In the federal Race to the Top competition, Maryland was one of twelves states to receive a large infusion of cash in exchange for committing to drastic improvements.  Last week, Maryland was flagged as one of three states who lagged behind its program implementation in the last two years, mainly with regard to overhauling its educator evaluation system.  Washington D.C. was also flagged.  According to the Sun,

USDE officials said that with the appointment of new State Superintendent Lillian Lowery — who started her post in July — they were hopeful the state would catch up.   “The new team knows they have to move things pretty dramatically,” a department official said, adding that the state has very quickly gotten back on track.

Officials also noted that the state has seen significant success in the last two years on areas such as transitioning to the common core standards, building better data systems, targeting interventions at its lowest-performing schools, enhancing its science, technology, engineering and mathematics curriculum, and working toward greater accountability for charter schools.

Superintendent Lowery was quoted in the Sun as saying, “Maryland’s primary goal with Race to the Top has been improved student learning, and we are starting to see the fruits of this labor . . This is a mid-term report, and the fact is our project is well into Year 3 at this point.  We have made further strides since this report was completed.”

The full article is available here.