As part of Maryland's Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding allotment, the Maryland State Department of Education created the Maryland Leads initiative, which committed the state's set aside funds to local education agencies to implement at least two of seven high-leverage strategies. In February 2022, 23 LEAs were…

The "Achieving Academic Equity and Excellence for Black Boys" (AAEEBB) grant is designed to address the academic and socioemotional needs of Black boys in Maryland Public Schools. In year two of the grant (2022-2023), 14 schools were each awarded $50,000 to implement programs that addressed recommendations from a state-level task force…

The mental health of Maryland's youth has grown steadily worse for more than a decade, with COVID-19 exacerbating the trend. In an attempt to respond to rising student social, emotional, and academic needs, states including Maryland received a substantial increase in revenue through the allocation of American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary…

Severe inequities for underrepresented student groups (URGs) in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine (STEMM) fields has remained a topic of national concern for several decades. Research has demonstrated the efficacy of STEMM intervention programs (SIPs) in addressing disparate STEMM outcomes. However, there is a dearth of…

Since the 2017-2018 academic year, Montgomery Public Schools (MCPS) has invested in the Two-Way Immersion (TWI) program, across six elementary schools, aiming to cultivate bilingualism, biliteracy, and biculturalism among students from Kindergarten through Grade 5. As part of this initiative, this comprehensive study assessed the implementation…

Effective instructional coaching won't happen across a district without a well-specified coaching program and a reliable way to guide coaches. Fortunately, there are innovations from research and development efforts that can help districts put into practice the best ideas about instructional coaching. Andrew Wayne and Jane Coggshall describe how…

This essay describes the development and implementation of a CPED-grounded program assessment system and the ways in which it contributes to quality assurance in Ed.D. programs broadly. We begin by articulating program quality and describing the contextual factors that guide our approach to program assessment. Next, we overview major components…

High-quality career and technical education (CTE) and work-based learning opportunities can support students along a pathway to credential attainment, employment and upward economic mobility through intentional skill development and experiential learning. CTE concentration in high school can increase graduation rates while helping students build…

Access to college has increased substantially over the last 50 years, but student success--defined as the combination of academic achievement and degree or certificate completion--has largely remained stagnant. The gap between access and success is particularly noteworthy for male Black and Hispanic students, whose college completion rates lag…

In 2019, [Sunny] (City, State) was awarded a federal College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) grant designed to provide necessary support for the first-year success of migrant and seasonal farmworkers and their direct families. This article describes programming of the CAMP grant, focusing on how it functions as a learning community through its…

Post-training consultation support is linked to improvements in evidence-based treatment fidelity following initial training, but little is known about what makes it work, and how clinician-level factors may moderate its effects. This study examined the adherence and competence of N = 33 school-based clinicians trained to provide modular Cognitive…

The evaluation of the instructional mathematics coaches (IMC) initiative during the 2023-2024 school year focused on the first-year implementation of mathematics coaches in 47 elementary and middle schools. Twelve coaches were assigned to these schools based on specific criteria to provide support to mathematics teachers. This study investigated:…

In alignment with the Academic Excellence pillar of the Strategic Plan, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) is committed to improving student achievement in literacy. MCPS initially piloted a Structured Literacy approach in Kindergarten-Grade 2 during the 2021-2022 school year. Due to the pilot's success in improving student outcomes, MCPS…

In pursuit of Academic Excellence, MCPS allocated funds for school year 2022-2023 to ensure every elementary school had a full-time reading specialist to serve as a literacy coach. This evaluation focused on understanding how the reading specialist position supported teachers' increased capacity to implement the MCPS literacy program, including…

The overall aim of the Effective Implementation Cohort (EIC) investment is to increase district capacity to implement a high-quality middle years math curriculum as part of a Coherent Instructional System (CIS) to accelerate learning for students who are experiencing poverty, Black, Latino/a, and/or English Learner (EL)-Designated ("priority…