The purpose of the present study was to evaluate administrator perceptions of the second-year implementation of Dynamic Impact (DI) in Worcester County Public Schools (WCPS) by Johns Hopkins' Center for Technology in Education (CTE). As described by CTE, DI builds the capacity of school districts to form and sustain high-performing teams using…

With this Strategic Plan, the Division of Special Education/ Early Intervention Services recommits to "Moving Maryland Forward"--introduced in 2013. With the shifting in the national, State, and local education landscape, Maryland has revisited the initial Plan to sharpen the steadfast focus to narrow the gaps for children with…

This article details the journey Luke Rhine, a Program Specialist in Career and Technology Education at the Maryland State Department of Education, as he went about the difficult task of building consistency and establishing rigorous expectations for Technology education in Maryland. As a result, Maryland has developed a model for Technology…

Forty-four states, the District of Columbia and U.S. Virgin Islands have formally adopted the Common Core State Standards (Common Core), and implementation is scheduled to begin in 2014--not that far away when one thinks about all that needs to be put in place. It's important for local educators and administrators to actively engage in the Common…

In 2008, the U.S. Department of Education (the Department) launched a differentiated accountability pilot to allow states to distinguish between those schools identified for improvement in need of substantial help and those closer to meeting achievement goals. In July 2008 and January 2009, the Department approved waivers to give nine states the…

This report provides six mini-case studies of higher education policy reforms enacted in other states, exploring the important role that state policy leadership played in developing, promoting, and implementing these policies aimed at improving higher education outcomes, and discussing the relevance of each reform effort for California. This…

The Baltimore City Public School System (BCPSS) is one of the first urban districts in the country to undertake large-scale high school reform, phasing in small learning communities by opening new high schools and transforming large, comprehensive high schools into small high schools. With support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a…

The Maryland Middle Grades School Policy Initiative addresses the polices and practices that support improved school and student performance. To document changes in policies and practices, this series of publications entitled "Milestones" was developed. Each publication traces the development, implementation, evaluation, and refinement…

This study provides a description of a program initiated in 1980 by the Maryland State Education Agency (SEA). The School Improvement through Instructional Process (SITIP) program presents data for a study involving educators in 19 of 24 local education agencies. The SITIP design includes nine areas of activity: (1) SEA preparation; (2) building…

This document comprises the final report of the Regional Exchange project, through which Research for Better Schools (RBS) has provided research-based information, technical assistance, and training services to the states of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, to assist state educational leaders in developing and implementing…