State Funding Per Pupil
The state’s per-pupil funding for Anne Arundel County Public Schools increased 43.2% between fiscal 2019 and fiscal 2024. That’s the second 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 Anne Arundel County Public Schools’ Blueprint Implementation Plan:
Strengths:
- The district has a good plan to expand full-day pre-K to 3- and 4-year-olds, including for students learning English and those with disabilities.
- Anne Arundel has a monitoring team that reports annually on workforce diversity and supports professional development; the district uses fair rubrics and questioning practices to reduce implicit bias in interviews.
- Anne Arundel County has one of the largest numbers of National Board Certified teachers in the nation due to its recruiting and staff support efforts.
- The district integrates career counseling into the school curriculum for all middle and high school students.
- The district redesigned its general education curriculum and included special education teachers in developing curriculum resources for all teachers.
- Anne Arundel is on track to report the district's budget at the school level, as the Blueprint requires.
Needs improvement:
- The district does not currently offer private providers many opportunities to participate in joint professional development activities, but says it plans to do so in the future.
- Nationally Board Certified teachers are not being best utilized in schools and should be given more teacher leadership roles and responsibilities.
- Anne Arundel County does not yet have comprehensive literacy or math plans, but they are being developed.
- Reading and math coaches are not typically in the classroom teaching students during the day, and should be present to support teachers.
- Alex Marek