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April 3, 2006

Maryland's takeover debate misses the point

Tension is brewing between Maryland's state legislature and state school chief Nancy Grasmick over a plan to seize control of 11 Baltimore schools. This Baltimore Sun article reported that state lawmakers want to stall Grasmick's plan to make Maryland the first state to take over schools under the No Child Left Behind Act.

While some policymakers question whether Grasmick's move is political, what's missing in the debate is whether sufficient resources and support have been given to these 11 schools which continued to fail NCLB's adequate yearly progress in the last few years. For example, Maryland is one of the states cited by the U.S. Department of Education in this letter as not having a statewide system of technical support to schools identified for improvement under NCLB. Without first giving schools the support and resources they need to succeed--as outlined in this NSBA report--the talk of any drastic changes under restructuring is missing the point.

Posted April 3, 2006 1:57 PM | No Child Left Behind

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