Maryland: As State Increased School Aid, Grades Went Up
http://www.truthout.org/011409ED
Liz Bowie, The Baltimore Sun: "Five years after Maryland increased
spending by $2 billion to provide greater academic equity, students
have made remarkable gains in reading and math, according to a report
given to the Maryland General Assembly yesterday by an outside
consultant."
For every additional $1,000 spent per student, there was a
significant increase in pass rates in both subjects. The improvement
was twice as great for middle school students as for those in
elementary grades.
The report by MGT of America also confirms what most educators
have intuitively believed for decades: Money invested in teachers
appears to pay off. About 80 percent of additional local and state
funding has been spent on the teaching staff - raising salaries,
hiring more to reduce class sizes and requiring a highly qualified
teacher in every classroom.
"I think it is a validation of a leap of faith that the
legislature and the governor took to continue to fund it," said state
Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick, referring to The Bridge to
Excellence Act. Passed in 2002, that law put into effect the
recommendations of a state education funding commission chaired by
Alvin Thornton.
Grasmick said the report points out the wisdom of the
legislature's decision to pass the law, which required not just an 80
percent increase in the level of funding but targeted the money to
provide the most help to special education and poor students and
those
learning English. Students in those categories did not make as much
progress in learning math and reading as did the general population.
The achievement gaps are still a matter of concern, she said.
The legislature mandated that school systems not reduce the
amount
of money they provided schools from county budgets while the state
dollars increased. Local appropriations per pupil did not drop during
the five-year period, but there is still little equality among the
school systems in how much is spent per pupil. Montgomery County
allots more per pupil than any other system, for example, and rural
Caroline County contributes least.
There will never be equality in school funding, said Jerry
Ciesla,
a senior partner at MGT, because each local government will
contribute
more or less to its school system on top of what the state gives.
But,
he said, there is more equity since the Thornton law was passed.
There
is "fairness of state funding," he said. "Those who need it the most
get the most."
State dollars account for, on average, about 44 percent of the
school system budgets across the state.
The report's release came the same day Education Week ranked
Maryland schools No. 1 in the nation, giving yesterday's press
conference in Annapolis with Grasmick and Gov. Martin O'Malley a
congratulatory air. Just one year after the governor said he wanted
to
get rid of the education secretary, the two appeared happy to share
the announcement.
"They really deserve the No. 1 ranking," said Ciesla, whose
company is doing 66 education studies in many states around the
country. Educators in other states, Ciesla said, hold Maryland's
schools in high regard. The combination of this positive report and
the ranking will likely bring more attention to the state, he said.
"I
think Maryland is going to be bombarded by all the other
states. . . .
How did you do this?"
In the spring of 2002, Maryland became the first state in the
nation to adopt a major reform of its school finance system to
provide
greater equity for all students without the pressure of a court
order.
The state, in part through an increase in the tax on cigarettes,
began
gradually increasing the amount of money given to local school
systems
for pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.
By the 2007-2008 school year, the state was spending $2.03
billion
more or $2,438 per pupil on education. As part of the revamping, the
General Assembly required a final report to detail how the money had
been spent and whether it had made a difference. State education
spending would continue at the current level, unless the legislature
took action to change it. The report recommends that another study of
the adequacy of state funding be conducted in 2012.
Part of the MGT analysis included a survey of 16,000 teachers in
the state about their practices and their schools. The survey was an
attempt to find out what practices worked best so that the
information
could be used to improve struggling schools. At high-performing
schools, teachers collaborated on lesson plans, analyzed test data
and
believed their principal was a strong leader.
More of these best practices are being implemented in elementary
and middle schools than in high schools. The report notes that the
greater the number of qualified teachers in a school, the better
students did and that the correlation was particularly true at
schools
with large numbers of economically disadvantaged students.
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