State Funding Per Pupil
The state’s per-pupil funding for Prince George’s County Public Schools increased 36.4% between fiscal 2019 and fiscal 2024. That’s the 11th 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 Prince George’s County Public Schools’ Blueprint Implementation Plan:
Strengths:
- Prince George’s County Public Schools has a comprehensive literacy plan, with support and interventions for struggling learners. The plan lays out clear expectations and action steps for educators to support student success. The district should examine additional ways to support young English language learners struggling with literacy.
- The district is strong at providing professional development for its teachers, including through expert-led workshops.
- Prince George’s County has a committee that helps find culturally responsive material for its diverse population. The district’s equity team has created a method to help teachers incorporate culturally responsive material into their lesson plans.
Needs improvement:
- Some of the district’s instructional materials don’t meet Blueprint standards.
- Prince George’s County should balance classes that focus on core academic skills with courses that offer applied and experiential learning to engage students.
- The district’s plan to help students who are falling behind needs to be refined. For example, the plan will need to address the district’s teacher shortage and the role it will play in helping these students.
- Despite innovative short-term solutions to address teacher shortages, such as utilizing consultants as teachers and partnership programs for professional development, long-term recruitment and support strategies are needed.
- The district needs to develop a recruitment and retention strategy for math teachers to successfully implement its math plan.
– Robert Stewart and Brendan Weissel