during the less than 15 minutes of her hearing, that may have the most difficulty in meeting that mandate.

Somerset County is the only jurisdiction with a minimum teacher salary below $55,000 this year. Its has a budget work session scheduled for March 24.

Maryland State Education Association President Paul Lemle said that with budget talks still going on, 鈥渋t鈥檚 too soon to say whether every district will cross the $60,000 starting salary threshold this year.鈥� But he said that salary gains so far have helped cut the teacher vacancy rate by more than half in recent years.

鈥淲e strongly encourage all districts in the state to make school funding a priority and ensure that we are doing all that we can to recruit and retain great educators for our students,鈥� Lemle said in a prepared statement.

State Superintendent Carey Wright, who was in Annapolis for a different budget hearing Monday, said in a brief interview that local superintendents and chief financial officers continue to assess their finances amid tight budgets.

鈥淚 think they鈥檙e doing the very best that they can to meet the needs of everything that they鈥檝e got going on in their district[s],鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just hard, and you鈥檝e got to make some tough decisions.鈥�

Officials in Cecil County public schools are doing just that.

Denise Sopa, chief financial officer for Cecil County schools, said in a brief phone interview Monday that the county will be able make the $60,000 minimum. But in order to do that and keep its fiscal 2027 budget balanced, Sopa said the school system will have to cut about 85 positions. In an email, she said the cuts will likely include 56 teachers, 19 support staff and 10 administrators.

During the subcommittee budget hearing, the state Department of Legislative Services recommended the Blueprint board should outline what measures can be 鈥渢aken for any LEAs that did not meet the July 1, 2026, deadline to increase minimum salaries to $60,000.鈥�

Because the salary is required by state law, one step the AIB can take to enforce compliance is to withhold funding for school districts until they meet the salary threshold. Hise said specific criteria, including the possibility of withholding funds, will be laid out in the spring.

Meanwhile, summarized the work of the AIB for the subcommittee and how the Blueprint 鈥渋s not a one-size-fits-all operation.鈥�

鈥淲e are trying to ensure that all the counties are meeting the standards,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to do this within the fidelity that we have, the flexibility that we have 鈥� and in order to ensure that many of the counties around the state are responding as appropriately as possible.鈥�

The nonpartisan research organization, NORC at the University of Chicago, continues to work on an interim evaluation of the overall Blueprint plan. An interim report is due to the AIB by Dec. 1, and based on those findings, the Blueprint board must submit a report to the governor and General Assembly by Jan. 15, 2027.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org.

Then, we did a similar project looking for positive outliers in middle school math. There was Worcester again, leading all of Maryland.

So it came as no surprise when we did a follow-up reading analysis last year, this time looking for exceptional individual schools, that three of Worcester鈥檚 five elementary schools made our Bright Spots list. In fact, Worcester鈥檚 high-poverty Pocomoke Elementary made our Top 5 list, beating the odds for its kids 鈥� posting proficiency rates far higher than its average poverty level would suggest 鈥� by the biggest margins in Maryland. It wasn鈥檛 even particularly close.

In fact, when Thomas Hamill, Worcester鈥檚 coordinator of research, presented to the school board, even he was at a loss for words, saying, 鈥淭o have the quantity of scores that we have, at the level that we have, with the poverty that we have, there is no [statistical] reason for us to be performing as high as we are. 鈥� We are doing the improbable in Worcester County.鈥�

So what is Worcester doing differently?

It starts at the top. The district is led by hard-charging superintendent . Back in 2016, she was as the state鈥檚 high school principal of the year for leading a turnaround at Pocomoke High School. When we talked, she repeatedly brought the conversation back to building a culture of connection and belonging. While many school and district administrators might espouse similar ambitions, Wallace makes it concrete by expecting all principals to be able to walk into any classroom and know every student by name, as well as each one’s individual strengths and needs. That鈥檚 a high bar.

More unusually for a superintendent, Wallace knows the exact number of third graders in her district who were not proficient in reading last year 鈥� 133 鈥� and she has set it as her goal to reduce that number to zero. When asked why, she pointed out that kids tend to fall behind over time and worried that those 133 kids who weren鈥檛 reading proficiently by third grade are, 鈥渕ore likely to be incarcerated, more likely to live in poverty and more likely to suffer food insecurity鈥� as adults.

Worcester is not just a literacy story, but it is getting amazing results in early reading. So what can we learn from them? On the surface, Worcester鈥檚 might look pretty familiar. When I spoke with Cassidy Hamborsky, the district鈥檚 coordinator of instruction (who was also an – educator), she talked me through what a typical day might look like. In grades K-2, teachers devote 150 minutes per day to literacy, divided among 90 minutes of core instruction using Great Minds鈥� , 30 minutes to foundational phonics skills and 30 minutes for the 100 Book Challenge from the .

But what seems different about Worcester is its clarity of purpose. This comes out in a few ways. One, Hamborsky says the district is vigilant about protecting core instructional time for all kids. For example, they wouldn鈥檛 take a student away from that time for personalized help or even something like talking with a school counselor. Those things can happen during other parts of the day, but they don鈥檛 want any kid to miss out on the time dedicated to building vocabulary and language development.

Two, they are religious about giving kids lots of time to practice. This is mostly through the 100 Book Challenge. During the school day, kids are typically reading physical books that help them build phonics skills or engage in sustained independent reading. Students are expected to complete two 15-minute blocks of reading at school 鈥� and then read for 30 additional minutes per day at home. This regimen may vary based on the child鈥檚 age and skill level, but kids have to log what they read and then have their teacher or parent sign off.

Families, in fact, are the third key component of Worcester鈥檚 reading plan. At the beginning of the school year, they鈥檙e asked to sign a 鈥渉ome coach contract鈥� saying that they will check and monitor their child鈥檚 reading. Throughout the year, kids are expected to read for half an hour at home five days a week. Over the course of a 180-day school year, that could add up to 900 extra minutes of practice.  

Four, Worcester鈥檚 reading instruction is both personalized and data-driven. Every district says it’s data-driven, and Worcester uses some of the same off-the-shelf reading assessments (such as and ) that other districts use. But what separates Worcester from others is that it uses student reading logs to track each kid鈥檚 progress. The teachers know exactly which books each child has read and whether kids are keeping up with their reading on a weekly and even daily basis. Teachers will also hold regular check-ins with students, ask them about their reading and even listen to them read aloud.

I suspect this last piece is one of the reasons Worcester sees such consistently strong results. For example, low-income students in the district outperform wealthier peers across the rest of Maryland.

But while Worcester has a lot to be proud of, I think the most enduring reason for its success is that it has leaders like Wallace and Hamborsky who continue to strive for better. Wallace, for example, told me she lies awake at night thinking about those 133 kids who aren鈥檛 proficient readers yet and what it will take to get them there. There鈥檚 a lot to learn from what Worcester has accomplished so far, but perhaps the biggest lesson is that its leaders don鈥檛 think they鈥檙e done. 

In 2016, my 10-year-old neurodivergent son was physically restrained and secluded twice at his Maryland public school. Being physically restrained and dragged down a hallway by school staffers and left in a room all alone led to a lot of fear and anxiety for my son and our family. We decided to homeschool him for the next two years.

In 2018, my son decided he wanted to go back to school to be with his friends. Though my family worked with staffers at his new school to ensure that what had happened at his previous school wouldn’t happen again, his excitement and our hopes soon turned to despair. 

During the first 15 days in his new school, my son was repeatedly restrained and secluded, despite strong state laws in Maryland limiting the use of restraint and seclusion to situations where a child’s behavior poses an imminent threat of serious physical harm. His fear and anxiety returned, and honestly, I was afraid to send him back.

A few days following the final incident, I made a simple promise to my son. I told him I would do everything I could to make sure this would not happen again to him, or to other kids like him.

That vow led me to start the , a national nonprofit that works with families, educators and advocates across the country who have had similar experiences. The alliance is on a mission to inform changes in policy and practice that reduce and eliminate the use of punitive discipline and other outdated behavioral management approaches, and to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline.

When I first started the alliance, my goal was to help families like mine know they were not alone and that they could drive change. In the first few months, I focused on my son鈥檚 school district, and in summer 2019, the school board voted to phase out seclusion and reduce the use of restraint.

Today, the alliance is a community of over 35,000 parents, self-advocates, advocates and professionals, including volunteers from 23 states, working together to create positive change. We have 21 affiliate groups and collaborate with many national and state organizations, focusing on legislation, education and support.”

In terms of legislation and policy, we work at the local, state and federal levels. We have collaborated with individual school districts to influence changes in policy and practice. In Vermont, for example, we partnered with the superintendent of a small school district to change its policy to prohibit seclusion and prone restraint. Over the subsequent four years, the district saw a 90.6% reduction in restraint use and a 100% decrease in seclusion.

We have met with lawmakers and provided written and oral testimony in support of efforts to create stronger laws in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Washington. In my home state of Maryland, we helped draft and pass legislation in 2022 banning seclusion in all public schools.

That same year, I testified before the House Education and Labor Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education in support of federal legislation to end the use of seclusion and dangerous forms of restraint. While that effort was unsuccessful, we continue to meet with congressional offices to advocate for a federal law.

Today, much of our work is focused on education. We advocate for schools to move away from compliance-based methods that depend on rewards, consequences and coercion, and promote practices that emphasize safety, connection and student voice instead. 

We often present at conferences and events and provide guest lectures for university classes on topics related to reducing and eliminating restraint and seclusion. Over the last year, I have led more than two dozen in-person presentations and panels on restraint, seclusion and trauma-informed practices in Maryland, Missouri, Oregon, Kansas, New York, Georgia, Washington, D.C., as well as online sessions for audiences nationwide. Last year, we also hosted two virtual conferences that reached thousands of parents and educators from across the world.

Finally, we offer support and guidance to parents and professionals. Every week, we hear from families around the country who reach out for help when their child is experiencing restraint or seclusion. Educators frequently contact us for guidance about how to move their school or district away from these practices. These one-on-one conversations fuel a broader movement by equipping parents and educators with tools and strategies to make schools safer and more supportive for all.

The use of seclusion and restraint is a civil rights, human rights and disability rights issue. There are no federal laws governing the use of these practices in schools, but there should be. Recently, Congress reintroduced bipartisan legislation, the , to prohibit seclusion and dangerous forms of restraint and fund trauma-informed alternatives. Congress must pass this bill, and the president must sign it.

America’s schools can and must end seclusion, reduce restraint and improve outcomes for students, educators, families and communities.

The finalists were asked about top education issues and trends in a Jan. 8 online discussion. Here’s some of what they had to say.

Roosevelt Nivens

Nivens has led Lamar Consolidated Independent School District in south Texas since 2021. The district, which has roughly 49,000 students, has been fast-growing, with 15 schools opening during Nivens鈥� tenure. 

As an educator with 30 years of experience, Nivens serves on the Texas Association of School Administrators. He has received top superintendent awards in recent years from the National Association of State Boards of Education and the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents. Before his current role, Nivens was a teacher and assistant principal in Dallas. He holds degrees from Liberty University and Texas A&M-Commerce.

When asked about artificial intelligence use in schools, Nivens said AI helps teachers 鈥済et back to the human side of teaching.鈥� His district is creating policies so educators can utilize AI tools for administrative tasks like lesson planning. 

鈥淲e want to help students use it responsibly,鈥� he added. 鈥淚t鈥檚 our job, so they will know exactly what it is and what they should and should not use it for.鈥�

Family engagement is also a popular topic in Nivens鈥� district. He said Lamar Consolidated not only hosts parent workshops, but the district organizes events at places like apartment complexes to cater to families at their homes

Heather Perry

It鈥檚 been a decade since Perry became superintendent of Gorham School District, which serves 2,800 students in southern Maine. Over the past 30 years, she has worked her way up from educational technician, middle school social studies teacher and building principal.

Perry serves on the executive board of the Maine School Superintendents Association. She鈥檚 the first district leader in her state to be named a national finalist for Superintendent of the Year. She received degrees from the University of Southern Maine and the University of Maine.

Perry said her district began highlighting post-graduate options besides college roughly eight years ago. She helped create , a K-12 program that exposes students to career pathways. Kindergartners learn about future career goals, while middle schoolers get hands-on experiences in fields like health care, business and technology through community partnerships. High schoolers venture outside the school building to get a head start on their careers with local businesses.

Perry said she would rather see  juniors and seniors traveling to early college classes, internships, apprenticeships and 鈥渄oing real-life career experiences鈥� than sitting in school.

The program began with 35 students and now is at capacity, with 140. It has grown from five business partners to 90.

鈥淭here used to be a stigma attached to students who attended (career technical education) schools,鈥� Perry said. 鈥淭hat stigma is gone now. Students who want to go to MIT or engineering schools see the value of going into a (career technical education) program. We鈥檝e done a nice job in Gorham.鈥�

Demetrus Liggins

Liggins is superintendent of Fayette County Public Schools in Lexington, Kentucky, the state鈥檚 second-largest district with more than 42,000 students. He鈥檚 been in the education field for 25 years, serving in roles from a dual-language teacher to building principal. He was previously a superintendent of two Texas school districts.

In 2020, Liggins was recognized as a superintendent to watch by the National School Public Relations Association. He holds degrees from the University of Texas, Stephen F. Austin University and California State University.

Liggin鈥檚 tenure at Fayette County Public Schools has also been the focus of scrutiny over finances. In September, two Kentucky lawmakers over what they described as budget inconsistencies and . He was also by his budget director, prompting an by the school board. 

While Liggins hasn鈥檛 publicly responded to the investigation, he in November that budget inconsistencies were the result of miscommunication.

When it comes to funding, Liggins said, cuts made by the Trump administration have cost the district at least one federal grant, and extra money for Title I, II and III grants is at risk. He鈥檚 turning to state legislators to help fill future funding gaps.

With budget shortfalls a top concern, Liggins said he鈥檚 increasing his involvement in his own district鈥檚 finances. Administrators used to report on the district budget to his deputy superintendent but now come to him directly. He said he鈥檚 also attending conferences with his business office to learn more.

鈥淭hat understanding is very helpful when you go to speak to legislators about the (funding) formula,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ackground knowledge has been very helpful.鈥�

Sonja Santelises

This is Santelises鈥� 10th year as chief executive officer of Baltimore City Schools, which serves 77,000 students. She was previously the district鈥檚 chief academic officer and has held leadership positions in Boston Public Schools, was a lecturer at Harvard University and served as a vice president at The Education Trust.

Santelises is a Carnegie Foundation board member and chair of the Council of the Great City Schools and has been recognized for her leadership at the and levels. Santelises earned degrees from Harvard University and Columbia University.

Baltimore City Schools has been accused of and during Santelises’ tenure. 

The key to attracting talent and preventing teacher burnout is to have high-quality principals, she said. Teachers in Baltimore City tend to stay if they鈥檙e placed in schools where their principal understands how to support them. 

鈥淢aking sure we鈥檙e keeping salaries and benefits competitive (is important) because teaching is hard work,鈥� she said. 鈥淓verybody wants to know they are being recognized.鈥�

Santelises said her district also prevents turnover by allowing teachers to use a career ladder to change their roles so they spend less time in the classroom and more time coaching other staff.

鈥淭he money鈥檚 coming. The money’s not coming. Oh no, we have to shut all of our Head Starts. No we don’t,鈥� she said, describing the ping-ponging state leaders have been through between U.S. Secretary Linda McMahon鈥檚 efforts to downsize the department and court rulings reversing her actions. 鈥淲e’re going through total D.C. chaos right now. Every time you turn right, it says turn left.鈥�

To make sense of those shifts, she turns to Adam Schott, her associate secretary for student support and another top official at the Education Department during the Biden administration. In Washington, he oversaw the distribution of $122 billion in relief funds and was a primary point of contact on school improvement efforts. Having him on her team, Marten said, is like having 鈥減hone-a-friend on speed dial.鈥�

Schott is part of an exodus of former experts in federal policy, budgeting and data who have literally gone 鈥渂ack to the states,鈥� to borrow McMahon鈥檚 catch-phrase. In her eyes, the state level is where the magic happens, away from the one-size-fits-all ethos of Washington. The irony is that a recent crop of state officials are themselves federal ex-pats who resigned or were displaced by McMahon鈥檚 layoffs. 社区黑料 also spoke to former department staff working in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Illinois. Because of the secretary鈥檚 efforts to shutter the department, there have never been so many federal staffers looking for work. 

With the future of the federal government鈥檚 role in education uncertain, observers say their expertise is more valuable than ever. 

鈥淭he people I worked with were there for like 15, 20 years,鈥� said Kiara Nerenberg, a top data expert who resigned from her position with the National Center for Education Statistics just ahead of the mass layoffs in March. 鈥淭here’s just so much knowledge that’s now looking for a place to land.鈥�

Maryland鈥檚 鈥榖iggest score鈥� 

Marten鈥檚 team in Delaware also includes , who served as acting secretary at the department before McMahon was confirmed and has decades of experience in the federal government. 

Marten called her 鈥渢he right hand and the left hand鈥� of multiple secretaries, including Democrat Arne Duncan and Republican Betsy DeVos. Carter stepped into the role of acting chief operating officer for Federal Student Aid last year following after a disastrous launch of the redesigned financial aid form. She oversaw corrections that contributed to a this year. Carter resigned in April and is now helping to overhaul Delaware’s outdated school funding formula.

But Marten didn鈥檛 get all the talent. Because of its proximity to Washington, Maryland has scooped up several former staffers. Montgomery County even launched targeting displaced federal employees.

Richard Kincaid leads the division of college and career pathways at the Maryland State Department of Education. His 鈥渂iggest score,鈥� he said, was hiring Nerenberg, the former NCES staffer. One of her responsibilities was making 鈥渁ll of the tens and hundreds of thousands of points on maps that tell you where schools are,鈥� she said. She was part of to identify neighborhood demographics 鈥� vital information for programs like Title I for low-income schools and grants for rural areas.聽

Now, she gathers data for career and technical education programs, but is also working to better align career-focused education with the needs of local labor markets. Having Nerenberg 鈥渃atapulted us years ahead,鈥� Kincaid said.聽

Others searching for new jobs traveled far outside Washington. 

Tara Lawley spent 17 years with NCES, where she worked on both higher education and K-12 data collection. She was laid off along with over 1,300 other staff at the department in March while her husband, who worked in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, took the 鈥渇ork in the road鈥� option, a deferred resignation with several months of paid leave.

In August, she found her new position with the Illinois Board of Higher Education, where she鈥檚 the managing director of policy, research and fiscal analysis.

鈥淲e sold our house, tore our children out of everything they knew, and moved them across the country,鈥� she said.

Her kids, 5 and 8, are doing fine, she said. But the experience reinforced her view that some decisions shouldn鈥檛 be left up to the states. 

鈥淗ow do you take a [special education plan] from one state to another? That’s a challenge that still exists and it’s certainly not going to be solved if you do it state by state,鈥� she said. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e in a state that’s really not doing well in K-12 education and you move to a different state, your kid can be really far behind.鈥�

鈥楥onnective tissue鈥�

Some former staffers have branched out into agencies that focus on more than just education.

Sarah Mehrotra spent two years in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, where she administered pandemic recovery efforts like curbing chronic absenteeism and preventing students from becoming homeless. She left the department in January along with other members of Cardona鈥檚 team, but knew she wanted to keep doing similar work.

Now she鈥檚 part of Maryland Gov. Wes Moore鈥檚 Office for Children, where she works on an initiative to in specific communities. They include Frederick County鈥檚 , where more than 80% of students in two elementary schools qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and Baltimore鈥檚 Cherry Hill neighborhood, where a state grant supports a .

When she was with the department, she said officials were 鈥渟creaming from the rooftops鈥� about ways districts could blend federal dollars with other sources of funding to re-engage students who became disconnected from school during the pandemic. Now, she said, “It’s super helpful to have the federal, state and local perspective” when working with grantees at the community level.

Those with federal experience, she said, can serve as 鈥渃onnective tissue鈥� between states and the Education Department. 

Republicans say there should be fewer ties to Washington, not more. At least one former department official, now at the state level, agrees. McKenzie Snow, Iowa鈥檚 education director, worked as an aide to DeVos and held top education positions in New Hampshire and Virginia. 

She鈥檚 among those who, like McMahon, say that states are well equipped to manage federal education funds without the department鈥檚 strict oversight. Her state was the first to submit to roll federal funds into a block grant.

鈥楾heir own innovation鈥�

McMahon often points to reading gains in Mississippi and Louisiana to argue that the department is unnecessary. 

鈥淭he states that are making great progress 鈥� it鈥檚 through their own innovation,鈥� she said during a recent . 鈥淚t’s not coming from the Department of Education.鈥�

But not all states have seen the same progress, and many have experienced significant turnover in leadership since the pandemic, which can contribute to disruption across an agency. Just the state chiefs changed in Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oklahoma and Utah, and since the beginning of 2023, more than 30 states have changed superintendents. 

Having staff with some knowledge of federal grants and requirements is a plus right now, said Anna Edwards, co-founder and chief advocacy officer at Whiteboard Advisors, a consulting group. 

鈥淕iven the uncertainty at the federal level, having those answers in house within a state is valuable,鈥� she said. 鈥淒uring the shutdown, leaders couldn’t even talk to anyone at the department.鈥�

Elizabeth Ross, who served in the department during the , has worked for three chiefs since joining the D.C. Office of the State Superintendent of Education in 2020. 

鈥淚t’s our job to make sure that students don’t feel that transition, that they continue to have access to all of the resources and support,鈥� she said. 

A former third grade teacher in D.C., she led federal efforts to turn around low-performing schools and revamp No Child Left Behind, with its tough testing and accountability requirements, into the more-flexible Every Student Succeeds Act. 

Under Secretary Duncan, the department used stimulus funds as leverage to get states to adopt the Common Core standards and incorporate student test scores into teacher evaluations. The incentives often drew complaints about government overreach, but they also 鈥渃atalyzed and generated a lot of reform,鈥� she said. 

What she didn鈥檛 have was frequent contact with teachers and parents directly affected by those programs. Now an assistant superintendent, she spends a lot of time in schools and often runs into teachers in the community who ask about specific curriculum materials.

She has new appreciation for their input. 

鈥淢y perspective has shifted, compared to when I was at the federal level, on how important local buy-in is for the success of policies,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t’s something that I understand in a much, much deeper way.鈥�

Gov. Wes Moore (D) announced Tuesday the release of $19 million in grants toward a program to not only decrease the state鈥檚 teacher shortage, but also entice more men into the teaching profession.

The money for the Grow Your Own initiative is allocated in this year鈥檚 budget through the that Moore signed into law this year.

The initiative focuses on expanding teacher and staff pipelines, boosting diversity in the profession and establishing apprenticeships. But Moore emphasized the first round of grants in the Grow Your Own program will focus on bringing in more men to teach in the public schools. According to the governor鈥檚 office, about 23% of the state鈥檚 teachers are men.

Compared to the federal government, which is busy 鈥渃oming up with creative ways to try to dismantle public education,鈥� Maryland is going in a different direction, Moore said. And he had a message for out-of-state educators and fired federal workers: 鈥�.鈥�

鈥淚n Maryland, we鈥檙e just choosing to move differently,鈥� he said. 鈥淚n Maryland, we鈥檙e going to work together in order to ensure that education continues to serve as not just the foundation, but the launch pad for everything we hope for in our society.鈥�

State Superintendent , who Moore called 鈥渢he LeBron James of education,鈥� summarized a few education initiatives that cut teacher vacancies nearly in half from 1,619 in the 2024-25 school year to 886 in this year. One of those initiatives is a $2,000 relocation grant to attract out-of-state licensed teachers.

As for the Grow Your Own initiative, Wright said it prioritizes programs that leverage on-the-job training and mentorship and on working to recruit men into the profession.

One of those men who participated in the program, , attended Tuesday鈥檚 announcement.

Before Beard鈥檚 seven years as a high school social studies teacher in Frederick County, he said he worked 10 years as a special education paraprofessional, also called an 鈥淓SP鈥� or education support professionals.

鈥淢y message to ESPs out there: Take advantage of the Grow Your Own program that is out here in our district,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou definitely won鈥檛 regret it, and you won鈥檛 regret your decision.鈥�

Also on Tuesday, the governor announced a partnership between the American Institute for Reseearch and the state鈥檚 Young Men and Boys initiative within the Governor鈥檚 Office of Children.

The partnership will be come through a $6 million, three-year memorandum of understanding under which the institute will provide research, evaluation and technical assistance to the state鈥檚 work on supporting men and boys.

Hagerstown high school senior Damir Wade, 18, who seeks to become a future educator, is also part of the state鈥檚 apprenticeship program. Wade not only supports teachers in the classroom at an elementary school, but he also helps with math intervention with fourth and fifth grade students.

After the nearly 50-minute news conference, Wade said in a brief interview that he鈥檚 had fewer than five male teachers, and no Black male teachers, throughout his school life.

鈥淚t鈥檚 very rare to see,鈥� Wade said about male teachers in the classroom. 鈥淚 just want to be that person that people can look up to, and maybe they can go into education. They can see how important their education is, to take it more seriously [and] to open more doors for their future.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org.

But it took months for some states to access millions of dollars for career and technical education this year after the Department of Labor , part of the Trump administration鈥檚 plan to splinter and ultimately dismantle the Department of Education. The Labor Department鈥檚 grant system didn鈥檛 recognize state education agencies鈥� bank accounts. 

鈥淲e were in this endless loop of having to re-verify our account number,鈥� said Richard Kincaid, assistant state superintendent of college and career pathways at the Maryland State Department of Education. 鈥淚t never seemed to take in the system.鈥�

Maryland used state funds to fill the gap while it waited on $22 million in reimbursements. But the glitch, some argue, doesn鈥檛 bode well for when the Labor Department begins dispersing funds from Title I, the largest federal education program. The annual budget for Title I is $18 billion, compared to $1.4 billion for , which funds CTE. Title I serves 26 million low-income students, covering salaries, tutoring programs and classroom materials. 

An , obtained by the website Government Executive, underscored the difficulties, calling the shift of CTE a 鈥渕iniscule鈥� task compared to what lies ahead. 鈥淟arger formula grants and competitive grants are going to be much more difficult to migrate,鈥� the document said.

Beyond technical difficulties, educators say the Labor and Education departments have such vastly different missions that they worry about the message the Trump administration is sending by putting K-12 programs in an agency focused on getting jobless adults into the workforce. 

鈥淲e’re not talking about how to support a 28-year-old walking into an American job center looking for the next thing,鈥� Kinkaid said. 鈥淲e’re talking about kids.鈥� 

The Education Department last week unveiled six interagency agreements with four other federal agencies as part of the Trump administration鈥檚 plan to wind down an agency that it argues was unconstitutional to begin with. 

鈥淟et’s make sure that that grant money that’s coming from the federal government is getting in [states鈥橾 hands as efficiently as possible,鈥� Education Secretary Linda McMahon said during a White House briefing Thursday. 鈥淲e don’t want teachers having to spend their time and money on regulatory compliance.鈥� 

But for some state directors like Kinkaid, the result has been frustrating.

The administration, he said, has 鈥渁sked state CTE programs to essentially fly for the past six months without air traffic control.”

鈥楩ruitful partnership鈥�

Officials downplayed the initial rough spots, saying the transition of CTE, adult education and family literacy programs to the Labor Department has been relatively smooth. They worked with nine states to resolve the account number problem. During a call with reporters Tuesday, a senior department official said the administration expects a 鈥渟imilar fruitful partnership鈥� when it merges other K-12 programs into the Labor Department.

State leaders, the official promised, would still be able to rely on 鈥渢he expertise and concierge-level service鈥� they expect. As of Thursday, staff housed in the Labor Department had processed 568 payment requests totaling over $227 million for 40 unique states and territories, according to an email from a Labor official.

But at least one state, Rhode Island, was still hitting roadblocks as of Friday.

鈥淲e are receiving error messages indicating that our organization name does not match the name on record,鈥� said Rhode Island Department of Education spokesman Victor Morente. He said he expected the issue to be fixed this week. 鈥淭his situation underscores the challenges that abrupt changes within federal departments can create.鈥�

Lawmakers heard about the rocky start last week.

鈥淥perationally, it is a muddle,鈥� Braden Goetz told the . He spent 26 years in the Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education and now works as a senior policy advisor at New America, a left-leaning think tank. 鈥淚 don’t understand how the work gets done. When Secretary McMahon makes decisions, does she call the Secretary of Labor and ask her to communicate that down the chain?鈥�

An Education Department spokesperson said staff reached out to all grantees about requesting CTE funds from the new grant system and has yet to hear from five of them. 

鈥淚t is common for states to not draw down funds for several months for a variety of state-driven reasons,鈥� the official said. The California, Michigan and Wyoming education departments told 社区黑料 they haven鈥檛 had any trouble getting their CTE funds.

鈥楤ureaucracy will remain鈥�

John Pallasch served as assistant secretary of the Employment and Training Administration, the Labor office to which K-12 programs are moving, during Trump鈥檚 first term. He said any hiccups are likely to be temporary and that the Labor Department 鈥渋s pretty good at grants management.鈥� 

Some observers said shuffling staff and programs from one agency to another doesn鈥檛 go far enough. 

鈥淭he Education Department still retains many functions,鈥� Neal McCluskey, director of the Center for Educational Freedom at the libertarian Cato Institute, wrote in . 鈥淪o bureaucracy will remain, and the Constitution will continue to be violated.鈥�

From Kinkaid鈥檚 perspective in Maryland, states have lost the strong working relationship they had with CTE staff at the Education Department. The team is down from 15 staffers to about five. There鈥檚 been 鈥渓ittle to no communication since the movement happened,鈥� he said. In addition, a lot of state CTE directors are relatively new and need guidance on how to comply with regulations, said Amy Loyd, former assistant secretary for the CTE and adult education office during the Biden administration.

The Employment and Training Administration manages about $3 to $4 billion in grants annually 鈥� a fraction of the $28 billion the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education administers.

In a , Angela Hanks, acting assistant secretary of that division from 2021 to 2022, described moving K-12 programs into the office like 鈥渉aving a frog carry a camel on its back.鈥�

A few of the office鈥檚 existing grants focus on youth, but those target teens and young adults who fit 鈥渜uite a different profile from the students who are served by Title I,鈥� Hanks, now at the left-leaning Century Foundation, told 社区黑料. Job Corps helps 16- to 24-year-olds find employment, while teaches vocational skills for 鈥渋n-demand industries鈥� like construction and hospitality. 

Loyd, now CEO at All4Ed, an advocacy organization, sees a similar mismatch with moving adult education programs to the Labor Department.

鈥淢any of these older adults came to adult education services to strengthen their own literacy because they 鈥� want to be able to help their grandkids with homework,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey’re 72; they don’t want a workforce credential. They want to be better readers so they can read to their grandkids.鈥� 

Several of the federal K-12 grants are complicated and depend on calculations year to year to ensure payments to districts are accurate. , for example, requires annual counts of military-connected students who attend schools on or near bases.

鈥淭he suggestion that these programs are on autopilot and [the Education Department] just flips a switch to flow the money to states and districts is a fundamental misunderstanding,鈥� said Danny Carlson, who served as deputy assistant secretary of policy and programs in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education during the Biden administration. He鈥檚 now executive director of Learning First Alliance, a network that includes administrator associations, teachers unions and the National PTA.

In addition, McMahon tried to lay off 132 of the 185 remaining elementary and secondary employees during the shutdown. A the layoffs, and the agreement to reopen the government forced the secretary to bring the employees back to work, at least until the end of January. But it鈥檚 unclear whether she plans to try to terminate them again. 

After 10 months of canceled grants, temporary funding freezes and other disruptions, some district leaders are growing accustomed to the uncertainty. 

鈥淚 expect Labor will have a hard time managing Title I allocations for next year, but the administration is trying to do that,鈥� said Jeremy Vidito, chief financial officer for the Detroit Public Schools. 鈥淭hey want the system to fail so they can 鈥� shift funds to private schools or just give the money back to taxpayers.鈥�

Pallasch, the former assistant labor secretary, said he supports integrating not just CTE, but all education programs into the Labor Department.

鈥淲e’re all pulling in the same direction,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hether we’re talking K-12, community college or, quite frankly, Harvard and Yale, those are just job training programs. We are training folks to have the skills to be able to function in an organization.鈥� 

But Kinkaid and fear that the move to the Labor Department takes the field back to a time when some students were 鈥渢racked鈥� into vocational courses without rigorous academic content. 

There are growing efforts to expand apprenticeships and other opportunities for students who might not want to go to college. But for decades, Kinkaid said, the CTE field has tried to 鈥渟hrug off鈥� the stigma that career-focused instruction was only for lower-performing students.

鈥淲e may intentionally or unintentionally recreate that old system where low-income students and students of color were funneled into limited, low-mobility job paths,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his is exactly what the modern CTE system was designed to prevent.鈥�

Brayden Morgan says artificial intelligence is here to stay and everyone should embrace it.

鈥淲e have to adapt. We have to stay up to date,鈥� said the 17-year-old high school senior and student member on the Anne Arundel County Board of Education. 鈥淲e have to learn about it and make sure our students know how to use it [the] right way [and] that they鈥檙e learning and not being enabled on technology.鈥�

That may be easier said than done.

The technology better known as 鈥淎I鈥� is already being used by students and teachers in Maryland schools. But the state has yet to develop specific statewide guidelines on how to effectively use the powerful new computing tool, and what guardrails to protect students from using it inappropriately, such as plagiarism on essay papers and other work.

State education officials have been working behind the scenes for more than a year on language, and county school systems have made tentative steps toward developing their own policies. But it鈥檚 been slow going.

Jing Liu said there鈥檚 a couple of reasons many school districts in Maryland, and the nation, don鈥檛 yet have artificial intelligence policies in place.

鈥淭he AI space is developing really, really fast. All the AI tools are developed at lightning speed,鈥� said Liu, an associate professor in education policy at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Liu, who鈥檚 also directs the school鈥檚 Center for Educational Data Science and Innovation, said evidence-based research needs to be done quickly to help inform policymakers and school district leaders on how to design AI policy. He said a policy would include certain tools used to meet education standards and guardrails to ensure appropriate uses.

鈥淚 think we are still at a very early stage in terms of understanding their [AI] impact,鈥� Liu said. 鈥淭here hasn鈥檛 been a lot of research looking at the impact of particular AI users on teacher and student learning outcomes.鈥�

Maryland education officials said they have been working behind the scenes on AI guidance for more than a year.

A from the state Board of Education summarizes artificial intelligence frameworks such as potential benefits like tutoring and personalized learning assistance, aiding creativity and collaboration and operational and administrative efficiency. Some of the risks are plagiarism and academic dishonesty, overreliance and loss of critical thinking, and perpetuating societal biases.

State Superintendent Carey Wright said in an interview Thursday that statewide guidance on AI could be released by the end of the school. In the meantime, Wright has advice for educators and other school leaders on effectively using AI in schools.

鈥淭he things that I would hope they鈥檙e doing is developing lesson plans that are aligned to our standards. That鈥檚 key because our statewide assessment is aligned to our standards,鈥� she said.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 want just a hodgepodge of things being taught,鈥� Wright said. 鈥淪o, anything that they can do that is going to make their life easier, but also guiding children in [what鈥檚] appropriate and what鈥檚 not appropriate, in terms of the use of AI.鈥�

School district look

A few school districts have implemented AI guidelines.

Prince George鈥檚 County school leaders began last school year that stresses professional learning, ethical considerations and curriculum integration.

For the 2025-26 school year that began last week, there will be follow-up meetings with stakeholders, training workshops for staff and school administrators to start assessing how to implement AI instruction in the classroom.

Students in can read about it in their new student code of conduct. The guidelines highlight definitions, educational and ethical uses, academic integrity and supervision and monitoring.

There鈥檚 also a warning for prohibited conduct: 鈥淎ny misuse of AI tools will be subject to disciplinary action. In certain circumstances, law enforcement may be notified.鈥�

Frederick County Superintendent Cheryl Dyson said the school board there is working on an artificial intelligence policy.

Last year, Dyson said curriculum writers used AI to generate topics related to the curriculum that young people would be interested in.

As for teachers, Dyson said they will not only know whether students produced their own work, but also help guide them to think critically.

鈥淲hen you learn [the abilities of] a student, you can tell when something is an anomaly,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really about explicit teaching of the writing process, or any process really about learning, because we want to know what they [students] know, not what the computer knows.鈥�

Maryland State Education Association president Paul Lemle provided an example on how he utilized AI last year as a social studies teacher. Lemle asked students to compare a few political ads, but he also required that they make ads of their own.

鈥淚t was OK for them to use AI in that assignment,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f they wanted to use it to research the ads that they were comparing, fine. If they wanted to use it to suggest lines in their script, fine.

鈥淏ut the AI couldn鈥檛 tell them this kind of ad will work in this kind of political context. They had to make that decision for themselves,鈥� Lemle said.

Tiffany Carpenter, 25, said she began to use artificial intelligence during the first week of school to help with a lesson plan for the entrepreneurship class she teaches at Dr. Henry A. Wise Jr. High School in Prince George鈥檚 County. Part of that plan, she said, was utilizing AI to design a logo.

鈥淎I鈥檚 logo-making isn鈥檛 always perfect, so I just use that as a template so that I can get a start,鈥� said Carpenter, who鈥檚 going into her fourth year teaching at Wise. 鈥淚t鈥檚 giving you ideas, not the final product. That鈥檚 what I tell and show my students. AI is just a tool to help. They still have to do the work and learn from it.鈥�

But without a 100% guarantee, there remains an unknown that students can utilize that technology and easily obtain good grades.

鈥楧o more together鈥�

With an ongoing statewide and nationwide teacher shortage, aspiring teachers will need to be taught about how to effectively integrate artificial intelligence into the classroom.

Darilyn Mercadel is doing just that at Bowie State University, where she is teaching several classes and is the coordinator of elementary education programs in the school鈥檚 College of Education.

Before students are enrolled in college, high school students already know how to use AI technology through computer programs such as ChatGPT, developed and released in 2022 by OpenAI. ChatGPT can translate complex topics into simpler sentences. In addition, the user can ask questions through text, audio or even image prompts.

But Mercadel stressed there鈥檚 other programs such as Adobe Firefly that generate graphics and edit photos; Intellectus that analyzes and breaks down data; and the 鈥淪iri voice recognition program on iPhones.

Mercadel said students use a tutoring service program called 鈥淐ircleIn.鈥� Not only does the program provide academic support, it can also be used to collaborate with their peers. But to ensure aspiring educators, which she calls 鈥減reservice students,鈥� understand a particular topic, Mercadel will also give an oral exam.

鈥淭here are other means that we can assess students besides your usual paper, or your typical test that we used to give before AI,鈥� she said. 鈥淥ne thing about AI is that it鈥檚 a genie that鈥檚 out of the bottle. We鈥檙e not going to place that back.鈥�

The effectiveness of AI has decreased Mercadel鈥檚 time to plan her courses from about two weeks to an hour. She stressed the human element is integrated because 鈥淎I can鈥檛 do things that humans can do, which is the emotional side and the understanding of our students. It gives me more time to get to know my students and families.鈥�

Mercadel, who taught early childhood education in Prince George鈥檚 and Montgomery counties, said another positive with AI is interacting with students who may be hearing impaired.

鈥淣ow students are able to swipe that doesn鈥檛 require that occupational hand holding of a pencil and can tap or swipe to communicate. That鈥檚 a huge difference,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 assistive technology. We have these tools that make it easier, but that also gives us time to do more together.鈥�

ChatGPT says it鈥檚 OK

As a policy, Maryland Matters does not use AI to write stories, but we did ask ChatGPT, one of the most popular programs, if AI should be allowed in K-12 classrooms for students and teachers. We were told in a split-second, 鈥淵es 鈥� with clear boundaries, ethical safeguards, and developmentally appropriate practices in place.鈥� Which it went on to list:

Why AI should be allowed in K-12

1. Enhances teaching and learning

• For Teachers:
  • Saves time (e.g., grading drafts, generating lesson plans, adapting materials).
  • Enables differentiated instruction and support for diverse learners.
• For Students:
  • Offers personalized learning (e.g., adaptive math platforms).
  • Improves accessibility (e.g., AI captioning, translation for ELLs).
  • Can support creativity and exploration (e.g., storytelling, art, simulations).

2. Builds essential future-ready skills

• AI literacy will be as critical as digital literacy.
• Students need to understand AI鈥檚 capabilities, limits, and ethical dimensions.
• Introducing AI responsibly prepares students for a workforce increasingly shaped by automation and machine learning.

3. Promotes equity (if managed carefully)

• With proper funding and access, AI can help close gaps in learning support.
• It can provide real-time feedback and scaffolding for students who need it most.

But use must be carefully controlled
AI should not be used indiscriminately. The risks of misuse, bias, over-reliance and data misuse are real, especially for younger students. Uses, by grade level, should be:

• Kindergarten-2nd grader should use teacher-controlled tools for tasks like speech-to-text, storoy generation and reading apps.
• Grades 3-5 should have high supervision with AI image tools, math help and idea generation.
• Grades 3-8 call for guided creative and assistive use for essay feedback, science simulations, chatbots.
• Grades 9-12 allow responsible, independent use for research, peer review, coding help and ethical analysis.

When AI should not be used

• For final grading decisions or disciplinary choices.
• As substitute for human connection, mentorship, or social-emotional support.
• In a surveillance capacity (e.g., emotion tracking, behavior prediction).
• Without full transparency with parents and students.

Final position: Allow AI, with guardrails

AI belongs in the classroom 鈥� not as a replacement for teachers or learning, but as a tool for enhancing both. Its use must be:

• Age-appropriate
• Ethically grounded
• Transparent
• Optional and opt-in where appropriate
• Accompanied by teacher training and student AI literacy education

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org.

In a 6-3 ruling, the conservative justices said the Montgomery County Public Schools must reinstate its opt-out policy. The opinion puts districts nationwide on notice that parents should have a greater say over whether their children are exposed to views that conflict with what they learn at home. 

鈥淲e conclude that the parents are likely to succeed in their challenge to the board鈥檚 policies,鈥� Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority. 鈥淎 government burdens the religious exercise of parents when it requires them to submit their children to instruction that poses 鈥榓 very real threat of undermining鈥� the religious beliefs and practices that the parents wish to instill.鈥�

The case, , now returns to a lower court, which will consider whether the district violated the parents鈥� First Amendment rights. Eric Baxter, an attorney with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represented the parents, said he expects the district to settle.

鈥淭he court鈥檚 ruling clearly will extend through the end of this case,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 don’t think there are any facts the school board can produce that will change the court’s mind.鈥� 

In , the district said it 鈥渨ill determine next steps and navigate this moment with integrity and purpose.鈥�

鈥楾he assault on books鈥�

In a dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor expressed sympathy for district officials鈥� decision to stop allowing families to opt out. 

鈥淭he result will be chaos for this nation鈥檚 public schools鈥� and 鈥渋mpose impossible administrative burdens on schools,鈥� she said in the minority opinion, joined by Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan. What would happen, she asked, if a school had to alert parents any time a lesson or story might contradict what parents believe. 鈥淣ext to go could be teaching on evolution, the work of female scientist Marie Curie, or the history of vaccines.鈥�

PEN America, a free speech organization that advocates against restrictions on books, criticized the ruling, saying that it lays the 鈥渇oundation for a new frontier in the assault on books of all kinds in schools.鈥� 

The case reflects an ongoing clash between efforts to represent LGBTQ families in the curriculum and the rights of religious parents. The families who sued 鈥� Muslim, Catholic and Orthodox Christian 鈥� argued that simply having the books in the classroom offended their beliefs. But rather than demanding the district remove them outright, they asked that their children be allowed to leave class when teachers read the books. The Trump administration, 26 GOP-led states and 66 members of Congress sided with the parents.

鈥淭his ruling is more than just a legal win. It is a moral and spiritual triumph that acknowledges the sacred responsibility entrusted to parents,鈥� said Billy Moges, a Christian mother of three and board member for Kids First, an advocacy group that formed to oppose the district鈥檚 move.

In a call with reporters Friday, Baxter called the ruling 鈥渁 win-win鈥� because it shows parents with religious disagreements 鈥渄on鈥檛 get to veto everyone else鈥檚 practices.鈥�

In 2022, the 160,000-student Montgomery district added LGBTQ inclusive books like 鈥淯ncle Bobby鈥檚 Wedding,鈥� about a girl鈥檚 uncle who marries another man, and 鈥淏orn Ready,鈥� about a transgender boy, to its elementary curriculum. In March 2023, officials announced they would end their policy of allowing parents to opt their children out of listening to the stories and any classroom discussions about the books. They argued that the policy applied to all parents, not just those wanting opt outs for religious reasons. 

The books were not intended to influence students鈥� beliefs about sexual orientation and gender identity, officials argued, but to reflect the diversity of the community. That didn鈥檛 satisfy the parents who sued, some of whom left the district over the issue.

鈥淚 would have loved to keep my children in public school, 鈥� but I just didn’t have that choice,鈥� Moges told 社区黑料 before the oral arguments in April. 

鈥楴eed not wait for the damage鈥�

The conservatives rejected the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit鈥檚 opinion that there was insufficient evidence of how teachers were actually using the books in the classroom to determine whether students were coerced into adopting the views they represented. 

鈥淲hen a deprivation of First Amendment rights is at stake, a plaintiff need not wait for the damage to occur before filing suit,鈥� Alito wrote. The books, he said, 鈥渁re designed to present the opposite viewpoint to young, impressionable children, 鈥resent same-sex weddings as occasions for great celebration and suggest that the only rubric for determining whether a marriage is acceptable is whether the individuals concerned 鈥榣ove each other.鈥� 鈥� 

The ruling came a day after the of the court鈥檚 landmark ruling in that made gay marriage legal nationwide. Alito, along with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Clarence Thomas, dissented from the majority in that case. 

In the Mahmoud ruling, the court also shot down the suggestion 鈥� one that Jackson elaborated on during oral arguments 鈥� that parents who don鈥檛 like what public schools teach can put their children in private school or homeschool them.

鈥淧ublic education is a public benefit, and the government cannot 鈥榗ondition鈥� its 鈥榓vailability鈥� on parents鈥� willingness to accept a burden on their religious exercise,鈥� Alito wrote.

The ruling means that schools will have to give parents, especially those with young children, more advance notice when lessons are planned that touch on religious beliefs.

鈥淭he court drew a clear line: simple exposure to ideas is allowed, but instruction that pushes a particular moral viewpoint 鈥� especially without room for dissent 鈥� can cross into a constitutional burden,鈥� said Asma Uddin, a Georgetown University law professor who focuses on religious liberty.  

Some faith leaders argue the books never should have been viewed through a religious lens and that the court鈥檚 decision will further marginalize LGBTQ students and families at a time when the Trump administration is seeking to remove their legal protections.  

The ruling 鈥渋s just the latest example of religion being used as a tool of discrimination and misappropriated to harm our neighbors,鈥� Rev. Shannon Fleck, executive director of Faithful America, a Christian social-justice organization, said in a statement. 鈥淭he truth is that there is no scripture or religious doctrine that denies the existence of LGBTQ people.鈥�

Yet there are pockets of progress. Our new report, 鈥�),鈥� identified 260 school districts in which early reading proficiency rates have grown by 3 to 4 percentage points a year for the last three years. What are they doing differently that the rest might learn from?

Three districts in particular merited a closer look, as they represent a mix of sizes and starting points: Marietta City in the Atlanta suburbs; Allegany County, at the edge of the Appalachian Mountains in Maryland; and DC Prep, a K-8 public charter school network.

The project to identify dynamic districts across the country began with this goal: To reignite growth, districts are going to need to move past generic advice about what makes 鈥渆ffective schools鈥� and understand more about specific strategies to improve literacy. All three districts profiled had been deeply dissatisfied with their students’ performance in reading and writing, diagnosed their internal challenges and began implementing coherent responses over several years.

Leaders in these districts did not start their literacy initiatives by creating a vision. Instead, they asked themselves and their teachers a version of this question: 鈥淲hat鈥檚 our most important problem, and how do we solve it?鈥� The answer: through no fault of their own, was that most teachers don鈥檛 have a deep enough grasp of all elements of evidence-based reading instruction.  

The districts launched deep, extended professional learning for all elementary teachers over two to three years.  Marietta City trained teachers with , a set of mini-courses on core elements of literacy and how to teach them, then added a year of training with , a set of courses on teaching expository writing. In 2020, Allegany County began a two-year engagement with , to help teachers master the basics of reading and writing instruction 鈥� phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.  

All three districts reconfigured and expanded time for literacy instruction. DC Prep extended its literacy period to 1 hour and 45 minutes and added a second teacher who provides targeted help at students’ desks instead of pulling them out of class for separate instruction. Allegany extended instruction to two hours and added 30 minutes for small-group interventions and enrichment. 

Marietta redesigned its daily schedule so every student now receives roughly two to three hours of literacy instruction every day. Ninety minutes is dedicated to whole-class reading that weaves in grade-level science and social studies texts. There’s also 20 to 30 minutes of explicit phonics and word-study practice, and 30 to 60 minutes of small-group work where teachers target the skills individual students still need to develop.  

The districts also changed how they staff schools. Marietta hired reading specialists who work with students in small groups of 10 across eight schools. Allegany redefined the role of literacy coach to provide teachers with more direct feedback about how well they deliver instruction to their classes. DC Prep converted the assistant principal position into a full-time instructional-coaching role. These leaders now run collaborative planning sessions and provide teachers with ongoing, in-class feedback.

Both Marietta and Allegany improved the quality of their K-5 language arts curricula.  Marietta dropped giving students books they could already read 鈥� a popular practice that 鈥� and switched to and a skills-based foundational class. Allegany stopped using and switched to . Both are and are designed to build a deep and wide knowledge base using grade-level texts in science, history, literature and the arts.  

Finally, they鈥檝e refined assessments and how they use the results. While they dedicate time to phonics every day, these districts were clear that not every problem is a phonics problem. DC Prep鈥檚 data showed some small groups overemphasized foundational skills and needed more close reading, a technique of carefully analyzing a passage to understand what it means. In Allegany, test data pointed to a need to work more carefully on students鈥� reading fluency, not decoding.  

This summer, Upswing Labs will begin more intensive case study research in eight more of the dynamic districts. The actions summarized here 鈥� engaging educators in deep professional learning, expanding the amount of time for teaching reading, changing what literacy coaches do and improving the quality of curricula and diagnostic testing 鈥� clarify what to do. District instructional leaders also need insight on how to do it. 

The research will also examine three types of rural districts more closely, as they make up a large share of the 260 districts identified in the report. Researchers will focus on communities of African-American students in the South, Hispanic students in agricultural communities in California and Texas and evangelical churchgoers in Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee.

Finally, the case studies will explore whether the best tactics shift as a district climbs the performance ladder 鈥� echoing that the moves that lift proficiency for students near the bottom are often different from those that propel midrange improvement.

With sharper insight into both what works and how to implement it, more districts will be able to chart a path to improved literacy achievement.

Many states, including Maryland, where I live and work as a literacy coach, are embracing the science of reading, which . However, these efforts are focused at the elementary level, and older students are going through high school without the benefit of these best practices.

My district, Baltimore City Public Schools, is working to address that problem. For the last four years, I have helped all teachers at Reginald F. Lewis High School weave reading and writing into their lessons. This is unusual, because while the district has had literacy coaches in elementary and secondary schools, most work only with English Language Arts teachers. This isn鈥檛 enough.

Consider this: During a team meeting, teachers and I reviewed Maryland’s state English test and found it had just one set of questions related to a literature passage. The rest were based on informational texts, such as historical primary source documents, scientific reports and graphs. Subject-matter teachers are best-suited to help students learn to read and analyze these passages.

While all the teachers I work with know that students are coming to them with large literacy gaps, most weren鈥檛 accustomed to working with a coach, especially a literacy coach. They were skeptical at first. Overcoming that required taking key steps. 

First, my principal had to make it clear that literacy learning was a schoolwide responsibility and that I was there to help. Then, I had to build strong relationships with teachers. I did that by listening, learning about the challenges they faced, observing instruction and providing feedback, and being a consistent and supportive presence in their classrooms. We studied data and set goals together.

It was especially important to be patient. Change of this kind takes more than a single school year.

Across classrooms, we raised the rigor. Because reading achievement was low, teachers had been using texts designed for elementary or middle schoolers. But what our high schoolers needed was reading material aligned to high school expectations. My job was to give teachers tools that they could use to help students understand what they were reading. These included strategies such as previewing complex vocabulary with students before diving into reading and offering multiple opportunities and ways to access difficult texts, such as through read-alouds or partnered reading. Those approaches improve reading fluency and are particularly appropriate when books or articles are challenging.聽

Yet, even as the teachers helped students to access harder books, they had to pull back on doing too much. I found they were reading aloud texts that students were capable of reading on their own, or oversimplifying assignments and taking away opportunities for students to write answers that showed what they really knew.

Today, the teachers know that I鈥檓 there to help their students learn in their particular content area and are proud that, after a sharp dip in proficiency directly after the pandemic, our . Overall, our school went from 10% English proficiency in 2023 to 27% in 2024, and we met our literacy progress goals for the first time since the pandemic. Teachers also like the engagement they see in their classrooms when students read aloud to their partners or speak up to answer questions.

More recently, after we realized students were skipping written response questions on state assessments, we started weaving writing instruction into the school day. To tackle this, our school made writing instruction the focus of professional development and coaching. We all read 鈥淭he Writing Revolution,鈥� by Judith Hochman and Natalie Wexler, and I provided support to teachers based on the approach in the book and training I received.

Many teachers at first lacked confidence around teaching components of good writing, so I provided explicit modeling and coaching. In a math class, I鈥檇 have a teacher demonstrate what good writing looks like in that grade and subject 鈥� for example, writing a response to a question 鈥� and then we鈥檇 discuss ways to help students reach that level of proficiency. 

Today, nearly all teachers in my school are more comfortable providing writing instruction in their content area, and nearly all implement some kind of writing instruction every day. This means that students get multiple chances to practice writing and learn particular skills. I love hearing them saying things like, “All my teachers are talking about segment fragments!鈥� Or, 鈥淣ow we have to use conjunctions everywhere!鈥� 

In January, teachers had reported that half or more of their students skipped writing tasks on any assignment. Today, nearly every student writes answers to assignments, and basic writing mistakes have dwindled. 

I鈥檝e also been working to help encourage students to read independently. show that a mere 14% of 13-year-olds read for enjoyment daily. It鈥檚 a shocking figure but it reflects what I see. I often ask students what they like to read, and unfortunately a common answer is, “I don’t know. I don’t really like reading.鈥�

After one of these exchanges, I asked my 10-year-old, who loves curling up with a book, what he would say to that. “I would say they just haven’t found the right book yet!” he replied. High schoolers have tons of interests and opinions; they just need to find a book based on these interests to ignite a love for reading. Sometimes I ask kids what movies they like, and the answer usually helps make a connection to books. I also encourage families to participate in summer library programs that give kids and adults a free book of their choice each month.

I believe the successes my school has seen on classroom tests in literacy will also show in the state exams our students recently took. More importantly, I鈥檓 confident the skills they鈥檝e learned will make a lasting difference in their lives, whatever path they choose.

Local school systems straining to comply with the state鈥檚 sweeping Blueprint for Maryland鈥檚 Future have had to report to both the Maryland Department of Education and the Blueprint鈥檚 Accountability and Implementation Board, a setup creating confusion 鈥渟ince the get-go.鈥�

Now, more than three years into the process, the two agencies said they are working on a memorandum of understanding that could make things a bit smoother for all concerned.

Alex Reese, chief of staff with the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE), did not tell the state Board of Education on Thursday how long it would take to finalize an agreement, but he said a memorandum is in the works.

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State law requires the seven-member AIB to oversee the 10-year plan and approve any Blueprint documents submitted by the state鈥檚 24 school systems and other state agencies that craft elements of the Blueprint.

The law also requires the department to provide technical assistance and lend expertise on education policy. The AIB and state Board of Education also hold and approve certain policies associated with the multibillion-dollar Blueprint plan.

Reese said 鈥淢SDE will be fully owning Blueprint implementation. We feel good about that as practitioners. We really do feel like we possess that expertise to be able to be poised to fully implement the Blueprint.鈥�

An AIB spokesperson confirmed in an email Thursday evening an agreement is being worked on with the department.

鈥淎IB and MSDE attorneys are working together on an MOU [memorandum of understanding] relating to the agencies鈥� respective roles and duties,鈥� the spokesperson said.

鈥淭here is not currently a timeline confirmed for finalizing it. Because it is an MOU directly between the AIB and MSDE, there would be no need for General Assembly approval,鈥� the email said.

In a quick summation to the state board Thursday, Reese said certain processes will remain the same such as the Blueprint board providing instructions to school systems on what is required in each Blueprint plan. It will continue 鈥渋nteragency collaboration鈥� with agencies such as the state , which focuses on two of the Blueprint鈥檚 five pillars, or priorities 鈥� hiring and retaining high-quality and diverse teachers, and preparing students for college and technical careers.

The news was welcomed by school leaders, educators and advocates who have expressed frustration over the process of implementing the comprehensive education reform plan.

鈥淥ne of the biggest complaints, if not the biggest, has been the lack of clarity and final guidance and where we get questions answered. We鈥檝e got to run every decision by both entities [MSDE and AIB],鈥� said Mary Pat Fannon, executive director of the Public School Superintendents鈥� Association of Maryland.

The association released a 12-page document in that outlined proposals to help improve the plan. One of those recommendations was clearing up the relationship between the two agencies.

鈥淩estructuring and clarifying the relationship of the MSDE and AIB would be very beneficial in the implementation of the Blueprint. This change would clarify roles and responsibilities, and establish clear guidance to the LEAs [local education agencies, or school systems] that they are governed by the procedures and processes promulgated by the MSDE and the State Board,鈥� the December report said.

鈥淪omebody鈥檚 got to be the point. Somebody鈥檚 got to be the team captain on certain things,鈥� Fannon said.聽 鈥淥therwise, it鈥檚 just completely frustrating.鈥�

鈥淲e are happy they are doing this. This is all going to help in implementation when these guys are 100% clear with us,鈥� Fannon said of the work on an MOU.

Sen. Mary Beth Carozza (R-Lower Shore) was also pleased by the discussions, which she said would help improve the process at the local and state levels. But the senator hopes an agreement can be reached before the 2025-26 school year begins in the fall.

鈥淚 would like to think they would make every effort to use the time between now and [when] school starts to give as much clarity to the roles and responsibilities, since it will only have a positive impact at the local level,鈥� Carozza said. 鈥淭hat would be my expectation to keep that on track and to keep it moving.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org.

A U.S. District Court judge in New York on Tuesday temporarily blocked the Trump administration鈥檚 plan to cancel more than $1 billion of previously approved pandemic-era relief funding to schools across the country.

The issued by District Judge Edgardo Ramos prevents the U.S. Department of Education and its secretary, Linda McMahon, from recovering money 鈥渄uring the pendency of this litigation or until further order of the Court.鈥�

Maryland had joined 15 states and the District of Columbia in the suit against the department and McMahon last month. , filed April 10, followed a letter from McMahon that arrived in email inboxes at 5 p.m. on Friday, March 28, advising state school officials that any unspent COVID-19 federal recovery funds were being reclaimed immediately.

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Most of the money in Maryland comes from the American Rescue Plan鈥檚 Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ARP ESSER, program. McMahon wrote that it didn鈥檛 make sense for the federal goverment to be awarding COVID-19 grants 鈥測ears after the COVID pandemic ended.鈥�

Maryland officials initially estimated that as much as $418 million could be at stake, the most of any state in the lawsuit. School officials聽announced last week, before the meeting, that the number is actuallly closer to $232.1 million, but the injunction was still welcome.

鈥淐OVID-19 may be over, but its impact is still being felt in schools across our State and nation, as reading and math scores remain lower than pre-pandemic levels and students continue to struggle with behavioral health issues since schools reopened,鈥� Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown (D) said in a statement Tuesday.

鈥淭his ruling preserves hundreds of millions of dollars for Maryland schools, allowing our educational leaders to continue giving their students the support they need and deserve,鈥� Brown said.

A U.S. Department of Education spokesperson did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment Tuesday night.

The money is being used for various educational programs and school construction projects, ranging from tutoring and reading materials to the installation of heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.

The lawsuit highlighted several affected projects, such as Baltimore City Public Schools鈥� cancellation of tutoring and after-school programs. The school system hasn鈥檛 been reimbursed $48 million.

Besides D.C. and Maryland, others in the suit were Arizona, California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, Oregon and Pennsylvania.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org.

In 2023, Montgomery County Public Schools ended an opt-out policy, prompting the parents, backed by religious freedom advocates, to take the district to court. 

A federal appeals court agreed with the suburban Washington district鈥檚 argument that it didn鈥檛 coerce the students to change their beliefs about gender and sexuality simply by exposing them to stories with gay or transgender characters. But some conservative justices in Tuesday鈥檚 oral arguments agreed with the families, who say the books alone pose a burden on parents鈥� religious beliefs and the district clearly intends to 鈥渄isrupt鈥� students鈥� thinking about issues like same-sex marriage and whether someone can change their pronouns. 

鈥淲hat is the big deal about allowing them to opt out of this?鈥� Justice Samuel Alito asked Alan Schoenfeld, who represents the school district. As an example of a 鈥渃lear moral message,鈥� he pointed to Uncle Bobby鈥檚 Wedding, a picture book focusing on a girl鈥檚 feelings of jealousy when her favorite uncle gets married to another man. 鈥淚t doesn’t just say 鈥楲ook, Uncle Bobby and Jamie are getting married.鈥� It expresses the idea [that] this is a good thing.鈥� 

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, however, warned that because the case is still at such an early stage 鈥� the parents just want to restore the opt-out policy for now 鈥� the court shouldn鈥檛 be making a decision that would force districts nationwide to adopt such policies for curriculum that could offend parents鈥� religious beliefs.

鈥淚nstead of having democratically elected representatives and experts in the field making the decision about which books should be taught to kids in the classroom, you have federal judges flipping through the picture books and deciding whether these are appropriate for 5 year olds,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t seems pretty troubling, because ordinarily, public education has been the subject of local control.鈥�

鈥楴ot a sea change鈥�

The case, brings together multiple issues at the forefront of President Donald Trump鈥檚 conservative agenda: parental rights, religious freedom and eliminating what Trump calls from the nation鈥檚 schools. Sarah Harris, principal deputy solicitor general argued, for the government, saying that other states, including Pennsylvania, Arizona and Hawaii have 鈥渧ery broad鈥� opt-out policies. She rejected the school district鈥檚 position that such arrangements pose administrative challenges for schools and teachers.

鈥淚t’s something that schools have done for a long time,鈥� she said 鈥淚t is not a sea change.鈥�

The Montgomery County board, however, abruptly decided to end opt outs in 2023, said Eric Baxter, an attorney with Becket, a law firm that represents the parents and focuses on religious liberty. That鈥檚 when the conflict began. 

District leaders, Baxter said, chose books that are 鈥渃learly indoctrinating students鈥� to believe differently. Because the district allows opt outs from sex education classes, the families argue the same option should be available when teachers plan to read the books in class.

The district chose the books to be inclusive and teach respect toward those with different beliefs and lifestyles, Schoenfeld said. The opt outs, according to the district, were increasingly disruptive, with at least one school seeing 鈥渄ozens鈥� of requests. Some parents kept students home for the entire day to avoid the readings. District officials maintain that they鈥檙e not discriminating against religion because they ended opt outs for all reasons, not just religious ones. 

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, one of the six conservatives on the court, focused on written materials that advise teachers how to respond in class if, for example, a student says 鈥淎 girl can only like boys because she’s a girl.鈥�

The guidance instructs teachers to make comments like 鈥淲hen we’re born, people make a guess about our gender and label us boy or girl based on our body parts. Sometimes they’re right sometimes; they’re wrong.鈥� 

Those statements, Barrett said, 鈥渟eem to be more about influence and 鈥� shaping of ideas and less about communicating respect.鈥� 

But Schoenfeld said there鈥檚 not enough evidence in the record showing how teachers ultimately used the books in the classroom to determine if coercion actually occurred. 

Justice Kavanaugh, who said he鈥檚 a 鈥渓ifelong resident鈥� of Montgomery County, expounded on the religious diversity of the community and questioned why the district took such a hardline position. 

鈥淵ou see religious building after religious building. I’m surprised 鈥� that this is the hill we’re gonna die on in terms of not respecting religious liberty,鈥� he said. The goal in such cases, he said, has been to 鈥渓ook for the win-win鈥� 鈥� to accommodate religious beliefs while still allowing the government to pursue its goals.

鈥淭hey’re not asking you to change what’s taught in the classroom,鈥� he said about the parents. 鈥淭hey’re only seeking to be able to walk out.鈥� 

鈥榃here the court is headed鈥�

While the record in the case is limited, it does include a comment from Board Member Lynne Harris, who said parents don鈥檛 have a right to 鈥渕icromanage their child鈥檚 public-school experience鈥� and are free to send their children to a private religious school if they disagree with what鈥檚 taught. 

Joshua Dunn, executive director of the Institute of American Civics at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is looking to the court鈥檚 past religious freedom cases as a guide to how the justices might view this debate. Former Justice Stephen Breyer, a liberal, foreshadowed how far the conservative wing of the court might go to accommodate the rights of families to practice their faith, Dunn said.

In a 2017 Missouri case, , Breyer sided with the conservative majority in ruling in favor for a church that was turned down for a state grant. To him, it was just obviously wrong to deny Trinity Lutheran access to a grant program for recycled rubber for a playground,鈥� Dunn said. 鈥淚t had nothing to do with religion.鈥�

But his views changed in and 鈥� two cases focusing on public funds for tax credits or vouchers at faith-based schools. In Carson, Breyer asked whether 鈥減ublic schools must pay equivalent funds to parents who wish to send their children to religious schools.鈥� 

Maryland doesn鈥檛 have a private school choice program, and vouchers for parents who object to the books on religious grounds are not on the table in this case, Dunn said. But he聽wonders whether the conservative justices could apply the same logic that concerned Breyer.聽

In other words, would the court reason that because the government funds education for students whose parents don鈥檛 object to the books, it should be obligated to fund schooling for those who oppose such materials on religious grounds? 

鈥淎ll you have to do,鈥� he said 鈥渋s be able to read and count noses and you can see where the court is headed.鈥� 

For now, advocates on the district鈥檚 side want the court to show restraint and deny the parents鈥� request to reinstate the opt-out policy.

鈥淭hey’re trying to get a court-mandated order that any parent can opt their children out of class rather than have virtually any type of exposure to books with LGBTQ characters,鈥� said Eileen Hershenov, chief legal officer for PEN America, a free speech organization that filed a brief in the case and advocates against restrictions on books. 鈥淚t’s a recipe for administrative nightmares for public schools with the likely result that students will have little or no exposure to families or characters other than those that offend no religious sensibilities.鈥�

A group of parents sued the Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, arguing that requiring children to sit through storybook readings on topics such as a and a girl giving to another girl offends their religious beliefs.

鈥淲e were forced to choose between God and education,鈥� said Billy Moges, a Christian mother of three and a board member for Kids First, an advocacy group that formed to oppose the district鈥檚 move. She pulled her children out of the school system when officials ended the opt-out policy and has since started a private Christian school, , that meets in a Silver Spring church. 

鈥淲e’re not asking for any special treatment,鈥� she said. 鈥榃e’re asking for our rights to be restored.鈥�

Regardless of who wins, the case will head back to the district court for further action.

The appeal centers on parents鈥� request to reinstate the opt-out policy until the district court can rule on whether the district violated their rights. But the court鈥檚 conservative majority may also use the oral arguments to address the underlying facts, said Joshua Dunn, executive director of the Institute of American Civics at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

鈥淭he school board didn’t relent, and then compelled students to sit through these books being read,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 just think that for some of the justices on the court, that’s going to strike them as extraordinarily wrong-headed.鈥� 

District officials say the books, intended for pre-K through third grade, were never intended to push views about sex and gender. The opt outs, they argue, became increasingly disruptive and contributed to absenteeism because some parents let their children skip the whole day if a lesson included one of the books. 

Opt-outs 鈥渟tigmatized LGBTQ students and students who have LGBTQ families,鈥� said Aditi Fruitwala, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, which supports the district. Reinstating the policy, she said, would 鈥渦ndermine the entire purpose of a public education system, which is to create good citizens who can thrive in a society with people from a variety of backgrounds, faiths and cultures.鈥� 

The case, , illustrates the growing tension between inclusion and religious freedom. That鈥檚 likely the reason the conservative-learning court agreed to hear the appeal, Fruitwala said. The parents who sued 鈥� Muslim, Catholic and Orthodox Christian 鈥� also have the : Solicitor General John Sauer will participate in the oral arguments. In a brief, the Department of Justice said the board鈥檚 policy forces parents to be in 鈥渄ereliction of their religious duties鈥� by sending their children to public school. Twenty-six Republican-led states and 66 members of Congress also support the parents. 

Religiously diverse

Over the past few years, confrontations over these issues have escalated in districts across the country. In February, parents in the , district, near Rochester, objected to the district鈥檚 use of The Rainbow Parade, a picture book about a young girl and her two mothers attending a Pride parade. 

Nationally, the public leans in favor of schools allowing parents to opt their children out of lessons about sexual orientation and gender identity. Fifty-four percent agreed with that view in a Pew Research poll , but the partisan divide was stark: Support for opt outs was 79% among Republicans, compared with 32% among Democrats.

Despite clashes over such materials from to , both sides of the conflict agree that Montgomery County offers an especially apt setting for the debate. The county is one of the most in the nation, according to the Public Religion Research Institute. 

Will Haun, senior counsel at Becket, a law firm that focuses on religious liberty and represents the parents, said it鈥檚 鈥渁stonishing,鈥� that such a district would abandon the longstanding practice of accommodating parents鈥� opt-out requests.聽

Fruitwala said the district鈥檚 rich religious and diversity is precisely why the books belong in the curriculum. District leaders, she said, have an 鈥渙pportunity to incorporate books from a wide variety of cultures and perspectives and backgrounds that reflect the families in the school district.鈥� 

The 160,000-student district鈥檚 effort to bring more diversity to its reading program began in 2022-23, when the school board voted to add six books featuring LGBTQ characters. Officials said they chose the titles for the same reasons they would add any storybooks to the curriculum 鈥� to teach sentence structure, word choice and style.

In a brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the National Education Association and its Maryland and Montgomery County affiliates highlighted comments from teachers that demonstrated students鈥� eager response to the books. 

A veteran second grade teacher relayed what happened when she read , a picture book about a mother who makes a rainbow-colored wig for her transgender daughter. 鈥淯pon hearing the words, 鈥業鈥檓 a transgender girl,鈥� one of the children in my class called out, 鈥楾hat鈥檚 like my sister!鈥� This child felt seen,鈥� the teacher said, according to the brief.

Ignoring LGBTQ families, district leaders say, puts schools at risk of violating state that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. 

The ruled that refusing to allow children to opt out of the readings put no burden on religious parents. That鈥檚 when the families appealed to the Supreme Court.

They argue that since the district permits families to opt their children out of sex education, under a state law, that choice should extend to books that represent LGBTQ themes in other subjects. 

鈥淎ll the school board had to do,鈥� Haun said, 鈥渨as simply recharacterize sexuality and gender instruction as English language arts and they get out of a long-standing national consensus that allows parents to opt their children out of that kind of instruction.鈥�

Last fall, the district in question 鈥� My Rainbow and , a rhyming alphabet book about a puppy that runs off during a Pride parade. But Rev. Rachel Cornwell, a Methodist minister who has two students in Montgomery County schools, said she wouldn鈥檛 be surprised if the district was forced to remove all of the storybooks.

She wishes the parents would suggest different books rather than leave the district. 

鈥淚 think the vast majority of people in Montgomery County support the inclusion of these books into the curriculum,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hese are not books about sex. They are books about people’s lives and about the diversity of our community.鈥� 

As the mother of a transgender son, she said she and other LGBTQ families want their children to feel like they belong.

鈥淲e鈥檙e not trying to indoctrinate anybody or say this is right or wrong,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat’s for you to have a conversation about with your kid at home.鈥�

鈥淓ven if the feds decide that they’re not going to require statewide assessments, that is not something that I’m going to buy into,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he moment you lower standards, you do kids a disservice.鈥�

With President Donald Trump on a path to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education and revert power back to the states, Wright鈥檚 words gave urgency to a burning issue state leaders have been wrestling with for months.

While Education Secretary Linda McMahon has declared it鈥檚 鈥渁bsolutely鈥� necessary to continue the National Assessment of Educational Progress 鈥� which allows the public to compare student performance across states 鈥� she鈥檚 so far been silent on federal requirements for state testing and the need to identify low-performing schools for extra support. The lack of a plan has left some wondering if sending education 鈥渂ack to the states,鈥� as Trump is fond of saying, means abandoning what has been a mainstay of education policy for more than 20 years.  

鈥淭his is one of the discussions that the department, the administration, the Senate and House need to talk through,鈥� said Jim Blew, co-founder of the Defense of Freedom Institute, a right leaning think tank that supports Trump鈥檚 agenda. 

A department official during the president鈥檚 first term, he argues that the Every Student Succeeds Act, the law that spells out federal requirements for testing and accountability, has had little impact on holding students to high standards. 

鈥淪tates that do not want to be transparent about their testing results simply aren’t,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f you don’t believe me, just go and try and find the results for any state.鈥�

As the president鈥檚 plan takes shape, some Republicans are trying to remove those annual testing and accountability requirements altogether. Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota reintroduced last week that would not only eliminate the education department, but also repeal ESSA. In exchange for a federal block grant, states would be required to submit student data to the Treasury Department, complete an annual audit and follow civil rights laws 鈥� but not conduct annual tests.

The rationale is clear, said Charles Barone, senior director of the Center for Innovation at the National Parents Union: Maintaining some federal authority over testing and accountability could imply there鈥檚 still a role for the department.

鈥淪en. Rounds鈥� bill simply has federal programs as money streams,鈥� he said. 鈥淣o policy attached.鈥�

Since the pandemic, a handful of states, like Oklahoma, and , have rolled back expectations for passing state tests. The changes are likely to result in more students reaching grade-level targets even if they haven鈥檛 learned more. The trend has revived debate over the 鈥渉onesty gap鈥� 鈥� the discrepancy between NAEP鈥檚 higher standard for proficiency and the often lower bar set by states. 

Others, like and education Secretary Aimee Guidera are phasing in tougher assessment and accountability systems. To Blew, that shows the federal government should just stay out of the way. 

鈥淎t the end of the day, states are going to determine this,鈥� he said. 鈥淟et’s give them the freedom to do that.鈥�

Passed a decade ago, ESSA requires states to test all students in third through eighth grades in reading and math, to assess students once in high school and to ensure at least 95% of students participate in testing. States also have to break down results by race and for different student groups, including those in poverty, English learners and students with disabilities. 

The major components meet the threshold of what Barone describes as the 鈥溾�� for accountability. 

Testing every student allows parents to get assessment results for their own children, which can then be used to determine where students are struggling or if they need more challenging work. 

Disaggregating the results shines a light on how districts serve historically marginalized students 鈥� data that is especially important to policymakers and advocacy groups. Finally, a common test allows for apples-to-apples comparisons across schools and districts. 

鈥淥ver the years, a consensus has formed that you want certain guardrails in place,鈥� Barone said.  

鈥楢 federal backstop鈥�

Observers don鈥檛 expect Rounds鈥� bill to get very far. But some call it a harbinger of a return to the days , the strict accountability law that preceded ESSA. In the 1990s, just a fraction of states tested students every year and many imposed no consequences for failing schools. 

鈥淚 think accountability is already at a pretty low point,鈥� said Cory Koedel, an economics and public policy professor at the University of Missouri. 鈥淚f things go back to the states even more formally, I would just expect that unwinding to complete itself.鈥�

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who chairs the education committee, is expected to introduce another proposal to eliminate the education department and revamp the role of the federal government in education. Blew said that bill could be weeks away. 

Democrats and some state leaders warn that dumping federal testing and accountability requirements and issuing block grants would allow states to turn their backs on the neediest students.

鈥淚f you get rid of accountability, you’re just essentially giving [states] a blank check,鈥� said Stephanie Lalle, communications director for the Democrats on the House education committee. Federal mandates, she said, are how you push them to 鈥渘ot discriminate and incentivize them to close the achievement gap.鈥�

At a February conference on assessment and accountability in Dallas, Virginia ed secretary Guidera shared data showing how her state鈥檚 performance on NAEP steadily improved between 2003 and 2013 鈥� the NCLB years. 

The landmark education law, which set strict testing and accountability requirements in exchange for Title I funds, passed in 2002. Data shows the policy led to nationally, but it quickly became highly unpopular. The law set ambitious goals for all students to be proficient in reading and math by 2014, but drew considerable pushback from critics who said it led schools to teach to the test. But even if states continue their own testing and accountability systems, Guidera doesn鈥檛 want Washington out of the picture.

“We need the federal backstop,鈥� she told 社区黑料. 鈥淲e have to have high standards, and we need to be honest with ourselves about where every child is.”聽

鈥楢 rallying cry鈥�

Opposition to standardized testing comes from both the left and the right. Educators grumble that it eats up too much class time and that results from spring tests come back too late to help students or make adjustments for the fall. Others, , say state tests offer a narrow view of student learning. 

The question is what states would do if the federal government were no longer in the picture. In his conversation with Wright and other experts earlier this month, Scott Marion, executive director of the Center for Assessment, leaned on a handy metaphor: a motorcycle cop holding a radar gun. 

鈥淲hat if nobody was checking your speed?鈥� he asked.

State leaders have been thinking about the possibilities.

Rep. Robert Behning, an Indiana state legislator, said he 鈥渨ould be willing to look at other options, like sampling鈥� 鈥� giving tests to a random, representative group of students instead of everyone. can be less of a drain on teachers鈥� and students鈥� time and still give the public district and school-level results. But the tradeoff is that most parents would be left in the dark about their children鈥檚 performance.  

Other state leaders like the idea of spreading assessments rather than building up toward one big test.

鈥淲e’ve got better assessments that tell us more about our students,鈥� Eric Mackey, Alabama state superintendent, said during a in March.  

But research shows there are with arriving at a final score for the year and the model might not reduce testing time.

Marion giving state exams every other year, which would allow more time in the intervening years to employ innovative methods like asking students to complete a project to demonstrate their learning.

Marianne Perie, an assessment expert who advises states on test design, said she wouldn鈥檛 be surprised if Oklahoma completely stopped giving statewide assessments. In March, state Superintendent Ryan Walters questioned the integrity of the 2024 results, even though they were included in for districts and schools.

But in other states like Tennessee and Mississippi, annual tests have been 鈥渁 rallying cry鈥� for parents and policymakers, said Emily Oster, a Brown University economist who tracks states鈥� . 

Such states 鈥渉ave championed their gains in the last few years,鈥� especially in English language arts, she said. 

Tennessee, for example, was among the first to bounce back from pandemic-era learning loss. At the same time, the fact that roughly 60% of third graders still scored below grade level in reading was worrisome enough to lawmakers that they passed a law requiring students to be retained or get extra help over the summer and retake the test. 

Remote learning during the pandemic and in-depth reporting on poor literacy instruction has also motivated more parents to push for improvements.

鈥淧arents are increasingly demanding accountability from their educational system, which will make sunsetting these assessments more complex,鈥� Oster said.

Roughly value state assessments and think they should be used to guide support for struggling schools and students, according to a National Parents Union poll.

鈥楥ome up with something better鈥� 

If the federal government does hand more control over assessment and accountability to states, Barone said it鈥檚 far more likely to happen through waivers from McMahon than legislation. 

ESSA allows the secretary to excuse states from annual assessments. That鈥檚 what former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos did in 2020 during the pandemic. She waived the accountability provisions for both 2020 and 2021. Barone sees no reason why McMahon wouldn鈥檛 do the same. 

A former Democratic staffer in the House, he thinks it would be hard to improve on the existing testing regimen. But even he agrees that the accountability side of the equation hasn鈥檛 led to measurable progress in how states support 鈥� and attempt to turn around 鈥� their most troubled schools. 

The law requires states to identify the lowest-performing 5% of schools, analyze why they鈥檙e struggling and adopt a proven , like coaching teachers or changing leadership. But a report found that less than half of states were complying with those requirements.

鈥淭here’s not a lot of evidence that even those that are doing it are doing it well,鈥� Barone said. Maybe Trump鈥檚 planned overhaul of the federal role in education, he said, is an opportunity to 鈥渃ome up with something better.鈥�

WASHINGTON 鈥� Suitcases and large cardboard boxes rolled across the pavement outside the Department of Education鈥檚 offices this week as recently fired federal workers packed up their desks.

Waiting outside, workers were greeted with claps, cheers and whistles as they emerged from the buildings, some raising their fists in defiance. Colleagues embraced, sharing quiet words or simply holding on. Signs with various messages floated above the crowd, most thanking the workers for their public service.

What began on Wednesday as a smaller 鈥渃lap out鈥� outside the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE), home to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) offices, grew into a larger demonstration by Friday. Fired employees gathered at department headquarters, joined by advocates rallying in solidarity.

About two weeks ago, workers in the 4,200-employee department began to hear rumblings of a large round of layoffs aimed at reducing the workforce by 50%. Some employees opted for early buyouts, while others took early retirements.

Another 1,300 employees were subject to 鈥渞eduction in force鈥� notices, according to Nikki Churchwell, a Calvert County resident who worked at the Office of Performance and Improvement, and Kaitlyn Vitez, of Alexandria, Virginia, from the Office of Communications and Outreach.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management lays out specific procedures for downsizing, which include ranking employees based on seniority and performance. However, Churchwell said the administration altered the way competitive areas were identified to bypass this process.

Veronica Greene, 56, a nearly retired worker, made her way down the path outside the OSSE, her belongings packed into two cardboard boxes stacked on a dolly. A security guard and another man, also carrying boxes, helped guide the load.

A car pulled up to the corner of the building, its windows down. A man and a woman inside waved and clapped in support. With teary eyes, Greene said, 鈥淭hese are my colleagues.鈥�

鈥淲e party hard. We love each other. It鈥檚 hard to see these people leave because I don鈥檛 know if I鈥檒l ever see them again, 鈥� she said. 鈥淪ome I might, but a lot I might not.鈥�

Greene said that she planned to retire, but this departure was not on her own terms. In just 15 to 20 minutes, the place she had considered home for decades was reduced to two boxes, after dedicating her life to student aid and loan services since 1991.

Her days were spent answering phones and sorting through mail, but it was in her office in meetings, where she said she witnessed the dedication of her colleagues.

Kelisa Wing, of Virginia, a former employee with the Office of the Deputy Secretary at the department, was escorted to her workstation around 9 a.m. on Friday with just 30 minutes to pack up her belongings.

As she moved through the office, she noticed Homeland Security personnel monitoring the building. By 11 a.m., the walls of her workspace, once decorated with family photos, potted plants and an image of Martin Luther King Jr. from the night before his assassination, were bare.

Everything had been carefully placed into a sleek black suitcase with a box stacked on top.

鈥淎ll I ever wanted to be was an English teacher and look what God did, because of education,鈥� she said. 鈥淓ducation saved my opportunities, so that鈥檚 what they want to take away.鈥�

Though for Wing, the moment was bittersweet. The abrupt departure offered a sense of closure, giving her the chance to say a proper goodbye to colleagues she had worked alongside for years.

鈥淭his is an assault on public education, because people know that education is the great equalizer,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t is the way that a student, a person like me, who came from nothing from Toledo, Ohio, from nothing, can end up working in a place like this.鈥�

Supporters gathered with former employees, holding signs of solidarity. One sign, adorned with Cookie Monster, read: Thank you! Gracias! Merci! Salamat!

Tony Sarmiento, a retired worker from Silver Spring who has attended 21 demonstrations in support of federal employees since the new administration took office, stood beside Greene, snapping photos and helping her with her belongings.

He said firings like these often led to deep emotional struggles, with laid-off workers battling depression and self-blame.

鈥淪o, even with the completely irrational, cruel way these closings are happening,鈥� he said, 鈥渢here鈥檚 a phenomenon where workers are so depressed, they aren鈥檛 going to blame the right person.鈥�

Bill Bimber, a retired science and technology high school teacher with 34 years of experience in Northern Virginia schools, spent many years without computers to teach his students computer repair. If it weren鈥檛 for funding programs created by the Department of Education, he said, he may never have received computers to teach his class.

Bimber expressed his concerns that if the department is experiencing massive layoffs, programs like this that provide equipment and materials to students may no longer get off the ground.

鈥淚 know how programs from this agency, this department, have affected schools over the years, and it鈥檚 largely invisible, but it鈥檚 huge,鈥� Bimber said. 鈥淚t really is enormous what they do.鈥�

Dressed in a Department of Education graphic T-shirt Jackie Murray approached her firing with grace 鈥� after 40 years in communications and outreach 鈥� with a positive outlook on her future. After being placed on administrative leave more than two months ago, the popular Murray bounced around the outside of the building with a smile and laughter.

She responded to a question about her next steps, saying, 鈥淢y mouth moves a lot, so it needs to get paid because it has to eat, you know.鈥�

For her, a support system of girlfriends, music and Scripture was key during moments like this that felt shared by many federal workers across the Washington region.

鈥淔ind you a support group that has accepted this, because there are still individuals, um, that I know who have not fully accepted this,鈥� she added, offering advice to those in her situation.

In the coming days, there will be debates about what form the department should take and how programs should be implemented, Vitez said.

鈥淎t the end of the day, we need to do what鈥檚 best for schools 鈥� and for students and provide them the most resources and support to get the job done,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd people need more support, not less.鈥�

As , the department told 41 states and the District of Columbia they had another year to spend down the rest of the $122 billion for schools awarded in the 2021 American Rescue Plan. Among the biggest potential losers from McMahon鈥檚 move are Texas and Pennsylvania, which have well over $200 million in unspent funds, according to a department spreadsheet shared by a source close to the department. The source asked not to be named to protect former staff members from retaliation. Several more states, including Ohio, New York and Tennessee, have over $100 million left over.

In a letter to state chiefs, Education Secretary Linda McMahon called it 鈥渦nreasonable鈥� for them to rely on those earlier decisions. She said she might reconsider if states can make a stronger case for how their projects continue to address COVID鈥檚 impact.

鈥淲e’ve seen a lot of receipts and reimbursement requests coming in that just aren’t aligned with what students need in this moment,鈥� a senior department official told 社区黑料. The official asked to remain anonymous to speak freely about the department鈥檚 decision. The administration wants to 鈥渕ake sure that funds are still being spent to fix student learning loss.鈥�

The official cited a $1 million window replacement and an order of 鈥済low balls鈥� as examples, but declined to name the district that ordered the balls and offered no additional information on their price or how schools planned to use them. 

The department, however, will pay any invoices that were submitted before Friday at 5 p.m. Most of those are tied to extensions from the second COVID relief package, which included $58 billion in education spending, the official said. The deadline to spend those funds was Monday. 

In total, Congress approved about $200 billion in school relief funds. While states and districts spent the vast majority 鈥� 鈥� by the end of January, they asked for more time to deal with supply chain delays, labor shortages and the fact that student performance has largely not recovered from the pandemic. McMahon鈥檚 action, some experts say, should not have come as a complete shock given by many Republicans that districts failed to make the most of the unprecedented infusion of money. 

But the action leaves states and districts in the lurch, having spent millions of dollars of their own funds and signed contracts with vendors tied to the promise of reimbursement from the education department. 

Some leaders are pleading with McMahon to reconsider.

鈥淭his abrupt change in course will slow efforts and, in many cases, grind them to a halt,鈥� Maryland state Superintendent Carey Wright said in a statement. Her state risks losing over $400 million in funding for K-12 schools. The funds, she said, are paying for science of reading materials, teacher training and a variety of facility upgrades. 鈥淪tate and local budgets will be impacted. Maryland students deserve for the federal government to uphold its agreements.鈥� 

McMahon said the extensions offered by both the Biden and Trump administrations were merely 鈥渁 matter of administrative grace,鈥� and that the department has the authority to hold states to the original spending deadline in the law 鈥� Jan. 28. But as with other decisions the department has made to cut off funding Congress already approved, Friday鈥檚 announcement is likely to spark legal challenges.

鈥淲e are exploring all legal options at this time given the severity of this action,鈥� Joshua Michael, president of the Maryland State Board of Education, told reporters Monday. The funding, he said, is supporting ongoing tutoring programs. 鈥淭hat tutor will probably not be there next week.鈥�

鈥楿npaid invoices鈥�

Other states say the department鈥檚 decision will have an immediate impact on students. Illinois, for example, is using its remaining relief funds on transportation to school for homeless students, afterschool tutoring and technology for students with disabilities, said Jackie Matthews, spokeswoman for the Illinois State Board of Education. 

Last week, the state was still waiting on a $720,000 reimbursement from the department and had yet to submit another $8 million in expenses. 

鈥淭he unpaid invoices continue to stack up,鈥� she said.

In Tennessee, education officials received an extension for nearly $131 million for expenditures like tutoring, nursing services and computers, according to state education department spokesman Brian Blackley. Staff members, he said, were preparing to submit a reimbursement request. 

The American Rescue Plan 鈥� the third and largest round of funding 鈥� also included $800 million earmarked for homeless students. Extensions on those funds are paying for summer learning programs, mental health services and 鈥溾�� who help homeless families with housing, food and transportation needs, said Barbara Duffield, executive director of SchoolHouse Connection, which advocates for homeless students. 

An released just before former Education Secretary Miguel Cardona left office showed the program was effective at helping districts identify homeless students and reduce chronic absenteeism.

Canceling the extension, Duffield said, 鈥減ulls the rug out from underneath school district efforts to stabilize and support homeless children and youth.鈥�

David DeSchryver, senior vice president at Whiteboard Advisors, a consulting firm, said states should not have been caught off guard by the department鈥檚 latest move, but emphasized that the 鈥渄oor is still open鈥� for further extensions. 

鈥淭his is another invitation for state and local leaders to tell better stories about the impact of federal funding on their schools and communities,鈥� he said. 

鈥楾he people鈥檚 bank account鈥�

Districts began asking the department for extensions back in 2022 when supply chain delays and escalating construction costs prohibited them from finishing projects on time.

To get reimbursed, the department required to submit funding requests describing how the expenditures related to the pandemic. The department didn鈥檛 ask for purchase orders or contracts, but told states to keep those on hand if needed later. 

The department tightened the process in February, states to submit detailed receipts for every purchase in order to get reimbursed. Then on March 11, McMahon fired all 16 staff members in the office responsible for processing payments.

By that point, state education leaders had grown impatient. On March 15, a Pennsylvania official emailed the department, saying 鈥淚鈥檓 reaching out again to find out the status of these approvals,鈥� according to a copy of the message shared with 社区黑料.

鈥淚t makes me incredibly angry,鈥� said Laura Jimenez, a Biden administration appointee who led the relief payment office until January. 鈥淲e very carefully administered $200 billion, and they鈥檙e completely destroying that with the last couple of billion.鈥�

In a statement Friday, department spokeswoman Madi Biedermann said it was 鈥減ast time for the money to be returned to the people’s bank account鈥� and referred to 鈥渘umerous documented examples of misuse鈥� of relief funds. She declined to offer examples.

The GOP has consistently criticized how districts used the money, focusing on expenditures that appeared removed from helping students recover lost learning, like . They argue that sharp declines in achievement and spending on what they dismiss as like LGBTQ-inclusive efforts and social-emotional learning offer evidence of misspent funds.聽

Georgetown University school finance expert pointed to 鈥渆yebrow-raising spending decisions,鈥� like contracts to family members, in a teachers lounge in Montana and six-figure salaries for district leaders in Stockton, California. 

But compared to other COVID aid, like the Paycheck Protection Program 鈥� which from theft 鈥� there鈥檚 been little evidence of actual fraud in school relief funds, Roza said. The department took steps to prevent it. In 2023, the found that the agency had taken 鈥渟ignificant actions鈥� to improve monitoring of the funds.聽

Even so, researchers largely agree that despite many bright spots, districts missed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to prioritize academic recovery in the aftermath of the COVID emergency. Tutoring is one example. While most districts offered it 鈥� and still are 鈥� they didn鈥檛 always use methods backed by research, experts say.

Some districts initially demonstrated a lack of urgency and were slow to spend the money, according to Roza created to follow relief funds. Then they had to pick up the pace as deadlines approached. Many went on a hiring spree, quickly adding classroom aides, counselors and other support staff, but showed that those positions weren鈥檛 always targeted to schools that needed them most.

鈥淵ou don’t want to force school systems to spend money more quickly than they are wanting to,鈥� said Dan Goldhaber, director of the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research.

shows that while the money contributed to significant recovery in math, students continue to lose ground in reading. But as a one-time school board member, he sympathizes with districts that pushed to spread funds out as long as possible. 

鈥淭hat rush to get a lot of money out the door,鈥� he said, 鈥渕ay have led to some of it not being spent very well.鈥�

Community leaders called on Baltimore County school officials Tuesday to ensure that undocumented students are protected, days after reports that an Overlea High School teacher reached out to immigration officials and offered to name names.

That incident has rippled through the immigrant community, leaving students and family members more scared than ever over their safety in school, advocates said during Tuesday night鈥檚 board meeting and at a news conference earlier in the day.

鈥淭his isn鈥檛 just about one teacher,鈥� said Lucas Cunha, an Essex business owner who testified to the board. 鈥淗e offered to hand over the names students to ICE 鈥� young people he was entrusted to protect.鈥�

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Cunha, who was once undocumented, called the alleged actions of the Baltimore County teacher a 鈥渂etrayal鈥� that 鈥渄idn鈥檛 just endanger immigrants, it shattered the trust of every student.鈥�

Advocates were referring to a series of posts last week that appeared to come from a since-deleted account on X, called @RennerTraining, that tags the account of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and offers to share the names of undocumented students.

鈥淚f you want the names to investigate families to find illegals, let me know in dm [direct message]. I鈥檒l give names and school. All in Md,鈥� according to screenshots of the posts.

County school officials did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. The Teachers Association of Baltimore County said in a Facebook post Tuesday that it was 鈥渁ware of alleged actions by an educator at Overlea High School last week,鈥� without further elaboration on the incident.

鈥淚t鈥檚 also important to note that all students have privacy rights based on federal FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) protections,鈥� the Facebook statement said. 鈥淎nd while immigration issues may seem complicated, some things are simple: children do not decide where and how their parents choose to move.鈥�

But Crisaly De Los Santos, Central Maryland and Baltimore director for CASA, said during a virtual event Tuesday afternoon that the incident has shattered the sense of security for families in the region.

鈥淔amilies should feel confident that when their children are in schools, they鈥檙e safe and they鈥檙e protected and supported by teachers and administrators who they trust to care for their children,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut in light of recent events, we have seen how this basic expectation has not been met.鈥�

She said that the county school board needs to 鈥渁dopt a clear and comprehensive policy to ensure that ICE is going to be blocked from accessing school resources and personal information.鈥�

鈥淲e need a policy that guarantees that students鈥� safety and their future is not going to be jeopardized by federal immigration enforcement,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he current policy is just not enough, and it does not provide the clarity some families need to feel safe in our schools.鈥�

Several members of Baltimore County鈥檚 immigrant community said during the virtual event that the social media posts heightened anxiety many were already feeling under President Donald Trump (R). They did not provide their full names for privacy reasons.

A 12th grader named Helen shared that her goals are simple: She wants to become fluent in English and attend college. But she is now constantly worried that her 鈥減ersonal information will be shared with ICE,鈥� which makes focusing on schoolwork difficult.

鈥淓very student deserves to feel safe at school, no matter where they come from,鈥� Helen said.

Another Baltimore County student, who used the pseudonym Rosa, said the United States is the country she 鈥渃alls home,鈥� but 鈥渉earing a county teacher threatened to call ICE made me feel that I did not belong in this country.鈥�

Gricelda, a parent of three Baltimore County public school students, said she worries about sending her children to school each day.

鈥淚 have to think every day about the possibilities of family separation 鈥� and what this could lead to for many families 鈥� Just seeing that a Baltimore County Public School teacher has threatened to share students鈥� information with ICE, it really worries me,鈥� she said through De Los Santos, who translated. 鈥淭his is something that does not just affect me, but many other families, and I am constantly worried, thinking about if sending my kids to school is the safe thing to do.鈥�

During open comments at the virtual board meeting, Cunha and others said a sense of security is important for immigrant safety so students can learn.

鈥淓very single opportunity I got 鈥� was because of the trust that I built with my teachers over 20 years ago,鈥� Cunha said. 鈥淭hat trust is the foundation of every student鈥檚 success. That very trust is what鈥檚 at stake here.鈥�

Peter Baum, who was previously taught English as a second language in Baltimore County, said he鈥檚 been in 鈥渆ducation for over eight years 鈥� and in my time I have never heard of such a massively egregious violation of student safety.鈥�

While she did not speak on the case itself, Superintendent Myriam Rogers said during the virtual board meeting that 鈥渢eachers, all staff, are expected to create safe learning environment for our schools, for our students.鈥�

She also noted that federal and state law 鈥減rotects student privacy and prohibits the release of student information.鈥�

鈥淲hen staff members violate those expectations and break policy, there are consequences. We absolutely do follow due process. There is an investigation, and based on the results of those investigations, next steps are determined,鈥� she said.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear an appeal from a group of Montgomery County parents challenging a school system policy that does not let them opt their lower elementary school children out of classes that use LGBTQ+ books.

Maryland is set to examine their current method of evaluating poverty in schools throughout the next year, potentially opening up a pathway to boost funding for schools with students in need.

A new study is meant to help address the undercounting of poverty in Maryland public schools according to Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman. The Board of Public Works approved funding for the study at its Dec. 4 meeting.

鈥淭his issue is exacerbated for undocumented students or citizen children of undocumented parents,鈥� Lierman said at that meeting. 

The current method of tabulating poverty 鈥渞eally penalizes鈥� schools with large numbers of immigrant students, Lierman said.

The state currently uses proxy measures, such as eligibility for national programs like Medicaid and SNAP, to calculate aid for public schools, according to the proposal for funds from the Department of General Services.  

According to the Governor鈥檚 Office for Children an accurate count of students in poverty is important to ensure that they get adequate resources. The office also told CNS that the 鈥淏lueprint for Maryland鈥檚 Future created several new school funding streams that rely on counts of low-income students.鈥�

Schools currently rely on applications for the free and reduced meals program and enrollment in social programs like Medicaid as methods of calculating students in poverty. According to the Governor鈥檚 Office for Children, 鈥渘ot all low income families participate in these programs.鈥� 

The office also said that 鈥渄istricts that provide free school meals to all students under the federal community eligibility program do not collect that data.鈥�

In the case of immigrant families, some may not qualify or, as the office told CNS, may be hesitant to enroll and reveal their citizenship status.

Other data the state might rely upon is out of date. According to Lierman, the Maryland State Department of Education recently proposed using data from 2013 to calculate school poverty in Baltimore City. Lierman said that many public schools have been shuttered in the city since that data was collected.

鈥淎s a Baltimore City Public School mom,鈥� Lierman said, 鈥淚鈥檝e got a lot of strong feelings about this.鈥�

The board approved the DGS request for $48,000 monthly for 鈥渕odeling, analysis and providing a presentation on findings.鈥� 

According to the Office for Children, a recommendation based on the results of the study will be made to the Maryland General Assembly by Dec. 1, 2025.

This was originally published on . Capital News Service is a student-staffed reporting service operated by the University of Maryland鈥檚 Phillip Merrill College of Journalism.

A model for math tutoring employing nearly 1,000 college and graduate students has taken root across Maryland, converting some into lifelong educators and providing middle schoolers with diverse mentors.

Now in its first full academic year, the is bringing hundreds of students from Morgan State, Johns Hopkins, Towson, University of Maryland Baltimore County, and Salisbury into the lives of middle schoolers in Wicomico, Baltimore City and County public schools.

鈥淲hen you have 35 to 40 kids in a class and a lot of them need extra help, you as a teacher, you can’t get to everybody every day,鈥� said Matt Barrow, Baltimore City Schools鈥� director of differentiated learning. 

Schools across the country are finding ways to offerings to help get kids back on track. For Barrow, the impact has felt immediate and positive.  

鈥溾�o see joy on kids’ faces when they’re doing math – they鈥檙e middle schoolers!,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t makes me reflect back to when I was in the classroom, wishing that the kids I had at the time had that type of opportunity for support consistently, not even just in math.鈥� 

On a fall afternoon at Dickey Hill Elementary and Middle School, one of UMBC鈥檚 ten placements, Shradha Gawad introduced her eighth graders to the scientific notation by having them think about how far the earth was from the sun 鈥� too big of a number to actually write out. 

鈥淚f small words or encouragement from me, if that makes a small change in their life and they are interested in math and able to grow with that, then that’s definitely a yes for me,鈥� said Gawad, a master鈥檚 student in information systems. 鈥淚 want to keep doing that.鈥�

UMBC tutors began lessons by asking students how they鈥檙e feeling that day or to recap their weekends, one way they build relationships with students. If students are notably upset, tired, or not into it for whatever reason, they take small breaks to play math games.

That approach helped Rahul Sodadasi, a first year at UMBC studying cyber security, with a disengaged student. By the end of the first week, the student complimented before leaving the room, 鈥渢his was really fun.鈥� 

鈥淚t’s about knowing that person,鈥� Sodadasi said. 鈥淚 know that she is an emotional person and likes to build bonds [before] she can understand 鈥� that’s how the math got into it.鈥� 

After an initial orientation, tutors are trained during monthly professional development sessions, on topics such as strategies for English language learners. 

They reinforce positive mistakes that show kids鈥� understanding of concepts, using phrases like 鈥淣ot quite, but that鈥檚 great thinking and I can see why you got there,鈥� or 鈥渨hat if we tried this, too?鈥� 

Tory, a seventh grader and aspiring doctor or realtor, reflected honestly, 鈥渋t鈥檚 not my favorite thing, but I still do it 鈥� [This] makes me want to do it more when I鈥檓 at home.鈥� 

The program aims to be permanent, lasting long after pandemic relief funds end by requiring grantees to find funding sources, like local foundations, nonprofits and city governments, to state funds. 

鈥淭hrough the Maryland Tutoring Corps, we are engineering an educational renaissance,鈥� Governor Wes Moore said of the program as the first grantee districts were announced .

With math scores reaching historic lows, Moore and the Maryland State Department of Education unveiled the $28 million grant program to , just a few months before tutoring was named a top by the Biden administration. The latest NAEP scores, or Nation鈥檚 Report Card, had revealed a bleak reality: about 3 in 4 .

Schools, eager to jumpstart tutoring but struggling to keep teaching vacancies filled and attendance up, have been transformed by district-university partnerships. 

Coaches, ranging from undergraduates to PhD and teacher candidates, are now supporting middle schoolers identified for added support by their year-end test scores or iReady diagnostic tests.

Earlier this year, the Department of Education extended federal pandemic relief funds鈥� spending deadlines of January 2025 through the next two academic years, to enable other districts to double down on this model of support. In nearby Washington, D.C., is bringing high dosage tutoring to about 6,000 more kids.

In practice, Maryland鈥檚 corps adheres to research-backed : ensuring small groups of no more than three meet during the school day, for maximum attendance and minimum disruption to transportation or family life; paying tutors; and prioritizing high need student populations. 

High dosage tutoring, when led as theirs is in at least two 45-minute sessions per week, is known to help students develop a positive attitude toward math, feelings of connection to school, and build an academic foundation for higher paying down the line. 

While Maryland doesn鈥檛 yet have results from tutoring done this fall, a report looking at randomized control trials from the last few decades showed students gained . It鈥檚 widely considered one of the most , including for the most student populations. 

According to a prior UMBC evaluation of one of the grantee programs, 85% of students felt more confident in math. One eighth grader remarked in a survey, 鈥淚 could get help, and if I got it wrong, they didn鈥檛 put me down.鈥� 

The grant has given UMBC鈥檚 pre-existing program new life. 

鈥淢ath is something that has not been as supported as say literacy over the past several years. I do think that is shifting. I see it,鈥� said Sara Krauss, director of school partnerships with the university.  

Three years ago, UMBC鈥檚 program served 355 students across four schools. At the time, Krauss managed logistics alone, conducting interviews with hundreds of potential coaches until midnight to accommodate schedules and demand. 

, they are serving nearly double across ten sites, utilizing curricula from Saga Education and Rocket Math. Over 1,100 students applied to tutor this year. The grant has also enabled them to rely less on carpools, providing some funds for Lyfts and vans. 

As they鈥檝e grown, they鈥檝e streamlined other logistical puzzle pieces, like bringing fingerprinting and background check services to the university. 

鈥淭hat’s what this means,鈥� said Sanfoya Ray, Baltimore City Schools鈥� coordinator of academic tutoring. 鈥淜nowing that there is work to do and doing the work to get it done.鈥� 

All images by Marianna McMurdock

Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the amount of money Washington, D.C. is investing in high-impact tutoring. 

By Marissa Yelenick

Active shooter drills in Maryland schools will be different next school year under a new set of state guidelines meant to limit the impact those drills have on the mental health of students.

The  are designed to prohibit trauma-inducing elements like imitation of gunfire or explosions. They also require school systems to notify parents in advance when students will be practicing what to do in the event of an active shooter in their buildings.

The new guidelines were released by the Maryland Center for School Safety this fall, ordered by a new  requiring the center to draft new parameters and create a new process for collecting and analyzing data on their effectiveness. The center will also look into the psychological impact the shooter drills have on staff, parents and students.

Parts of the guidelines 鈥� including bans on gunfire and the requirement to notify parents 鈥� have already gone into effect because they are explicit in state law. The full set of guidelines will be put into effect at the beginning of the academic year in 2025.

鈥淭he mental health crisis that we see in our young people is undeniable,鈥� said Del. Jared Solomon (D-Montgomery), who sponsored the measure in the House earlier this year. 鈥淎s we normalize having to deal with school shootings, we are creating more anxiety and more issues among young people.鈥�

While schools have long practiced safety drills, active shooter drills are relatively new, following the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School, according to the guidelines.

While school systems have made an effort to keep students safe by implementing active shooter drills, concerns have been raised  about the impact these drills have on student鈥檚 mental health. This led to the April passage of the Maryland bill, as well as  signed by President Joe Biden to increase federal guidance on the subject.

Maryland鈥檚 new guidelines, released in October, call for unified terminology between districts to discourage miscommunication between the school system and the relevant public. They intend to increase communication between staff and students to create an open dialogue where everyone feels comfortable raising concerns, as well as creating a diverse planning team who will work on planning the drills and doing a post-analysis of how it went and any shortcomings it faced.

The guidelines emphasize that active shooter drills are not a one-size-fits-all matter, and should be adjusted to fit the age group.

鈥淭hese are going to be part of a young person鈥檚 life for the foreseeable future, but that doesn鈥檛 mean that you can鈥檛 do them in a way that is both trauma-informed and age appropriate,鈥� Solomon said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really important that the way school systems do these types of events reflects a care and age appropriateness of the grades that are being impacted.鈥�

The guidelines also recommend that a mechanism be established to pause or stop the drill when necessary, for schools to notify parents before and after all drills to increase trust and communication, and to allow students and staff who feel uncomfortable to opt-out of the drills.

The lead sponsors of the bill, Solomon and Sen. Cheryl Kagan (D-Montgomery), felt that the impact guns have on today鈥檚 children needs to be mitigated as much as possible, and worked to balance a focus on their safety while prioritizing their mental health.

鈥淭he law that Del. Solomon and I sponsored and passed tried to walk the fine line of thoughtful preparation that isn鈥檛 traumatic,鈥� Kagan said. 鈥淎nd we also had to consider parents and community members who are understandably alarmed and concerned when they see the impact of these drills 鈥� Our concern was that [the drills] were not being strategic in how they were handled, and were actually causing trauma for those involved.鈥�

One active shooter drill that occurred in Solomon鈥檚 district served as a driving force for his involvement.

鈥淔amilies were literally getting texts from their kids saying, 鈥業 don鈥檛 know if I鈥檒l ever see you again,鈥� and it was a drill. They didn鈥檛 know,鈥� said Solomon. 鈥淭here was no requirement prior to this for a school or a school system to notify families before or after.鈥�

Additional motivation for the bill included shared experiences from other parents Solomon spoke to, he said. Many shared their frustrations at the lack of foresight they had into when the drills would be taking place and what would happen during them, which prevented parents from having appropriate conversations with their children to prepare them.

Starting in January, schools will distribute a new survey made by the National Center for School Mental Health to gather feedback from staff, parents and students on how effective the drills are, and the mental impact they have on all involved.

鈥淭he goal is not to create fear but to instill confidence and preparedness,鈥� said the guidelines from the Maryland Center for School Safety. 鈥淏y working together as a community, schools can foster safe and supportive learning environments.鈥�

This was originally published on .

Local libraries are currently facing almost a dozen different book challenges, with critics of stories like 鈥淏ye-Bye Binary鈥� and 鈥淭he Blackbird Girls鈥� calling for their removal from shelves.

But these books and other challenged stories are still available on the shelves in Anne Arundel County, thanks in part to protections county officials recently put in place.

The Anne Arundel County Public Library this month became the first library system in Maryland to be designated a 鈥渂ook sanctuary,鈥� dedicated to collecting and protecting endangered books, and holding book talks and other events designed to make them broadly accessible.

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鈥淲e want to preserve everyone鈥檚 ability to read the things they want,鈥� said Rachel Myers, the branch manager of Discoveries: The Library at the Mall, one of the county system鈥檚 libraries.

Declaring the library a book sanctuary, Myers said, shows that, 鈥淲e are steadfast in our dedication to being a place that is protective of books and of people鈥檚 freedom to read.鈥�

After beginning in 2022 in Chicago, sanctuary libraries have since spread to 12 other library systems in North America.

In Anne Arundel County, the library鈥檚 board of trustees鈥� decision follows passage of the Freedom to Read act in the last legislative session. took effect on its signing in April.

The new law says that any library receiving funding from the state has to follow certain standards and can鈥檛, among other things, remove material due to partisan, doctrinal, ideological or religious disapproval.

Over the past five years, Maryland public libraries have seen a dramatic increase in staff threats and bomb threats related to book bannings, according to the . More than half of them have also faced book challenges, officials said.

These attempts have been happening 鈥渘ot just in our state, but in our county of Anne Arundel,鈥� said Del. Dana Jones (D-Anne Arundel), the lead sponsor on the Freedom to Read Act. She spoke at a news conference held last week during the national observance of Banned Books Week.

During the event, County Executive Steuart Pittman the entirety of Anne Arundel county to be a book sanctuary.

Once the announcement concluded, Myers rang a big silver bell to announce that it was time for 鈥淏anned Book Storytime,鈥� featuring a book called 鈥淕randad鈥檚 Camper,鈥� by Harry Woodgate.

Woodgate鈥檚 illustrated story 鈥� about a little girl traveling with her granddad after his male partner鈥檚 death 鈥� has been challenged nationwide. But now it finds refuge in Anne Arundel County, and that means something to librarians.

鈥淭o have that backup as a professional, you can鈥檛 understate how much that means,鈥� Myers said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just us out here alone trying to do it. It鈥檚 backed by so many people.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org. Follow Maryland Matters on and .

On a recent afternoon, Caroline Able, a first-grade teacher at North Frederick Elementary School in Frederick County, Maryland, sat in a small office with her principal, Tracy Poquette, carefully practicing the next day鈥檚 math lesson.

Able, who is in her third year teaching, walked through each step, demonstrating how she was going to present comparisons between two numbers, then what students would do. She sometimes stopped to focus on granular details: Should she go over math vocabulary words like sum and difference beforehand, or will her students remember what they mean? Should students write down problems and answers in notebooks, or on mini-whiteboards?

Poquette recommended the whiteboards. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e going to ask them to hold them up,鈥� Poquette coached Able, miming holding a whiteboard in the air. 鈥淭hen you can see their answers, and how they got to that. Every student is responding.鈥� 

Giving students multiple chances to 鈥渞espond,鈥� or provide answers, is a learning strategy , and part of why Able is here 鈥� to ensure that she鈥檚 incorporating evidence-based practices into her teaching. The sessions are meant to accelerate student learning and take some of the guesswork out of becoming an effective teacher, part of a larger district plan to incorporate research from the fields of neuroscience, educational psychology and cognitive science 鈥� often referred together broadly as the 鈥榮cience of learning.鈥�

Frederick County, situated about 50 miles north of Washington, D.C., and 50 miles west of Baltimore, is a diverse district , and one of only a handful to use learning science research to try to improve schools at scale. Launched in 2015, it鈥檚 the centerpiece of a school improvement plan, and leaders say the goal is to raise academic achievement overall, as well as shrink stubborn gaps between more advantaged students and their less advantaged peers. 

鈥淎s a district, we鈥檝e been talking about achievement gaps for a long time,鈥� said Margaret Lee, Frederick County鈥檚 director of organizational development who has led the charge toward the science of learning. 鈥淚鈥檝e seen it in every role that I鈥檝e had, always looking at what could make the difference. Like every district in America, every silver bullet that people thought up had been peddled to us. It started to frustrate me that none of these things were making a difference, and that was a catalyst that led us here.鈥� 

The district is seeing steady progress in a positive direction, even when accounting for pandemic-related learning loss. Third-grade , for example, on the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program test, rose from 49.5% proficient in 2018, to 60% proficient in 2023 鈥� 12 points above the state average. In math, students from disadvantaged groups have also seen steady gains. African-American third graders were 38% proficient in 2018, but rose to 43.8% by 2023; over five years, low-income Title I third graders slowly grew from 32% to 37.6% proficient. 

Amid a of learning science and a spotlight on curriculum reform, experts are beginning to look to districts like Frederick County to gauge whether it can be a model for academic improvement. Unlike more common state plans reforming how , or increasing support for struggling students, the Frederick County plan is tackling learning as a whole 鈥� across subjects and grades 鈥� to systematically alter the paradigm of how teaching and learning happens throughout its schools.

Training adults on how the brain learns

Frederick County鈥檚 plan turns on a single premise: who work with kids don鈥檛 know how the brain learns, and haven鈥檛 been exposed to the body of research on which teaching practices are more likely to support it. 

that applying cognitive science principles and strategies to classrooms are 鈥渟ignificant factors affecting rates of learning and its retention in many everyday classroom situations,鈥� with certain caveats regarding the limitations of what scientists currently know about when and where to implement them. But within universities, scientific research on learning has historically been separate from teacher training, and misunderstandings about how learning happens are common in the field of education. They鈥檝e led to such disproven ideas as children having 鈥�,鈥� like being a 鈥渧isual鈥� or 鈥渒inetic鈥� learner, or using the to teach reading, prompting students to try to guess at unfamiliar words using context clues like looking at pictures. 

The district has made educating faculty and staff on cognitive science a top priority. In 2017, Frederick County formed a partnership with and began training teachers, instructional coaches and leaders in the , including an understanding of how memory works and its pivotal role in academic learning; creating classroom environments that reduce obstacles and distractions while maximizing student memory; and creating effective ways to test whether students have learned the needed material.

The training homed in on how to translate findings from cognitive science and educational psychology into classroom practice, including in learning new material, meaning direct instruction heavily guided by the teacher, and why students need to understand what they read and form connections to new learning. Classroom changes also include specific learning strategies like retrieval practice and interleaving, in which teachers go back to learned material in multiple ways, spaced out over time, which has been students鈥� memory of what they learned. 

The training has changed the way the district is approaching content subjects like math. Stacy Sisler, a secondary math curriculum specialist for Frederick County, credits increased knowledge of learning research with steady gains middle schoolers have seen in math across the district. She first learned about the science of learning through the district training, and admits she was initially reluctant to adopt the changes. The more she learned, however, the more Sisler began to think the research made sense, and was applicable to every math classroom.

鈥淎s I started to learn more and gain a deeper understanding, then it became 鈥� how does instruction change because of this?鈥� Sisler said. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 just say it and it magically happens, so what does that actually look like?鈥� 

Under her leadership, curriculum and instructional practices were re-designed to better reflect the research. Middle school math teachers have been trained in practices like teaching math more directly using example problems, checking student work multiple times during class time to gauge student understanding and incorporating more math practice both into each lesson and across lessons. 

Lee said even when considering how hard it often is to pinpoint what caused learning gains, the instructional changes coincided with significant improvements for students in Frederick County. Over five years since implementing the changes, middle school math students鈥� benchmark assessments have grown, in some schools by as much as 20%, especially among students of color and English learners. Over the same five-year period across the state of Maryland, students of color and English learners鈥� math proficiency has declined. In 2023 for example, only 8.2% of Black middle school students were proficient in math, down 8 percentage points from 2018. 

鈥楿sing the time we do have differently鈥�

New teachers across the district are onboarded in a three-year science-of-learning coaching program, which includes lesson coaching like first-grade teacher Caroline Able鈥檚, but also group study. The aim is to give new teachers evidence-informed knowledge and tactics to decrease some of the trial-and-error that comes along with being a beginner. 

First-year eighth-grade math teacher Elizabeth Sypole鈥檚 monthly training is currently focused on evidence-based classroom routines that foster students鈥� attention.

Sypole has learned techniques like , a simple hand motion followed by a pause meant to help students get quiet quickly. Previously unaware of the technique, Sypole said it has been instrumental in her classroom management. 鈥淟iterally within two days of doing it, everybody is quiet. It鈥檚 so much less stressful than trying to get everybody to quiet down. They know exactly what to do now and it鈥檚 just the routine.鈥� 

Leaders get the training, too 鈥� principals, assistant principals and supervisors are focused on equity, and how schools can eliminate learning gaps between groups of students. Kent Wetzel, the district鈥檚 leadership development specialist, trains leaders in researcher , which include presenting new material in small, manageable steps and providing extra support for students if the task is especially difficult. The idea is to make learning as accessible as possible to everyone. 

The training, book studies and coaching sessions focused on the science of learning make up the heart of the district鈥檚 professional development, and therefore don鈥檛 require tons of extra funding or extra time for educators and leaders outside their contract hours, said Lee. In the past, professional learning brought in from outside vendors were 鈥渙ne-off鈥� learning experiences not tied to any bigger picture or goal. Now all professional learning must meet a set of district standards for being 鈥渆vidence-informed and equity-driven,鈥� ensuring the entire district is swimming in the same direction. 

鈥淲e haven鈥檛 made extra time, we are just using the time we do have differently,鈥� Lee said. 

While much of the district training is mandatory鈥攍ike district-wide professional development and leadership training鈥攐ther parts are optional or opt-in, like teacher book studies and principal coaching. The district is hoping that by making the science of learning training something gradual that takes hold naturally, it will win buy-in from the most experienced staffers over time because it was not a one-and-done push. 

Bernard Quesada, the veteran principal at Middletown High School, has embraced the science of learning approach to teaching. He said the organic approach and long-term picture has been key to its success at his school of mostly accomplished, veteran teachers. 

鈥淲hen these things become mandates, and schools have to comply, you get a lukewarm reception,鈥� Quesada said. 鈥淪chools get initiative fatigue.鈥� 

Middletown teachers have adopted the new learning, Quesada said, because administrators have been intentional to connect the research to what teachers are already doing well. Quesada quoted learning researcher and retired University College London professor 鈥� a speaker he heard at a recent science of learning conference. 

鈥淲iliam said, 鈥楾here鈥檚 no next new, big thing. It鈥檚 a lot of old, small things that work and are boring,鈥欌�� Quesada laughed. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 about as true a statement as I鈥檝e heard in my life.鈥�

鈥楪uilty of chasing the next greatest thing鈥� 

On the other side of the country, in rural Delta County, Colorado, teachers are working on asking students better questions to get them thinking stronger and deeper 鈥� moving beyond basic factual answers to more 鈥渉ow鈥� and 鈥渨hy鈥� questions that require students to think not just about the answer, but how they got there.  

Like Frederick County, the small southwestern Colorado district with one-quarter English language learners and 65% low-income students has been training all their teachers and school leaders in the science of learning. Also like Frederick County, the district has taken a 鈥渘o-silver-bullets鈥� approach and has revamped professional learning, putting learning research at the center, with deep dives for teachers and leaders into cognitive science principles like 鈥�,鈥� a technique where teachers design lessons that require students to evaluate, provide reasoning and detailed explanations for learned material. 

The district鈥檚 science of teaching and learning lead, Shawna Angelo, said she鈥檚 looking to help teachers 鈥渁lign how the brain learns with how we are delivering instruction.鈥� 

The focus on effortful thinking was supported by , an organization that has worked for nearly a decade to improve teaching by getting the scientific principles of learning into more classrooms.  

Executive Director Valerie Sakimura sees districts like Frederick County and Delta County as models for improving academic achievement in more school systems across the country. 鈥淭he priority for our work is helping teacher preparation programs and partnering districts trying to support teachers around the science of learning,鈥� she said. 鈥淥ur particular focus is aspiring and early-career teachers.鈥� 

Deans for Impact is also brokering partnerships between school districts and local universities, offering coursework and training on cognitive science principles for student teachers. Teacher training facilities as varied as the and are breaking down the longstanding barrier between teacher training and research science, teaching future educators about how learning happens long before they step into a classroom. 

Frederick County has partnered with Hood College, where many local teachers get their degrees, to design coursework and provide instruction based on the science of learning for student teachers. District instructional coaches and mentor teachers work with teachers in training as well, giving them a chance to watch evidence-informed techniques in action and practice them in their student teaching.

Michael Markoe, deputy superintendent for Frederick County, said through all this work, the district is trying to create a throughline, where all teachers, coaches, principals 鈥� everyone is moving in the same direction, speaking the same language, all based on the research. When school leaders recently inquired about personalized learning, for example, where students progress and master subjects at their own pace, Markoe reminded them that the district is, for the time being, focused on only one thing: evidence of effectiveness. 

鈥淚鈥檝e been in education almost 30 years. I鈥檝e been guilty of chasing the next greatest thing,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f we are going to advance personalized learning, we have to see the research behind it and ensure it鈥檚 the right thing for our children.鈥� 

Getting the entire district on board is long, slow work. Because there are no mandates, some schools haven鈥檛 embraced the science of learning, or have chosen to focus on other priorities, despite leadership鈥檚 wholesale commitment to the methodology. 

But Lee, the district鈥檚 organizational developmental director, isn鈥檛 deterred.  

鈥淚 compare it to moving an aircraft carrier. To move the ship, you are making lots of tiny moves in the same direction. If you spin a wheel in a school system, you will throw people off the ship,鈥� she said. 鈥淧ublic education isn鈥檛 patient. Everyone wants to fix it tomorrow, but those things don鈥檛 work.鈥�