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Introduction
For the fourth straight year, Maryland's public education system received three Number One national rankings in 2011 – from Education Week, the College Board for AP performance, and the Washington Post's Challenge Index list for the highest percentage of rigorous high schools. To achieve these remarkable accomplishments, Maryland has systematically pursued the critical priority of recruiting and retaining a highly qualified and effective teacher and principal workforce. We now embark on our third wave of reform, committed to ongoing excellence through continuous improvement, including the adoption of new, rigorous teacher evaluation systems. Critical to this is adoption of the Common Core Standards (PreK-12) and Maryland's membership in PARCC. Maryland was awarded one of the federal government’s coveted Race to the Top (RTTT) grants in the amount of $250 million over four years. The RTTT program is aimed at boosting student achievement, reducing gaps in achievement among student subgroups, turning around struggling schools, and improving the teaching profession. Maryland will utilize technology to measure student academic growth using multiple measures across multiple years, and, through the use of unique statewide identifiers, match student data to the teacher preparation programs of their teachers and principals. Maryland colleges and universities will continue to play a major role in preparing teachers and principals to have the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that are essential for all children to learn. The Maryland State Department of Education recommends that all readers recognize that each of the 23 Maryland institutions is unique, with its own mission and student enrollment. Institutional data should be read within the context of institutional characteristics, which are provided in this report as institutional profiles.
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Related Web Sites
Maryland State Department of Education website