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As Maryland schools anticipate the impact of standards-driven reform, particularly as embodied in No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the national initiative, and Achievement Matters Most, Maryland’s new strategic design for school improvement, it is becoming increasingly clear that most schools and school systems lack the capacity for instruction that is data-driven and which results in consistently high performance by all students. This is shown by the following facts:
- School and school system performance across the state — almost without exception — is either erratic or flat and has failed to demonstrate a pattern of continuous improvement over the past ten years of the Maryland School Performance Program, in spite of the investment of substantial resources and effort.
- Unacceptable performance gaps persist among groups of students based on race, gender, language proficiency, poverty, and handicapping condition.
- School improvement efforts over the past decade have, for the most part, been based on MSPAP results, occasionally supplemented by CTBS scores. Neither of these assessments, when considered in isolation, is a comprehensive gauge of student performance nor a sufficient basis for the diagnosis of individual leaner needs.
- The www.mdk12.org school improvement website is inconsistently used and vastly underutilized by some of the neediest schools and school systems in the state.
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