Recent Evaluation Projects
Title: Maryland Challenge School Initiative
Sponsor/Funder: Maryland State Department of Education
Target Audience: Maryland State Department of Education and the Maryland State Legislature
Collaborating Agencies: Maryland State Department of Education, and eight participating Maryland School Systems
Dates: 1996 - 2002
Description: In 1996, the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) asked RBS to help it develop an annual report for the Maryland Challenge Schools Initiative. The purpose of the report was to summarize for MSDE leadership and the Maryland State Legislature the impact of funds that it was appropriating to help schools with "challenging populations of students" improve their performance with respect to the educational outcomes assessed by the Maryland School Performance Program. Working collaboratively with MSDE, RBS:
- Developed a description of the Challenge Schools Initiative that included its intent; recent changes to the initiative's design and activities; the roles and responsibilities of schools, local school systems, and MSDE; the process by which schools were selected; a list of school systems and schools currently participating in the program; and the annual amount of state funds that the individual school systems had received since they had been in the program.
- Provided an analysis of how the appropriated funds had been used by the participating elementary, middle, and high schools.
- Created a graphic that summarized changes in school performance between their baseline year (the year for becoming part of the Initiative) and the most recent completed school year in terms of the Maryland School Performance Index, which is the weighted average of a school's relative distance from achieving "satisfactory" standards related to all content areas assessed by the Maryland School Performance Program: reading, writing, language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies.
- Compared high school performance on the Maryland Functional Tests in reading, writing, and mathematics.
- Highlighted lessons that were being learned through the Challenge Schools Initiative based on discussions held with MSDE staff and school system coordinators.
- Prepared short descriptions of schools that had made notable progress in reading, writing, and/or mathematics and the strategies implemented with program funds believed to have contributed to that improvement.
Outcomes: Based on the assistance that RBS provided in 1996, MSDE asked RBS to provide similar assistance annually through 2002. MSDE viewed the annual report that RBS had helped it develop as a valuable resource for maintaining MSDE leadership's and the Maryland State Legislature's support for the Challenge Schools Initiative.
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