State education officials propose aligned targets for literacy, math, staffing and attendance

Maryland education staff presented a set of proposed, aligned metrics and three-year interim targets intended to unify goals across the Maryland State Board of Education/MSDE strategic plan, the Accountability and Implementation Boards (AIB) Blueprint Comprehensive Implementation Plan and the Moore Miller administration State Plan.

The committee heard that staff focused on "power indicators" that can signal statewide progress: kindergarten readiness, third-grade literacy proficiency, fifth-grade mathematics proficiency, college- and career-ready benchmarks, teacher diversity and retention, chronic absenteeism and student-support personnel coverage. Rachel Heiss of the Accountability and Implementation Board summarized the combined-metric approach and said some measures will need new data collection before targets can be finalized.

Why it matters: The three plans use overlapping but not identical measures. Staff said the proposed alignment is intended to give local education agencies clearer, consistent statewide expectations so districts can set local targets and monitor progress against a shared statewide framework. Officials also said aligning measures will make monitoring the blueprints implementation more straightforward for the two boards.

What staff proposed and why

Early childhood and literacy: Heiss described the early-childhood combined metric as "the percent of kindergarten students demonstrating readiness on a kindergarten readiness assessment," including children served by public or private pre-K providers. For literacy, staff proposed using the percent of third graders scoring proficient on the English language arts assessment; using spring 2023 as an example baseline, the statewide third-grade proficiency rate was 48 percent.

College and career readiness: Staff said MSDE and the governors plan align closely on CCR measures while AIB monitors several CCR indicators. The recommended approach uses multiple CCR measures: percent of 10th graders meeting a CCR standard, percent of students meeting the standard before graduation and post-CCR pathway measures.

Workforce diversity and retention: Staff proposed measuring both the percent of new teachers of color (using the MSDE fall staff collection) and teacher retention across a three-year cohort. In the presentation, staff proposed a target of about 52 percent for new teachers of color by school year 2026 (described by staff as roughly a 3-point annual increase) and a three-year retention target of 78 percent for all teachers, with a 68.5 percent three-year retention target for new teachers.

Student support personnel and mental health coverage: The Accountability and Implementation Board favored a counselor-to-student ratio as a monitoring metric; the governors plan emphasized the percent of schools with at least one psychologist or other mental-health professional. Staff proposed two measures: a counselor-to-student ratio and a separate measure for the percent of schools with a psychologist or school social worker, while noting data limitations. Officials reported a current statewide counselor ratio of "307 students for every 1 counselor" and proposed a three-year target of 290:1, citing a national "gold standard" of about 250:1 as aspirational.

Chronic absenteeism and mathematics: Staff proposed a three-year chronic-absenteeism target of 19.5 percent statewide, explaining that figure reflects Marylands pre-pandemic level and would require roughly a 10-point reduction from recent rates. For mathematics, staff argued that grade 5 is a meaningful transition point in standards and proposed a three-year interim target of 42 percent proficiency, citing MCAP spring 2023 math proficiency at 27 percent as the baseline.

Data, methodology and remaining work

Staff said they used available trend data (some series extend back 10 years) and adjusted for pandemic effects; when trends were unreliable they modeled using high-year growth or waited for new baseline collection. Officials noted several metrics require new or revised data collection (for example, a new kindergarten readiness instrument currently under RFP), and staff said they will not finalize targets that depend on pending baselines until that data is available.

Questions from committee members and staff responses

Committee members urged clearer messaging so districts do not infer the committee cares only about the selected grade-level indicators. One member asked why mathematics targets focused on grade 5; staff and a committee member pointed to standards structure and the role of grade 5 as an early-warning point comparable to third-grade literacy. Members also described some numeric targets as ambitious; a member recommended considering a 5-point annual literacy improvement based on other states experiences. Staff responded that the items presented are a first-round set of "power indicators" and that the work group will continue to refine the measures and supporting indicators before the June joint board review.

Next steps

Staff said formal recommendations will come forward at a joint board meeting with the Accountability and Implementation Board in June, with the committee scheduled to reconvene on June 13 to continue review. Several measures will be updated after staff collect new baseline data and incorporate committee feedback.

The committee adjourned after confirming the June timeline for the joint board review and additional work on supporting indicators and messaging.