State Funding Per Pupil
The state’s per-pupil funding for Washington County Public Schools increased 37.2% between fiscal 2019 and fiscal 2024. That’s the ninth 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 Washington County Public Schools’ Blueprint Implementation Plan:
Strengths:
- The district already has a pre-K program for 4-year-olds, which can be expanded to 3-year-olds.
- The county has a long-term, four-phase literacy plan “with some strong elements.”
- High school students work as reading tutor apprentices with the aid of teachers.
- The plan offers strong details about career and technical education programs and apprenticeships.
Needs improvement:
- Assessments and services are not available for pre-K English learners, as they are not identified or provided support until they enter Kindergarten.
- The district struggles with recruiting and retaining a diverse teacher workforce, and the plan could offer more detail as to how district leaders plan to identify and reach out to diverse job candidates.
- The district would benefit from technical assistance in incentivizing teachers to pursue National Board Certification training.
- The rollout of the new math curricular materials should be monitored closely, as it is unclear whether materials are being used in teacher training and student tutoring plans.
- The district’s college and career readiness data suggests that individualized programs will be necessary for most students, but it’s unclear whether the district has the ability to manage this effectively.
– Alisha Camacho