The board that oversees Maryland’s multibillion-dollar education reform plan formally threw its support Thursday behind a list of legislative priorities adopted last week by the state Board of Education.
The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future Accountability and Implementation Board will back the school board’s three legislative priorities: changing the current star-rating system for schools, also known as the state’s annual report; investing in the professional teacher development program known as coaching; and funding stipends to let experienced principals help mentor aspiring school leaders.
“I sincerely believe that these investments that this body can support now, to ensure that we deliver on the promise of the Blueprint, can restore Maryland as an education destination that is top 10 in the nation,” said state Superintendent Carey Wright, who spoke before the Blueprint board for almost 35 minutes during Thursday’s online meeting.
“This is so important for us to be able to collectively deliver for the 890,000 kids around the state,” Wright said.
The coaching and principal initiatives were approved in the 2025 legislative session — but without funding — as part of the Excellence in Maryland Public Schools Act. Wright and other education advocates plan to press lawmakers for funding in the 2026 session that starts Jan. 14.
The Academic Excellence Program is a statewide literacy and math instructional coaching program that has as part of its goal “to address persisting achievement gaps and provide additional support to underserved communities.”
The principal initiative is under the Maryland School Leadership Academy that seeks to support and develop education leaders. Stipends would be for experienced principals to mentor aspiring and novice principals in community and low-performing schools.
In terms of a new rating system to assess student achievement, the state Board of Education reviewed possible changes last week based on a recommendation from the Accountability Advisory Committee to eliminate the current star system. School leaders have said the system, which give schools one to four stars, does not adequately capture the quality of a school, and shortchanges schools with a large number of low-income students.
Educators will be asking for funding for those programs at a difficult time, as lawmakers face a potential $1.5 billion budget deficit for the next fiscal year.
“There may be questions as it relates to the timing, in some degree the cost, because that’s a real challenge for us in this age and time, given the budgetary restraints that we have,” said Blueprint Board President Isiah “Ike” Leggett, who agrees with Wright on the need to invest in those initiatives.
Blueprint board member Robin Werner, director of teaching and learning for Talbot County Public Schools, asked Wright if there’s a strategy for local schools to replace an experienced educator who may leave the classroom to become a coach.
Wright said part of the plan is that any educator who applies to become a coach would have to work in a certain region of the state, which could be in the same or a nearby school district. But she also noted that a superintendent must “agree to sign off on it. If they don’t sign off on it, then that teacher would not be selected from that district.”
Endorsing the school board’s legislative priorities come just weeks after the Blueprint board adopted its own legislative priorities for the 2026 session. Those include an extension of the policy to “hold harmless” funding for multilingual learners, students in poverty and those in special education. That provision, which protects those students from potential per pupil funding cuts, is currently set through fiscal 2027; the board wants it extended through fiscal 2028.
Move-in update
The Accountability and Implementation Board, with more than a dozen people on staff, could be close to moving into its office in Annapolis in March — about a year after a long search secured office space on West Street in Annapolis. The goal then was to have the first workers in the office by fall 2o25.
“Very excited at some point in the spring we can have an in-person board meeting.” AIB Executive Director Rachel Hise told board members.
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Leggett said.