Public School Superintendents' Association of Maryland Legislative & Policy Recommendations for 2025 Legislative Session

December 11, 2024

You can view PSSAM's Legislative and Policy Recommendations for the 2025 Legislative Session here.

PSSAM Legislative and Policy Recommendations

The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future

The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future creates a bold trajectory for Maryland’s public education system. As the state’s top educators, we stand behind the Blueprint and applaud those who have fought hard to make this vision a reality. 

We have gained invaluable experience and insight after three years of implementation - celebrating early successes, but also experiencing frustrations and challenges. Our requests for policy and legislative changes are the result of the real experiences from education experts doing the Blueprint “work” every day in school buildings and leadership offices. Our experiences in education reform have taught us that it is not enough to put a program in place, but to evaluate its effectiveness and make adjustments along the way.  

The Blueprint’s goals are achievable, but the implementation needs to be streamlined and realistic with clearer expectations and guidance from State leaders. While it is too early for a complete evaluation of our work, we believe these valuable lessons should be considered, and our recommendations for changes embraced as “course corrections” to ensure long-term success. 

This document includes requests for policy adjustments we believe can be made by the State Board of Education (SBOE) and/or the Accountability and Implementation  Board (AIB) without statutory changes, or within the AIB’s plenary authority. 

Part of the Blueprint’s innovative approach is that every Pillar is transformative;  but, it is the coalescence of these five Pillars that will create dynamic outcomes and achievements. In practice, it is also this coalescence that has been one of the biggest challenges to successful implementation. In addition, each of Maryland’s twenty-four Local Education Agencies (LEAs) has a different starting point and growth trajectory. The Blueprint tends to have a one-size approach that does not “fit all,” especially in districts  that were previously demonstrating efficiency and excellence in many areas of the Blueprint.

Our Core Mission and Measure of Success - Student Growth and Achievement 

The recommendations in these pages are the result of analysis of student data, qualitative experiences of educators and staff, and thoughtful contemplation of the following questions: 

• How is this pillar/activity/initiative performing against Our Core Mission and Measure of Success - Student Growth and Achievement? 

• What has been accomplished that enhances and promotes student achievement?

  • What is new, or enhanced that has worked? 

  • How have we demonstrated progress? 

• What has challenged our ability to grow student success? 

• What has been our ‘Return on Investment (ROI?)’ on each activity? 

  • Has the human and fiscal capital produced results that would have otherwise been unattainable? 

  • Will further investments in an initiative achieve student success? 

PSSAM, and its twenty-four superintendents, look forward to working with the State Board and AIB leadership, the Governor, the Legislature, and all education partners to guarantee the success of The Blueprint, ensuring a world-class and equitable public education for every Maryland student. For more information, please contact Mary Pat Fannon, Executive Director, at marypat.fannon@pssam.org.