New School Year to Bring More Federal Dollars (MD)

August 30, 2010

Unlike states where budget tightening has increased class sizes or shortened school days, Maryland is starting the school year largely protected from such drastic changes — and looking forward to a $400 million infusion of new federal money over the next several years.

Most of that money is the state’s winnings from the Race to the Top competition, which will fund innovation and school improvements. Another $179 million comes from federal legislation passed this summer to preserve education jobs.

Over the course of the next year, students should begin to see the effects of the cash infusion: more rigorous assignments, a greater use of technology and an overall rise in the level of teaching, said James Foran, an assistant state superintendent and project manager for Race to the Top.

"A lot of parents will see better quality in the teac hing in the classroom," he said. And, in the long term, "they will see and their children will see that they graduate with a diploma that means more."

Families with children in failing schools also will see new approaches to fixing problems, including providing financial incentives for teachers and principals who move to those schools.

The $179 million in the federal jobs bill can be spent only on salaries, benefits and other personnel-related expenses. State officials have not decided how the money will be distributed, but localities with a greater percentage of low income families are likely to get more of the money.

Maryland, which was not hit as hard by the recession as some other states, has not cut kindergarten through 12 education. Maryland’s Thornton law dictates the amount of money the state must spend on education, and does not permit localities to reduce their funding without permission from the state school board.

The area’s largest localities, Baltimore and Baltimore County, open the school year Monday; by Tuesday, all area districts will have started. Statewide, about 860,000 students and 70,000 teachers are returning during a time of shifts in education similar to those spurred by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The U.S. Department of Education announced last week that Maryland would get $250 million in Race to the Top funds. The money, which can be used over a four-year period, is aimed at innovations that the Obama administration has outlined in the past year.

Half of the Race to the Top money will be divided among 22 of the state’s 24 school districts. Montgomery and Frederick County, which declined to sign the application for the competition, will not get any. Within the next three months, each of the 22 systems must develop a plan to spend its share in one of four areas: teacher quality, developing curriculum, data systems and improving the lowest performing schools.

While local school officials say no decisions have been made yet, Foran said each district is likely to target the area that needs the most improvement.

"We supported the Race to the Top application because it was extremely aligned with our agenda," said Laura Weeldreyer, deputy chief of staff in Baltimore schools. "The work doesn’t change but the grant allows us to accelerate the pace of the innovation in ways that we couldn’t have done."

A significant chunk of the $46 million flowing to the city will go to improve the lowest performing schools.

Baltimore County has not decided how it will seek to spend the money, but spokeswoman Phyllis Reese said that two priorities would be data systems and developing the new teacher evaluation system.

The money also commits the state to developing a new evaluation system for principals and teachers, directly linking student test scores to teacher performance. Teachers unions will begin negotiating with their school boards in the next year over the details of those evaluations, and some counties will begin pilot programs in the spring.

The second half of the Race to the Top money will be spent by the state to provide teachers and principals with more training, and to develop the new state curriculum and other programs such as a statewide data collection system.

Foran said the new data system will be a powerful tool for parents, teachers and state leaders to help understand what teaching practices, textboo ks and curriculum works best. The system will track every student from kindergarten through college, if they attend a Maryland college or university.

Parents in every county and Baltimore will be able to view their child’s grades and progress at any time. Teachers and administrators, meanwhile, will be able to track their students’ progress county-wide to know when an idea or skill needs to be retaught.

The state also is using the federal money to develop an online curriculum, lesson plans and tests for teachers.

Statewide enrollment is expected to grow slightly this year, although an official student count will not be made until Sept. 30.

Howard County’s enrollment is expected to go up by about 100 students to about 50,000 — a record for the county, according to spokeswoman Patti Caplan. Anne Arundel County and Baltimore officials expect about 800 more students each. Baltimore County’s enrollment will rise by about 300 to 104,000.

In Anne Arundel, the increase is believed to be a result of students leaving private schools, said district spokesman Robert Mosier. In Baltimore, enrollment has grown for three years in a row, the first uptick after decades of decline, and school officials believe it is the result of fewer families leaving the city and a decrease in the dropout rate.

Baltimore-area school systems hired about the same number of teachers as they did last year, but that is down significantly since the recession began two years ago. For instance, the city schools used to hire 800 to 1,000 teachers annually, but this year that number fell to 500, said schools chief Andrés Alonso. The city still has 55 teachers to find, mostly in the areas of science and math.

Baltimore County hired about 600 new teachers this year, slightly fewer than last year but substantially down from the 1,000 hired in the past. "The condition of the economy has meant that a few more teachers than usual are opting to postpone retirement for a bit and continue in their present positions," spokesman Charles Herndon said in an e-mail.