Hi friends!

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After a summer of touring around Maryland to share information about the Blueprint and gather feedback on implementation from communities, Strong Schools Maryland is back to share an update on the implementation of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. Each Local Education Agency (LEA) is tasked with the annual submission of their Blueprint Implementation Plans to share strategies, trends in data/outcomes, and challenges faced in regard to the implementation of each Pillar of the Blueprint. With this year's phased Implementation Plan submission, we first released a statewide analysis based on compiled data from the March 2024 Phase 1 submissions to review overarching trends across different LEAs. With a brief intermission for our Tour for Maryland’s Future over this past summer, we have returned with a deeper dive into each LEA’s Blueprint Implementation Phase 2 submissions with two-pagers for each county.

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The Process 

LEAs submitted Phase 2 of their 2024 Blueprint Implementation Plans this past May, providing updates on and further analysis of the strategies and outcomes documented in their Phase 1 submissions. These cover the implementation work that each LEA has engaged in from the 2023-24 school year up to the 2024-25 school year and are broken down by Blueprint Pillar. While the plans are an invaluable resource to communities, one thing is certain - the plans are detailed, complex, and filled with challenging terminology. 

 

Our mission was to create a snapshot, or a short summary, of each of the Pillars in order to highlight student outcomes and strategies/instructional changes launched. Our snapshot does not provide a comprehensive breakdown of each Pillar, but rather aims to give you a picture of your LEA’s current implementation in an accessible format. We also pulled out specific statistics related to student outcomes, school staff composition, and community resources in order to provide a clearer picture of the current educational landscape and highlight areas of significant impact. In designing our two-pagers we intentionally took an asset based approach, analyzing the strengths in approaches. Instead of weaknesses, we highlighted areas for further analysis or stakeholder/community engagement, being mindful of the complexities of implementation and local issues.

 

One of the most important aspects of these two-pagers is that we linked the local Blueprint Implementation Plans, data appendix/sheets, and local Board of Education information. This allows you to dig deeper into whatever aspect of Blueprint Implementation interests or impacts you. We urge you to click around and check out your LEA’s hard work in compiling this information!

 

The two-pagers are created to be helpful resources for our community; as a result, we encourage you to contact the Strong Schools Maryland team with feedback. Your thoughts and perspectives are invaluable to our team as it directly shapes our reporting approaches and contributes to a more informed and engaged community better equipped to advocate for transformational change in our education system.

 

Important notes: It is crucial to acknowledge the limitations of our review and to highlight the hard work of school staff, LEA staff, students, families, and community stakeholder groups that contribute to producing the Blueprint Implementation Plans

Here are a few things we ask you to consider:

1. Shared Responsibility: Implementation requires coordinated efforts at the school, local, and state levels. Aspects of the LEA Blueprint Implementation Plan may be beyond LEA control such as funding constraints. Blueprint Implementation is complex and interconnected, and multiple levels of positional power can influence this implementation. 

2. Plans Evolve & Change: While the promises of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future are mandated and unchanging, how we get there (the implementation) is consistently in flux. Plans can change, new approaches implemented, and outcomes analyzed; these two-pagers provide a current snapshot, but not a complete picture of what implementation might look like in your LEA. Both the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) and the Blueprint’s Accountability and Implementation Board (AIB) have given feedback to LEAs which is also linked in the sheets. We urge you to take a look at the available feedback. 

3. Surface Level Overview: It is important to note that this review offers a glimpse into a broader picture of implementation. These are not meant to be an all encompassing list of everything in the plan or a personal critique of the people involved in implementation; instead, these spotlight innovative approaches/progress in outcomes and identify potential areas of growth. Implementation and tracking takes an enormous amount of resources, time, and effort, and we want to uplift and acknowledge all of those involved and share information as it is presented. To view your county’s entire plan, please visit the AIB’s website and locate your county or click the link on your two-pager.

 

Takeaways

Our work in transforming our education system is far from over because, as these summaries illustrate, implementation is a multifaceted process in a complex system. Blueprint Implementation looks different in different regions and for different populations. These Plans offer a comprehensive overview of this complex and impactful process, ensuring transparency and implementation of the Blueprint with fidelity. The Plans highlight both the strengths in approaches thus far and challenges to reaching certain goals or outcomes, and while implementation might look different from region to region, every LEA can learn from another’s approach. Furthermore, the more people know about their LEA’s Implementation Plan and the more people learn from other’s approaches, the more we can advocate for impactful change to achieve World Class Schools across the state.

 

Impactful change depends on stakeholder engagement, feedback, and collective action. This starts with building your knowledge base. Implementation is nuanced and dependent on region, so your feedback in the place you live is an important perspective to be considered. Many plans highlight ways in which community members can provide feedback and engage with their school community, including Town Halls, information sessions, family engagement nights, and student groups, all avenues in which your voice can be heard. Additionally, you can contact your Blueprint Implementation Coordinator, legislators, and local Board of Education. Public education is a shared responsibility, so let’s all dive in! Please reach out to the Strong Schools Maryland Team for resources and support in navigating these systems and sharing your voice. 

 

For the future,

Kenzie Funk, Policy Advocate​