Report: Mississippi State Department of Education under Carey Wright did not adhere to State Statute Requiring Office of Dropout Prevention @mcps @mocoboe @MdPublicSchools

A Forgotten Program: A Review of the Mississippi Department of 

Education’s Office of Dropout Prevention

The Office of Dropout Prevention has not existed according to statute in over a decade 

Key Conclusions

The Office of Dropout Prevention (ODP) was statutorily mandated to be created by the Mississippi Department of 

Education (MDE) in 2006 to reduce the dropout rate. Auditors determined that:

1. MDE has not adhered to Miss. Code Ann. § 37-13-80 since 2009;

2. MDE maintained inapplicable graduation rate benchmarks when reporting progress to the State Board of 

Education;

3. MDE has been apathetic regarding oversight of a coordinated initiative to reduce the dropout rate;

4. 73% of local school districts’ dropout prevention plans do not meet requirements set forth by MDE;

5. 49% of local school districts’ dropout prevention programs are not being monitored by MDE;

6. 71% of local school districts’ dropout prevention programs are not evidence-based; and

7. MDE does not monitor whether evidence-based programs are implemented as designed to ensure effectiveness.

To reach these conclusions, auditors conducted surveys of local school districts, interviewed officials at MDE and local school districts, analyzed financial and program records, and reviewed internal and leading professional practices, as well as peer-reviewed journal articles regarding dropout prevention...

2020_Office-of-Dropout-Prevention_Report.pdf (ms.gov)

2017: Feds seek fraud probe of Mississippi State Education Department programs [under Carey Wright] @MdPublicSchools

The federal government is calling for a forensic audit — an effort to look for potential fraud — of two of the Mississippi Department of Education’s programs, according to State Auditor Stacey Pickering’s office.

Read more at: https://www.oxfordeagle.com/2017/04/27/feds-seek-fraud-probe-of-state-education-department-programs/

Mohammed Choudhury earns $310,000 a year as the Maryland State Superintendent of Schools, and he’s currently fighting for his job. Dr. Sonja Santelises, last year, earned $445,000 in total compensation as the CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools.

 Two of Maryland's highest-ranking education leaders under fire in wake of Project Baltimore investigations

Two of Maryland's highest-ranking education leaders under fire in wake of Project Baltimor | WBFF (foxbaltimore.com)

‘He needs to go’ | Taxpayer advocate says Maryland School Board needs to act now on Superintendent

(WBFF) — Some are calling for Maryland State Superintendent Mohammed Choudhury to resign, saying he’s betrayed the public trust.

A recent Project Baltimore investigation exposed how Choudhury used an encrypted messaging app to conduct state business, even though he initially denied using the app for his job...

Taxpayer advocate says Maryland School Board needs to act now on Superintendent | WBFF (foxbaltimore.com)

Maryland lawmaker calls for special hearing to investigate issues at State Department of Education

BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. (WBFF) — For many local public school students, this week marked the return to school. And while students are back in the classroom, problems continue to mount at the Maryland State Department of Education.

Now, some lawmakers are calling for a special hearing in Annapolis to learn more about what Fox45 News has exposed.

“It's potentially a crime that has been committed for willfully deleting public records,” said Ryan Nawrocki, a Republican state delegate representing Baltimore County. “I'm extremely concerned. Some of my other colleagues are also very concerned.”

The Baltimore County representative, over the past few months, has been watching Project Baltimore’s investigation into Maryland State Superintendent Mohammed Choudhury. Project Baltimore discovered that text messages on the superintendent’s state-issued cell phone were deleted, even after we filed a public record request to see them, which could be a violation of state law...

Maryland lawmaker calls for special hearing to investigate issues at State Department of E | WBFF (foxbaltimore.com)

Maryland School Board delays vote on offering embattled State Superintendent new contract [Choudhoury absent from meeting, on vacation]

Baltimore (WBFF) — The Maryland State Board of Education has decided to delay a decision on whether to offer the State Superintendent of Schools another contract. The school board could have voted Tuesday evening to offer Superintendent Mohammed Choudhury a four-year contract but chose to continue deliberating.

The Maryland State Department of Education has come under fire recently. In the last year, there have been reports of a toxic work culture, transparency questions related to the department changing how test scores are reported to the public and concerns over how tax dollars are spent.

Choudhury was absent from Tuesday’s State Board of Education meeting.

“He’s on vacation,” Board President Clarence Crawford told Project Baltimore.

Even though, on that day, the board was scheduled to vote on renewing Choudhury’s contract. That is largely why former Maryland State Department of Education employee Robert Eccles was at the meeting. Because he had a lot to say about MSDE’s leadership under Choudhury.

“Who's taking responsibility for all these glaring leadership failings, and I respectfully ask the board to rethink its working definition of brilliant and transformational leadership,” said Eccles while speaking during public comment. “Transformational leaders actually lead people and don't disparage them. They invite feedback and can take criticism without retaliation. Brilliant leaders prioritize delivering on time. They care more about collaboration than control, and they don't repeatedly trash partners in private and sabotage their access to valuable federal or state resources because of personal grudges.”..

...Project Baltimore, in April, broke the news that the Maryland State Department of Education, without informing the public, changed how it reports test scores. As a result, MSDE hid much of the data behind asterisks. Parents and taxpayers can no longer see how many schools are performing on state tests. When Project Baltimore first tried to speak with Choudhury about it, he locked himself behind a door...

Maryland School Board delays vote on offering embattled State Superintendent new contract | WBFF (foxbaltimore.com)

MARYLAND STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION APPOINTS NEW STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS Mohammed Choudhury from San Antonio, Texas

 

MARYLAND STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION APPOINTS NEW STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS 

Mr. Mohammed Choudhury Appointed Following National, Multi-Phased Search Process Guided by Community and Stakeholder Input

BALTIMORE, MD (May 27, 2021) – In a unanimous vote today, the Maryland State Board of Education (State Board) has appointed Mr. Mohammed Choudhury as the next Maryland State Superintendent of Schools. Mr. Choudhury’s selection follows a rigorous and multi-phased national search, closely guided by community and stakeholder input.

Currently serving as Associate Superintendent and Chief Strategy, Talent and Innovation Officer for the San Antonio Independent School District, Mr. Choudhury is nationally recognized for his visionary leadership and unwavering commitment to equity, innovation, and excellence in public education. Understanding needs, spearheading initiatives and delivering results, Mr. Choudhury has integrated transformative policies and groundbreaking practices that have shattered expectations and raised the bar for staff and students across the country.

“When we set out on our search for Maryland’s next superintendent, our goal was to identify and hire the highest caliber candidate to build the future of education for all Maryland children. Considering Mr. Choudhury’s outstanding transformative accomplishments, we are completely confident that we have hired the right person, one who deeply cares about children,” said Board President Clarence Crawford. “Mr. Choudhury distinguished himself by providing a fresh perspective, and his engaging high-energy approach brings the best out of the people he serves. He is a bold pioneer in the educational community, and we are fortunate to have secured his leadership as Maryland’s chief education officer as we continue to recover from the devastating impacts of COVID-19 and seek to implement the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. Mr. Choudhury is an empathetic and collaborative leader and hard-working person who values input and diverse perspectives.”

Relentlessly committed to narrowing historical opportunity and achievement gaps and improving student achievement and outcomes, Choudhury is credited for helping to lead a transformation of San Antonio’s large school system, where 90% of students are economically-disadvantaged. Before he arrived in San Antonio, the district had an F-rating. Today, it is the fastest-improving large district in all of Texas.

Choudhury cites the following initiatives as the driving forces for this success: implementing an innovative poverty tracker to assess and address student needs in the district’s poorest communities; expanding options for families by launching innovative, high-performing school models that serve all students; and recruiting and retaining master teachers at chronically underperforming schools. San Antonio’s success has helped transform the way Texas examines poverty and funds public schools with Choudhury’s work scaled to benefit more than 5.4 million students across the state.

“For years, Maryland Public Schools have been a model for other states and there is an incredibly strong foundation to build upon to ensure that every Maryland student has the opportunity to build a great future. But being one of the top states for education doesn’t mean there aren’t gaps in the system, and it certainly doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement,” said Mohammed Choudhury. “With the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future as a guide for MSDE and every district in the state, the state’s leaders have shown a remarkable commitment to the hard work that’s necessary to bridge gaps and ensure every student has the tools and supports needed to be successful. I am honored by the board’s selection and look forward to hitting the ground running as Maryland’s next State Superintendent of Schools.”

Prior to his appointment in San Antonio, Choudhury led transformation and innovation efforts for the Dallas Independent School District which has been recognized as a national model for launching and scaling transformation initiatives. He started his career as a classroom teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District where he earned accolades for his innovative work to partner with non-profit organizations to provide students with additional support in middle school. Beyond the classroom, Mr. Choudhury also built extensive experience and expertise in program and policy development as a senior leader with the Future is Now Schools Network.

In 2018, Education Week profiled Choudhury as a “Leader to Learn From,” one of 12 exceptional school system leaders recognized nationally for impacting student and teacher success. Mr. Choudhury is a member of the Chiefs for Change Future Chief program, a highly selective, nationally-based leadership development program that prepares the next generation of state and district education leaders. Mr. Choudhury completed his undergraduate work at California State University in Northridge and earned an M.Ed. from UCLA.           

Mr. Choudhury will replace Dr. Karen B. Salmon who will retire on June 30 after an education career spanning more than 45 years, including five years leading the Maryland State Department of Education.

“We are thankful for Dr. Salmon’s leadership, deep knowledge of Maryland’s education system and her unparalleled commitment to all Maryland children as part of her dedication to equity and excellence,” said President Crawford. “As a result of her guidance, we are well-poised to deliver the future of Maryland education.”

Last fall, the Maryland State Board of Education announced that it had retained Greenwood/Asher & Associates to lead the global search for the next Maryland State Superintendent of Schools. The extensive, multi-phased search process included planning, community outreach, and a national recruitment strategy. The firm conducted multiple stakeholder meetings, three public Town Hall meetings, and a survey to solicit public input to inform the Superintendent recruitment profile.

Led by the superintendent selection team, all Board members screened and narrowed 55 applicants to 11.  Eleven candidates were researched and interviewed, with four exceptional finalists.

Mr. Choudhury will begin his term as Maryland State Superintendent of Schools effective July 1, 2021.

# # #

National Financial Capability Challenge

In the many years I have been active in the education community in this county, there have been numerous discussions at all levels of parent advocacy for a class or program on financial literacy for our children. With our latest bust in the nation’s boom-and-bust economy these discussions have increased among the parent community.


Now the Department of the Treasury has teamed up once again with the Department of Education to offer the ‘National Financial Capability Challenge.’ This is a FREE program for our children.

Please encourage your child's teachers to get involved in this program for the economic health of our nation and our children.  Homeschoolers, take note!

Here is the information from the Department of the Treasury, below

WHAT IS THE NATIONAL FINANCIAL CAPABILITY CHALLENGE?

The National Financial Capability Challenge is an awards program designed to increase the financial knowledge and capability of high school aged youth across the United States so they can take control over their financial futures. It challenges high school teachers and other educators to teach the basics of personal finance to their students, and rewards students, educators, schools, and states for their participation and their success. Educators and top-scoring students will receive award certificates, and schools and states with the highest participation rates will earn special distinction.

WHY IS FINANCIAL CAPABILITY IMPORTANT?

The recent economic crisis and the increasing complexity of our financial system make it clear that strengthening the financial knowledge and skills of our young people is critical to their future success and to the future financial stability of our country. To better navigate their financial futures and be prepared to make smart choices, students need to learn more about earning and spending, saving and investing, using credit wisely, avoiding fraud, paying for college, and more.

WHO CAN PARTICIPATE?

All high school teachers and other educators working with U.S. high-school aged students (ages 13-19) are encouraged to register for the Challenge, download the Educator Toolkit, prepare their students, and administer the online exam. Educators who have been teaching students about personal finance for years as well as those who never have before are urged to join this national initiative.

HOW DOES THE CHALLLENGE WORK?

This is a free program.

Registration: Educators are encouraged to go to challenge.treas.gov to sign up.

Educator Toolkit: Educators will have access to a free Educator Toolkit that includes ready-to-use lesson plans (in PDF format) that cover all the core concepts students need to learn to take the Challenge. Educators are encouraged to use whichever modules they like, use other existing resources, or create their own innovative approaches to teaching these concepts in an effort to help students increase their financial capability.

Best Practices: Throughout the Challenge period and beyond, we encourage educators to share ideas and suggestions about effective ways that they have found to help increase their students' financial capability.

Challenge Exam: The Challenge online exam, which is designed to illustrate the relevance of financial topics to students, as well as to assess their learning, will be offered from March 7 - April 8, 2011. It took the average student less than 30 minutes to complete. Over 76,000 students participated in the spring of 2010.

Awards Program: The top two scorers at each school, plus all students scoring in the top 20%, will receive National Financial Capability Challenge Award Certificates. All participating educators will receive an official certificate, and educators from schools and states with the highest proportion of participating students will be recognized as well.

2009 MCPS Schools Identified for Improvement

2009 Schools Identified for Improvement

On July 1, 2008, the Maryland State Department of Education received approval from the U.S. Department of Education to implement a Differentiated Accountability pilot proposal that allows Maryland to distinguish between schools in improvement that need substantial help and those close to meeting achievement goals. This implementation affects the nomenclature and interventions that pertain to schools in improvement based on the 2007-08 school year testing.

Schools are now placed in one of two pathways: Comprehensive Needs or Focused Needs. They are further identified according to stages (Developing or Priority) based on the number of years the school has been identified for improvement.

Here is the MCPS list of schools identified for improvement:

Elementary schools
Captain James E. Daly Elementary 0111	2008		Focus Developing
Middle schools
Benjamin Banneker Middle 0333	2007		Comprehensive Developing
Forest Oak Middle 0248	2006		Focus Developing
Gaithersburg Middle 0554	2007		Focus Developing
Neelsville Middle 0115	2007		Focus Developing
Parkland Middle 0812	2004		Focus Developing
High schools
Watkins Mill High 0545	2008		Focus Developing
Elementary/Middle/High schools
Stephen Knolls School 0799	2007		Focus Developing

Whose Scores Are They Anyway?

Why Is MCPS Holding MSA Home Reports Until After the Start of the New School Year?

The scores are in and MCPS knows exactly how your child did on the MSAs (Maryland Statewide Assessment) last spring. As a matter of fact, they have most likely been spending most of the summer using MSA data as a means of placing your student into his or her classes this fall. If that is the case, then how come you are receiving the home report this week? Why is MCPS MSA data for individual students being withheld from you as parents and not being sent out until the middle of September?

The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) Web site states that the testing vendor sends the scores for individual students to the local school systems and then the local school systems distribute individual scores to parents. MCPS distributes individual scores, or home reports as they are called, in September, after the new school year has already begun and your child’s classes and groupings have already been determined based on scores you have not seen. In some cases, you may even have received one of your child’s scores days before another child’s scores, simply because they go to different schools. So what exactly is the MCPS MSA Schedule for distribution to parents?

What about other Maryland counties? At least five other Maryland counties – Howard, Frederick, Anne Arundel, Prince Georges, and Baltimore, all provided their home reports to parents over the summer. Parents in these counties got to see their children’s scores before they went back to school; they knew why their children were placed in that advanced math or English class or were able to make the case if they weren’t. If this information is available in the summer, why is MCPS holding on to these reports and not providing them to its parents? Why aren’t they providing you with your own child’s test scores as soon as the scores are available? Where is the transparency MCPS likes to talk so much about? These results should be provided not only for the sake of the parents, but for the children who felt the pressure to perform on this test through those constant reminders of “get a good night’s sleep”, “eat a good breakfast”, and “don’t miss school”. Don’t the children deserve to see the results of their hard work?

With all of the stringent requirements and guidelines in place for MSA, why hasn’t MSDE instituted deadlines for the counties to return the home reports to parents, so that all Maryland parents can be informed of their child’s progress in a timely manner and be better advocates for their children’s education? Why is MCPS allowed to hold individual MSA data indefinitely? Nancy Grasmick, are you listening?

The Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland thanks this MCPS parent for submitting these comments to this blog. The author, while known to us, wishes to remain anonymous.

MD State Dept of Ed - Unusual Audit!

The Washington Examiner's Leah Fabel reports on Maryland State Auditor Bruce Myers' just released audit detailing financial concerns at the Maryland State Department of Education.

Once again, Mr. Myers documents when his office finds financial improprieties at a State agency; but will any government officials take action to correct these issues, or are State Audits just wasted paper?


Schools audit targets bureaucrat salaries, day care inspections Washington Examiner

Bureaucrats at the Maryland State Department of Education earned hefty salaries in apparent violation of state law, while day care centers operated without proper inspections, according to a state audit released this week.

Nearly 70 "loaned educators" -- county school officials contracted by the state for various projects -- were paid a total of almost $9 million in fiscal 2009, averaging about $130,000 annually and often "significantly higher than state employees serving in similar positions," the report said. Their forces have ballooned since 1990, when 21 loaned officials earned less than $1 million...

...Grasmick defended the role -- and the high salaries -- of loaned educators by saying they contribute to "Maryland's position as the No. 1 public school system in the nation."...

The unusually contentious report will go before the General Assembly's joint audit committee Tuesday.

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