Maryland State Department of Education

Coordinates: 39°17′22″N 76°37′07″W / 39.289529°N 76.618533°W / 39.289529; -76.618533
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Maryland State Department of Education
Agency overview
FormedJanuary 7, 1900; 124 years ago (1900-01-07)
Jurisdiction Maryland
Headquarters200 West Baltimore Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21201
 United States
39°17′22″N 76°37′07″W / 39.289529°N 76.618533°W / 39.289529; -76.618533
Agency executive
  • Dr. Carey Wright, Superintendent
Parent agencyGovernment of Maryland
WebsiteOfficial website Edit this at Wikidata
Map
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State of Maryland

Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) is a division of the state government of Maryland in the United States. The agency oversees public school districts, which are 24 local school systems—one for each of Maryland's 23 counties plus one for Baltimore City. Maryland has more than 1,400 public schools in 24 public school systems, with a 2019 enrollment of approximately 900,000.[1] Of the student body, 42% are on FARMS (i.e., qualify for Free And Reduced Meals) and 22% are Title 1 (i.e., schools with high percentages of poor children).[2]

MSDE is led by the State Superintendent of Schools and receives guidance from the Maryland State Board of Education.[3] The agency is headquartered in downtown

West Baltimore Street (off North Liberty Street/Hopkins Place, just west of Charles Center) in the Nancy Grasmick Building.[4]

School districts

The largest school districts in Maryland are:

Largest school districts
District Students Graduation
Rate		 Ref
Montgomery County 165,000 89% [5]
Prince George's County 133,000 79% [6]
Baltimore County 114,000 88% [7]
Anne Arundel County 83,000 88% [8]
Baltimore City 79,000 70% [9]
Howard County 59,000 93% [10]
Frederick County 44,000 92% [11]

History

1800s

The first superintendent of schools for the State of Maryland was authorized in 1865 by the

Western
, then known as the "Central High School of Baltimore" since 1850 for near 20 years and finally renamed B.C.C. in 1868.

Then rural, sparsely-populated Baltimore County instituted small one-room schools in wood-frame buildings beginning in the 1850s, supplementing the original colonial era "free schools" nominally established with only one in each of the counties. Baltimore County was second in the state with the first and only public high school in the newly purchased old Franklin Academy in Reisterstown becoming as Franklin High School in the 1850s. They were followed by secondary schools in the county seat of Towson as Towson High School in 1873.

A "Negro" / "Colored" (now African-American) elementary school was authorized in 1867, after a long controversy and public demand by the free black population of the, supplemented in 1883 by a "Colored High School" - second oldest in the nation next to

North Calvert and North Streets (later renamed Guilford Avenue) in the former Newton University adjacent townhouse buildings. Founded in the 1840s, Newton's buildings served as a hospital for Union Army wounded in the recent strife. Former Baltimorean and escaped slave Frederick Douglass
himself presided over the dedication ceremonies in September 1865 and later frequently lectured at the Institute. The Institute endured 18 years until the establishment by the City Schools system with a small struggling high school after continuous pressure and campaign for African-American schooling opportunities.

Then "polytechnical" / schools for "manual training" were founded in 1883, with the "Baltimore Manual Training School" (later renamed 1893 as the "Baltimore Polytechnic Institute" ("Poly").

1900s

A second high school for Negroes was established in 1910 and, in the next decade, was renamed the

Southern High School by Federal Hill in old South Baltimore. New types of vocational-technical schools were established in the 1920s, reorganized and reconstructed in 1955 with Carver Vocational-Technical High School on Presstman Street in West Baltimore's Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood and followed by the merger of several previous vocational institutions and renamed as Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School
on Hillen Road by Lake Montebello in the northeast city.

The state's practice of segregated schools ended in 1954, with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education that segregated schools violated the U.S. Constitution.

The junior high schools were reorganized into

Baltimore County also led the way along with Anne Arundel County
to the south of the city.

This slow growth of public education was later joined by

Prince George's counties as the Washington, D.C. suburban region began reaching out into surrounding Maryland following World War II. By the 1970s, with the acceptance of various constitutional amendments to the old fourth and last/current 1867 Constitution of Maryland, from the various articles and sections submitted to the voters in various referendums after the failure of the newly revised 1967 Constitution proposed by the recent 1966 constitutional convention which was held to modernize the old 1867 Civil War era state charter, contained provisions to set up an executive cabinet-level Department of Education for the State, along with the revamped structure of state government under the governorship of Marvin Mandel, who reorganized the Maryland executive departments structure using the best of the 1966-1967 Constitutional elements by pushing them through "piece-meal" then passed by the General Assembly of Maryland
(state legislature) of whom he was a long-time leader in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Rankings

In 2009, the Maryland state public schools system was ranked #1 in the nation overall as a result of three separate, independent studies conducted by publications Education Week, Newsweek, and MGT of America.[12][13][14] "Education Week" has ranked Maryland public education #1 in the nation for two years in a row, since 2008. "Education Week", the nation's leading education newspaper, looked at data in six critical categories over the past two years and placed Maryland's state education system at the very top of national rankings. Maryland placed at the top of the list in "Education Week"'s annual "Quality Counts" tally, with the nation's only B+ average. The new report found that no other state has a more consistent record of excellence than Maryland. Results for the State were above average in all six broad grade categories and ranked in the top seven in five of the six categories. According to "Newsweek" magazine, Maryland public schools rank first in the nation in the percentage of high schools offering—and students taking—college-level courses. The College Board ranked Maryland's public school system first in the nation amongst students earning a score of three or higher on national AP exams.[15][16] The state budget for education was $5.5 billion in 2009.[17]

School assessment

The Maryland School Assessment (MSA) is a test of reading and math meeting

NCLB requirements. Grades 3-8 are tested in math and reading, and grades 5 and 8 are tested in science.[18] However, Maryland is field testing the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers this spring that is made specifically for the Common Core State Standards Initiative. Maryland plans to end the usage of MSA and expand the PARCC Assessment the following year. Maryland substituted PARCC for the MCAP during SY 2018–2019.[19]
[20]

Former superintendents

  • Nancy Grasmick served as state superintendent of schools from 1991 to 2011.[21]
  • Lillian M. Lowery served as superintendent of the department from 2012 until 2015.[22][23]
  • Jack R. Smith served as interim Superintendent of the Department from 2015 until June 2016.[24]
  • Karen Salmon served as superintendent of the department from May 2016 until June 2021[25]

References

  1. ^ MSDE — Report Card
  2. ^ MSDE — Report Card
  3. ^ Maryland State Department of Education — About
  4. ^ "Home." Maryland State Department of Education. Retrieved on July 5, 2015. "200 West Baltimore Street, Baltimore, MD 21201-2595"
  5. ^ 2020 Montgomery County Schools At A Glance
  6. ^ 2019 Prince George's County Schools At A Glance
  7. ^ 2019 Baltimore County Schools At A Glance
  8. ^ 2019 Anne Arundel County Schools At A Glance
  9. ^ 2019 Baltimore City Schools At A Glance
  10. ^ 2020 Howard County Schools At A Glance
  11. ^ 2020 Frederick County Schools At A Glance
  12. ^ [1][dead link]
  13. ^ Best High Schools 2009: The Top States. Newsweek (2009-06-15). Retrieved on 2011-03-04.
  14. ^ Hernandez, Nelson (2009-01-08). "State Public School System Ranked Best in U.S. by 2 Reports". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2010-05-12.
  15. ^ "Maryland Ranks #1 in the Nation on Advanced Placement Exams for Participation and Performance" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-04-20. Retrieved 2010-02-05.
  16. ^ Toppo, Greg (2010-02-04). "Maryland makes huge strides in Advanced Placement". USA Today. Retrieved 2010-05-12.
  17. ^ "Slicing education?". The Gazette. The Gazette. 2009-11-05. pp. A-9. Archived from the original on 2015-09-04.
  18. ^ Education, Maryland Department of (2003). "Overview". Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2009-04-25.
  19. ^ "Maryland — PARCC".
  20. ^ Garriss, Kirsten. "MSA Test Changes Concern Some Parents". Archived from the original on 17 March 2014. Retrieved 17 March 2014.
  21. ^ "Home." Maryland State Department of Education. Retrieved on July 5, 2015. "200 West Baltimore Street, Baltimore, MD 21201-2595"
  22. ^ Lillian Lowery named Maryland state superintendent of schools (Baltimore Sun article-April, 20, 2012)
  23. ^ Maryland schools superintendent announces resignation (Washington Post article-August 28, 2015)
  24. ^ New superintendent hopes to improve high-performing school system (Washington Post article-June 28, 2016)
  25. ^ "Karen Salmon". Ballotpedia. Retrieved 2022-02-09.

External links

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