With the school year underway, the Maryland State Board of Education is met with questions about literacy plans, implementation of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform plan, closing opportunity gaps, and how to address cellphone use in schools.

“Our assignment is to improve the system of public education and the implementation of the Blueprint to ensure that we provide an excellent education for all children,” said Josh Michael, president of the state school board, at its Tuesday meeting.

Here are four key takeaways from the state school board meeting.

MCAP scores

The state board took a look at the most recent scores on the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program, a standardized test. When examining data from five cohorts of third graders as they advanced through different grade levels, some improvement was seen in English language arts proficiency, according to a report presented by Geoff Sanderson, deputy state superintendent for the education department’s Office of Accountability.

Of the five cohorts analyzed in the report, four saw an increase in proficiency, though there are disparities based around race, income, disability and multilingual learners.

Math is “a bit of a different story,” Sanderson said, with proficiency levels about half of what was seen with language arts. Of four cohorts of third graders assessed in the report, three had decreased proficiency in math.

It’s been “a little bit alarming” to see the decrease in math proficiency, State Superintendent of Schools Carey Wright said Tuesday. The board is working to revise state standards for math and will create a policy similar to a literacy policy that was developed in June. A new assessment will also be in the works after the contract with the current MCAP vendor expires in December 2026.

“So we’re working on math as we are working on literacy,” Wright said. “It’s not we’re stopping one and starting the other.”

Literacy

A fourth iteration of the June literacy policy will be up for review in October. The K-3 policy originally required that students repeat third grade if they couldn’t read at grade level, but a revised version allows families to seek a waiver that would allow their child to be promoted to the fourth grade.

The policy is similar to a retention policy in Mississippi, where Wright is credited with lifting the state’s fourth grade reading scores as its former superintendent. After receiving feedback and gaining new members to the board, the decision was made to allow the board members more time to consider the policy.

Wright said the plan is a parent-choice policy, not a retention policy. For Xiomara Medina, a new board member, when it comes to parent choice, there are concerns about a lack of parent engagement.

“And to me, this whole thing has reduced our children to numbers. There’s not a single cultural consideration,” Medina said of the policy. “You’ve told me how people are performing based on their culture, but we’re not figuring out how to reach children using cultural strength, how to use cultural strengths of the community and the family to engage them, like I’m missing people in all of this.”

Prekindergarten

As the Blueprint is being implemented, the state is working toward its goal to increase enrollment in full-day prekindergarten for children ages 3 and 4 through a mixed-delivery system of public and private programs.

Under current law, at least 10% of prekindergarten slots in the state must be private programs by the 2024-25 school year, then the percentage of private slots must increase another 10% each year, according to a presentation to the board. By the 2028-29 school year, 50% of providers must be private, split down the middle with public providers. There was an increase of 446 private prekindergarten seats and 663 public school seats in the state last school year.

“That’s where our focus is as a board, how many students are we serving, particularly those most in need, 3- and 4-year-olds that we’re serving through our mixed-delivery system,” Michael said Tuesday.

Private providers will have to meet the same state standards for prekindergarten, and technical assistance will be available.

It’s “going to take a lift” to reach a level where 10% of prekindergarten programs are private, but “we’re willing to do that,” Wright said.

Cellphones

As districts in the region grapple with how to deal with the adverse effects of cellphones in schools, the board made it clear that Maryland will not implement a cellphone ban. Wright said she plans to convene a work group to look further into information about cellphone policies in Maryland and other states that were presented to the board.

Districts across the state have implemented cellphone policies or tested lockable pouches for students to keep their phones in. Parents have expressed fears of being unable to contact students during an emergency.