Behind the Blueprint: Charles County

David M. Higgins II, Publisher/Editor

March 5

State Funding Per Pupil

The state's per-pupil funding for Charles County Public Schools increased 38.3% between fiscal 2019 and fiscal 2024. That's the eighth-largest increase among all 24 Maryland public school districts.

Per-pupil funding is based on a formula that utilizes the district's total enrollment and the characteristics of its students. It's too soon to know what the per-pupil funding level will be in the later years of the Blueprint.

Here's the district's initial Blueprint Implementation Plan. And here's what the state Accountability and Implementation Board – which oversees the Blueprint – had to say about Charles County Public Schools' Blueprint Implementation Plan:

Strengths:

The district has a strong literacy plan.
In fifth grade, the district starts careers and technical education and counseling, considering the local job market and student interest. Charles does assessments to match its offerings with the job market growth and maintains a Program Advisory Committee for oversight.
The district has a variety of partnerships with the community that help the students and schools.

Needs improvement:

The district should ensure that its Pre-K planning efforts align with family needs. Charles should also consider ways to expand outreach efforts for families with pre-K-aged kids.
To respond to teacher shortages, the district seeks to expand recruitment efforts, especially for hard-to-fill positions, and diversify the candidate pool. One potential strategy is to partner with higher education institutions.
The district should broaden its National Board Certification planning to encourage teachers to get that credential.
The county has comprehensive training plans for teachers in reading, math and related programs, but it has little information on how successful that training is. Additional action is needed to make sure those plans are working and to help and identify teachers needing support.
There is a need to regularly review and improve its system-wide student progress monitoring. This effort should focus on historically underrepresented and underperforming students to ensure these students receive timely support.