Maryland Projects

Maryland Projects Year Three 2007-2008
Support to the Maryland High School Reform Group (HSRG)	In the Year 2 plan this project was titled “Support to Maryland School Improvement Working Group”. The name of the project was changed to match the new name of the State working group. MACC’s work will in Year 3 will focus on assisting the HSRG by providing support to help them build collective knowledge and skill to develop and implement a differentiated approach to state TA/PD for schools and districts in different stages of improvement.

Assisting Maryland SEA with Collecting and Analyzing Migrant Student Data	MACC is assisting the MSDE in the completion of a comprehensive needs assessment (CNA) process that is designed to assist them in improving the quantity and quality of data collection on their migrant students, and help them to identify the special educational needs of migrant children and determine the specific services that will help migrant children achieve the State’s measurable outcomes and performance targets. The CNA is a statutory requirement of the NCLB Act (Title I, Part C, Sections 1304(b) and 1306(a).

Maryland Annual Measurable Achievement Objectives	The MSDE continues to review and revise its ESOL standards so that they are truly reflective of the process of English language learning. MSDE is also analyzing the alignment of the ESOL standards with the LAS Links assessment (the instrument used to assess the English language proficiency of ELL students in the state), and other content area standards. In Year 3 MACC will continue to assist MSDE with these efforts by providing technical assistance to the team writing the standards and reviewing and providing feedback on the standards’ documents.

Facilitating Maryland’s Middle School Steering Committee	To build upon the important work of previous Maryland task forces and reports, MSDE has established a Middle School Steering Committee with a broad-based membership of teachers, administrators, parents, business/community members, institutions of higher education staff, and Maryland State Department of Education staff. MACC is providing support to the work of the Steering Committee by facilitating their meetings and teleconferences, providing research on specific topics as needed, and managing a dedicated Web site.

Restructuring in Maryland Schools	An area of concern at MSDE has been implementing a far-reaching process at the state-level to review and monitor schools in restructuring and at various stages of school improvement. To address this concern, MSDE’s Division of Student, Family, and School Support developed the “Restructuring Implementation Technical Assistance” (RITA) initiative. The purpose of RITA is to empower schools and districts to go beyond current efforts to improve student achievement by establishing school support teams of skilled and experienced educators. These school support teams provide struggling schools with practical, applicable technical assistance based on school reviews in order to increase the opportunity for all students to meet the State’s academic content and student achievement standards. In Year 3 MACC will provide research and feedback during the development and implementation of the RITA initiative to help facilitate MSDE’s efforts to provide schools and districts in need of improvement the support they need.

Assisting in Statewide Support for Maryland’s Low- Performing Schools	MSDE is building a framework for a state system of intervention in underperforming schools that is coordinated across MSDE divisions, deploys resources consistent with need, has direct impact on student and school performance, and establishes measures for effectiveness. In Year 3 MACC will provide assistance to MSDE in the collection, analysis, summary, and presentation of data identifying the fiscal, human, and programmatic capacity of MSDE; and the collection of data, facilitation of expert feedback, and presentation of workshops to identify components of a framework and organizational structure required.

Refining Coaching, Training, and Support to Enhance Professional Development for Content Area Teachers	In the Year 2 plan this project was titled “Using Data to Enhance Professional Development for Content Area Teachers”. In Year 3, MACC, in a collaborative effort, will assist MSDE’s Division of Instruction in improving the training on effective coaching practices provided to teachers participating in Governor’s Academies and to the educators who volunteer to be their coaches. This project follows the work of Year 2 in which MACC supported MSDE in the creation of revised coaching training sessions for the summer sessions of the Governor’s Academies and revised coaching support activities for the Governor’s Academy Follow-up Sessions held during the school year.