State Funding Per Pupil
The state’s per-pupil funding for Kent County Public Schools increased by 33.8% between fiscal 2019 and fiscal 2024. That’s the ninth smallest 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 Kent County Public Schools’ Blueprint Implementation Plan:
Strengths:
- Kent County has an established universal pre-K program for 4-year-olds and has developed strategies to boost participation, including the inclusion of 3-year-olds.
- The county engages with colleges and universities for support in various areas, including teacher certification, curriculum development and helping to staff advanced placement courses.
- Building-based mentor programs have been developed to help recruit, support and retain teachers.
- In effort to generate a more holistic understanding of individual student progress, attendance and behavior issues are included in academic mentoring.
- The district has strong structures in place for college and career readiness such as support during the school day and summer programs.
- Kent County and neighboring Cecil County are working together to organize community schools.
Needs improvement:
- The district needs to reevaluate and expand its career ladder framework by focusing on more than National Board Certification for its educators.
- Kent County should complete and implement a math plan in alignment with the Blueprint to improve student proficiency rates.
- The district is revising its current literacy plan to align with the Blueprint, and it needs to refer to data to make sure the plan is working in every school.
- Career and technical education programming needs to be expanded. The district can utilize technology to provide opportunities for learning, and given that there are no businesses nearby to assist, school-based businesses or career academies could be created.
- The district should improve diversity in staffing and programming while engaging more with families.
- April Quevedo