This paper will share the author's experiences working with a large and diverse school district to design curriculum-embedded, performance-based assessments (PBAs) that measure 21st century skills in K-5 students. These assessments are designed to integrate seamlessly with classroom instruction; measure skills such as critical thinking,…

Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC) researchers visited 38 public high schools around the United States in 2007 and 2008 with the goal of validating and operationalizing a definition of college readiness. Schools in the sample were selected because they were demonstrating success at enabling more students from underrepresented groups to…

During the first crisis of the early 1990s, higher education institutions in Maryland experienced a decline in public funding and were consequently forced to compete for scarce resources. By 1992, higher education appropriations as a percentage of the state general fund had fallen to 11.1%; a decrease of 2.4% in just 2 years. Some improvement had…

The Allegany County School System and the Maryland School for the Deaf (MSD) have collaborated to develop a satellite program that brings MSD educational services to hard-of-hearing and deaf elementary students in rural western Maryland. In the past 5 years, the number of hearing-impaired preschoolers in Allegany and Garrett Counties increased…

This study uses a historical perspective to examine the interface of the Maryland Juvenile Justice Department and the Mental Hygiene Administration in their efforts to provide services to youth involved with the juvenile justice system who were found to have mental disorders. A time line was constructed documenting developments from the 16th…

This address focuses upon the expected increases in enrollments of traditional college students in the first decade of the 21st Century, and the impact of this increase on community colleges is discussed. Much recent activity and research at community colleges have focused on adult education, workforce development, technological advancement and…

In recognition of the special challenges that rural areas face in delivering services to students with disabilities, the boards of education of five rural counties on Maryland's Eastern Shore created the Mid-Shore Special Education Consortium in 1973. The Consortium counties represent a population of 24,000 students and provide special education…

Hagerstown Community College (HCC) in Maryland has developed a number of new programs to serve clientele in the surrounding area who in most cases cannot or would not attend classes on the main campus. One such client group is the inmate population at two State prisons in the area. Programs for the inmates are selected on the basis of available…

A college-high school-business partnership was developed in Maryland between Morgan State University (an historically black institution), Lake Clifton/Eastern high school (a predominantly black high school), and local businessmen representing the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) in an effort to begin preparing high school ninth graders for…

In order to study transfer trends in Maryland, a method was developed for matching student records at two-year sending institutions and four-year receiving institutions in the state. Transfer matrices, which utilized the computerized fall enrollment records of all public two- and four-year institutions in Maryland, allowed for a campus-to-campus…

Information about the rate of student transfer from two- to four-year institutions and transfer students' achievement at the senior institutions can be obtained in several ways. One approach is the utilization of a statewide student tracking system, which permits easy identification of student progress at any level in the system. Systemwide…

The Office of Educational Research and Improvement funded nine projects exploring whether partnerships could help improve teacher education and induction. It created consortia of state education agencies, state agencies of higher education, teacher education colleges, and local school districts to collaborate on improving teacher education and…

This paper examines the latest elementary, middle school, and district level Maryland student achievement and teacher experience data to argue that schools today are segregated not only along student backgrounds, but also along teacher expertise. The very students who need school the most to break out of the intergenerational cycle of poverty and…