Maryland and 11 other states, which received grants in Phases One and Two of the federal grant competition known as Race to the Top, got their annual progress reports from the US Department of Education on March 19, here.
Maryland’s 3-year progress report, based on state tests
The report says Maryland has made progress but still faces significant challenges in terms of fulfilling the promises made three and a half years ago to receive a $250-million grant under RttT. The biggest areas of challenge include:
- implementing the Common Core
- creating teacher and principal evaluation systems
- building new data systems
“It is critical that the state continues to work on ensuring that all state and local leaders, including educators, are receiving support and resources to better prepare all students for college and careers,” the Baltimore Sun quoted US Education Secretary Arne Duncan as saying.
Some good news
This is all in how the federal department spins the numbers, but the report gave some praise to Maryland for its students’ performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, known as the “Nation’s Report Card”:
Maryland continued to score well above the national average on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in 2013. The State showed slight increases in reading from 2011. Although the State had a negligible decrease in overall mathematics scores since 2011, the percent of students scoring in the advanced range increased by eight percent in grade four mathematics and five percent in grade eight mathematics.
Similar reports are also available for other Phase One and Phase Two winners, including Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Tennessee.
