Rebuilding, Revitalizing, and Reimagining Maryland Education: Reflections on Leading for Transformation, Equity, and Student Success

When I stepped into the role of State Superintendent in 2021, the state was grappling with the complexities of reopening schools post-pandemic amidst years of declining student achievement. Our mission and mandate were clear: to revitalize and reimagine the department’s infrastructure, invest in our staff, and drive systemic change to elevate Maryland’s educational landscape in the Blueprint era, especially for students and communities whose needs, struggles, and voices have been systematically marginalized for decades and often buried within the affluent averages of the state.

This involved calling attention to longstanding inequities and ugly practices occurring in broad daylight with bold proposals for how to tackle them. This included kickstarting conversations and initiatives on how to disrupt persistent levels of segregation and accelerate achievement (see proposed Promise Schools legislation testimony and Maryland's federally approved Fostering Diverse Schools plan).

Upon my arrival, my administration undertook the vital work of investing in our staff at all levels and rebuilding the department's infrastructure, both of which had experienced years of neglect. This included diversifying the leadership core to reflect the demographics of our student population for the first time and establishing a culture that elevated diverse voices and equitable resource allocation, resulting in over 60 promotions among the existing staff. We also reengaged and brought back highly respected staff in our operations teams who had left the department predating my tenure, while also recruiting practitioners with proven track records of excellence from across the state and nationally. Additionally, we provided significant raises to our lowest-wage staff in essential positions, resulting in near-zero vacancies in crucial positions in the Division of Early Childhood and the Rehabilitation Services. While other large, complex agencies kept seeing rising attrition rates and vacancies after the statewide hiring freeze was lifted, MSDE experienced the opposite during my tenure.

Our efforts led to the lowest vacancy rate in a decade, significantly cutting attrition and increasing retention to the highest point in years. We invested in our existing staff in an unprecedented manner, as highlighted by decades-long career staff at the Division of Rehabilitation Services, and brought in top diverse talent, including highly accomplished principals from high-poverty schools across the state who never would have considered their ability to have an impact through the department. My administration was on track to reduce the department's vacancies to nearly zero while adding new positions by the end of my term. Our success was so notable that some who once advocated for swift hiring began suggesting a slowdown, as the state had historically relied on the department's inability to effectively recruit, fill, and retain talent to manage costs.

We also significantly elevated and expanded our teaching and learning content teams, integrating both existing staff and new members, some of whom I personally recruited, to ensure a greater impact. These teams are distinguished by their wealth of talent, unwavering belief in our mission, and steadfast commitment to effective practice. Some of my favorite moments with the content teams during my week were when we asked, "What schools have you recently visited? What did you learn that we need to scale statewide? Or what do we need to do to help them get better?" I am hopeful that the proactive presence and elevated expectations we brought will continue to ensure that the department is actually on the ground in schools across the state, driving significant improvements and accelerating student learning.

By prioritizing investment in our staff at all levels, we unlocked the potential to achieve remarkable outcomes for our students and stakeholders while raising expectations for excellence. Our focus on our people allowed us to revitalize and reimagine our infrastructure, addressing longstanding issues. For example, we corrected over 20 invalid contracts, some of which had lingered for multiple years, ensuring that none remained by the end of my term. We resolved a backlog of over 3,000 invoices, revamped outdated financial and procurement processes, and implemented a new core-services model to set up our program teams for success, significantly enhancing financial and operational efficiency across the agency. We initiated, fought for, and secured significant infrastructure improvements and investments in our people with urgency and in an unprecedented manner. I am immensely proud of this achievement, as it sets up future administrations for success, and I hope that this energy and focus persist.

This work was in tandem with launching Maryland’s first-ever statewide education strategic plan, Maryland Transforms, developed with unprecedented statewide engagement and unanimously adopted by the state board, which will serve as a roadmap for student success for years to come. Our strategic initiatives, such as the Maryland Leads program, spurred significant innovations in our school systems to mitigate the pandemic's impact, narrow opportunity gaps, and accelerate long-term, evidence-based changes to boost student learning. These programs focused on literacy, teacher diversity and retention, reimagining the use of time, and support for high-needs campuses.

Maryland Leads was more than just a one-time investment; it was a series of strategic investments carefully designed to enable high-leverage shifts and supports across all our schools, raising our game at the department in how we moved and supported our school systems. These investments will have a lasting impact, laying the foundation for success in critical areas of the Blueprint for years to come (see here for Maryland local superintendents reflecting on the profound impact Maryland Leads is having on their systems).

We also implemented transformative reforms, including the Maryland Works and Maryland Tutoring Corps programs, designed to foster strategic partnerships throughout the state to close opportunity gaps. The $12.2 million Maryland Works program, the largest statewide investment in registered apprenticeships for high school students to date, has already doubled opportunities in just nine months, surpassing benchmarks. These initiatives are addressing post-pandemic challenges and future needs, earning recognition from federal leaders as exemplary models for leveraging pandemic funding for lasting educational impact. I was proud to see MSDE staff and the governor invited by federal leaders and Congress to events to discuss the promise and impact of these initiatives.

Furthermore, my administration spearheaded significant reforms to the Child Care Scholarship (CCS) program, fundamentally transforming its accessibility and effectiveness. Recognizing the burdensome and outdated practices that had long hindered both providers and parents, we prioritized overhauling the program to better meet the needs of Maryland’s families. We initiated and led the successful implementation of critical reforms in the administration of the CCS program, resulting in a nearly 40% increase in the number of participants and an 11% increase in providers, reducing the time tax on families who need it the most. In fact, this very work compelled a significant and historic level of investment by the governor in the CCS program during this past budget cycle.

In addition to revamping existing programs, we launched the Maryland Rebuilds program, focusing on six transformative strategies to make critical investments in early learning. Two standout efforts include the Maryland Early Ed Corps, addressing teacher shortages in child care deserts, and developing a rigorous validation process for career child care practitioners' experience through prior learning assessments, ensuring their expertise is recognized and utilized. I was inspired to see that our efforts took further shape this past legislative session, opening multiple pathways to validate the preparation of educators, course-correcting a key aspect of the Blueprint, and elevating the crucial role that induction plays. It is long overdue that we leverage a multiple assessment approach not only in assessing student learning and potential but also in teacher licensure.

We brought a renewed and elevated focus to improving low-performing schools and expanded the department's approach to school improvement—an area that had long been neglected, with the same schools repeatedly appearing on underperforming lists. This focused approach ensures that, alongside support on the ground level and during the Blueprint era, the very best of the department's assistance shines through in these campuses. By working to implement high-quality practices and provide targeted support, we shifted the school improvement process from a compliance-driven exercise to a performance-driven approach, breaking down internal silos and ensuring that the department's and school systems' assets converge effectively.

I'll say it here once again: pick the lowest performing school in every school system in the state, and if opportunity gaps aren't narrowed and student learning doesn't improve year over year, then it is necessary to reevaluate whether the historical investment and promises of the Blueprint as written and interpreted are sufficient. If not, strategies need to be reconsidered and enhanced. The strength of our education system is measured by our most struggling students and schools, and that is not something that should take ten, let alone five, years to determine.

We also reengaged with the Maryland General Assembly, cutting across party lines, reestablishing MSDE as a proactive thought leader. Our collaborative efforts resulted in the introduction of significant solutions, including the bold proposal of the Promise Schools bill, a Legislative Black Caucus priority, to support and transform low-performing schools, and the Multilingualism is an Asset Act, endorsed by nearly half of the Democratic caucus. Maryland can make a significant impact by scaling dual language immersion programs early for its multilingual learners, the fastest growing student group, guaranteeing that all students across the state benefit from these programs. Multilingual learners will play a critical role in determining the success of the Blueprint. It's crucial for the state to establish these optimal learning environments now, rather than realizing their importance too late. These proposals and others did not happen by chance but required intensive and meaningful engagement from my team and myself.

Even when natural tensions surfaced on single-issue topics like upholding comprehensive health education for all students or the legitimate suspension of a constituent's child care facility, they were addressed with dignity and respect, anchored in empirical evidence. This consistent approach prevailed despite broader post-pandemic adult ideological divides and bad faith efforts to contrive crises in public education. I was proud to see that during this past legislative session, our emphasis on Grow Your Own initiatives through Maryland Leads resulted in the state's formal commitment to maintaining these crucial programs, aiming to build a high-quality and diverse teaching workforce. This level of dedication underscored our commitment to informed policymaking and evidence-based solutions that directly sought to impact student populations who have been systematically marginalized for decades.

It is also true that during my tenure, I faced resistance from individuals determined to protect their self-interests and the status quo, even as the Blueprint era called for significant changes and improvements. This resistance was calculated to undermine progress and, for a select few, it was an exercise in opportunism. Amidst achieving uncommon levels of progress on a glass cliff, prompting an unprecedented renewal period, it becomes evident that this endeavor was about something else entirely. For the same handful of profiles reappearing obsessively, over and over again, cruelty is the point.

In this environment, where malicious and false narratives are concocted, it's unfortunate that these distortions overshadow opportunities for good faith and intellectually honest reflection. This persistent negativity impedes genuine progress and detracts from the impact of the work we undertook. Such stories, unfortunately, do not make for clickbait in the end, especially when their intent is already predetermined.

However, my administration remained committed to bold action, transparency, and collaboration, consistently striving to improve and innovate beyond the status quo. As a leader taking on a challenge in a space that has historically lacked meaningful levels of diversity in leadership and decision-making, where “brilliance” often needs to be proven repeatedly, I consistently navigated entrenched and competing adult interests while staying true to what is best for our students.

To go even a step further, another nuance not adequately captured in the public sphere is that my administration built a Blueprint Implementation Plan development process that set the foundation for implementing its promises and, to this day, remains a core driver of Blueprint implementation. In addition to launching strategic programs to set up the Blueprint for success, we purposefully designed an implementation structure that ensures essential, evidence-based practices across all five pillars. This includes crucial, foundational practices not addressed by the Blueprint, such as requiring all our systems to train their existing instructional core in best in class literacy practices and ensuring implementation fidelity through addressing critical questions grounded in practitioners' experiences.

If there is one last recommendation I would provide to Maryland stakeholders, it is to also heed my administration's proposals on the concept of Blueprint Milestones and how best to ensure the right levels of accountability, urgency, and support for progress. Initiative fatigue and performative acts in education reform too often divert focus from what school systems and educators truly need are real phenomena. We must be vigilant in fighting against this. If school systems are able to truly fulfill their plans in the adopted template and all supports are geared towards helping them realize it with unwavering fidelity, then amazing things can happen for students at scale. Maryland already has what it needs to ensure accountability and urgent progress if it chooses to activate it.

My administration made it a priority to be accessible in an authentic manner to staff at all levels, partners, and stakeholders across the state. Leading the development of the Maryland Transforms strategic plan, we gathered feedback from nearly 30,000 Marylanders, held dozens of roundtables, and hosted forums attended by nearly 7,000 educators, parents, students, and community members statewide. As an executive leader, I prioritized open communication with stakeholders and decision-makers throughout the state. Many of these leaders engaged me directly across multiple platforms, reflecting the value they placed on personal interactions. I always ensured my responsiveness, believing that such commitment is essential for all leaders.

At the same time, we prioritized expanding the tent of voices, to a fault, who had access to the department and my time, including individuals and communities whose work was rooted in the actual realities in our schools but had been left out of the halls of power. For example, our Blueprint Workgroup on English Learners set a new standard and playbook for engaging and serving multilingual learners and their families in the state, ensuring their accelerated success.

Our dedication to transparency and responsiveness was not performative but was reflected in our consistent and tangible actions, even in the face of unfounded and bad faith efforts to undermine accessibility. This process included hours and hours of dialogue with stakeholders across the state, some of my favorite moments during my time outside of shadowing students. We also modernized our websites and messaging platforms to promote greater engagement by offering clearer, more accessible, and user-friendly resources for all stakeholders, thereby elevating our standards for open records. We elevated the department's transparency and responsiveness to a level that stood out above the rest, earning recognition for our efforts.

We committed to building service level agreements not just for our external customers but also for our staff, creating a framework where none existed before. This effort included breaking down historical silos within our divisions to enhance how we engaged with one another, fostering a more collaborative and efficient environment.

This also meant establishing rigorous standards in grantmaking and impact reporting, leading to awards being distributed to a more diverse array of organizations, thus enhancing diversity among recipients racially, regionally, and more. Upon discovering that the department couldn't annually track the percentage of grant recipients meeting their goals, we worked to directly address approaches that had previously led to ineffective levels of impact. To resolve persistent audit findings predating my administration and work towards consistent, high-quality outcomes across all grant initiatives, we established clear expectations for benchmarking rubrics, goal setting, customer service, and performance monitoring. Stakeholders should genuinely wonder why, for example:

• What was the impact of Maryland's $45 million federal Striving Readers Comprehensive Literacy program, which began in 2017 and touched over 1,000 schools?
• Why do certain historical, recurring grant programs not achieve their intended impact year after year, yet continue to be funded in the same manner? And what has been the academic return on investment for the strategies that continue to receive funding compared to those that don't?
• Why do some grant programs go fully unspent year after year, and what can new administrations do to prevent this and recoup lost funds despite inherited inefficiencies? I was glad to see some suddenly focus on a subset of the Perkins program in my final months, despite years of returned funds predating my tenure across multiple programs. I hope this attention persists. (Note: If you are genuinely interested, here's what actually happened with that Perkins subset and what we did about it as part of our larger efforts to implement highly effective grantmaking practices).
• Why do highly tenured teachers remain largely absent from schools with large concentrations of minority students, even within the same school system, and what proactive measures are being taken by the state to address this issue? Additionally, why are Nationally Board Certified teachers underrepresented year after year in high-poverty schools across the state, and what has been the impact on student learning from this big bet made by the Blueprint? Again, I point stakeholders back to our Promise Schools and Maryland Neighborhood Tiers proposals that were designed to tackle this pervasive issue head on (Note: Under ESSA, state and district plans are supposed to ensure that poor and minority students aren’t being taught by a disproportionate number of ineffective or inexperienced teachers).

Throughout my career, I have been inspired by the dedication of educators and administrators who challenge the status quo to support students. The students relying on us the most do not have the luxury of time. If we, as leaders, delay addressing systemic issues and broken foundations, we miss the chance to propel an entire generation of students forward. My belief in this urgency is unwavering, and I expect the professionals I lead to share this conviction.

While there is still much more work to be done, Maryland’s post-pandemic achievement gains have outpaced much of the nation. In the 2022-2023 school year, growth and proficiency rates in English Language Arts reached the highest point in a decade across nearly all student groups. A significant number of students made upward progress towards proficiency, with many demonstrating that they are more than capable of thriving in college and career readiness pathways such as apprenticeships and dual credit opportunities.

It's overdue that Maryland prioritize postsecondary pathways such as early college high schools for students who are historically underserved, without regard to any form of tracking, as demonstrated by several states already further along on this approach. Looking beyond a single cut-off point on a test, many students are showing they have the ability to persist and succeed through college, highlighting the urgent need for the state to break from its inequitable dependence on tracking at scale. With the right just-in-time supports, these students challenge the misleading racket of the failure narrative. Our educators are better at preparing students than the prevailing narrative suggests, especially when considering the conditions and support they have been given.

Our standard-setting rigorous study on college and career readiness, along with best in class innovations in remedial education nationally, has validated what is possible. My hope is that Maryland refines the recently adopted college and career readiness standard by incorporating the Inclusive Standard from the study, which is a more accurate predictor of student success and potential. Without this refinement, a significant number of students will be short-changed and trapped in irrelevant and detrimental tracks.

I am hopeful that this past school year, a NAEP testing year, will show continued growth. However, the real challenge is whether the rate of progress can be maintained and even accelerated. This will require the department to continue its commitment to being strategically on the ground, supporting school systems and schools. And again, the question remains: will Maryland seriously require its school systems to set rigorous growth targets tied to accountability consequences, or will it continue to kick this can down the road?

At the same time, there needs to be an elevated and relentless focus on building support systems and social capital for students to persist and succeed in college and career readiness pathways, mitigating the effects of concentrated poverty and segregation. It is not enough for students to merely be proficient based on outdated singular measures that limit their access and fail to accurately capture their potential and abilities.

I am proud to have been entrusted to lead the department during a critical period of rebuilding, revitalizing, and reimagining. Working to transform its infrastructure and attend to essential operational and programmatic matters that have been neglected for decades, all while centering the needs of students, especially Black, brown, and students living in poverty, is the kind of work I have dedicated my entire career to.

I am grateful to the state board members who brought me on and authentically engaged with me, allowing us to work boldly and effectively together. Their mandate, support, and firm belief in the true independence of the department to put the needs of students first enabled us to tackle a challenge that I consider a privilege and honor. Recognizing that success would depend on foundational investments, we enabled the launch of critical programs in teaching and learning. One such initiative was a new statewide framework for high-quality instructional materials, which is ahead of its time and rooted in rigorous research rather than what is in vogue with market dynamics. This forward-thinking approach allowed us to look beyond the Blueprint to ensure its success and achieve long-term, sustainable advancements in educational practices. Most of all, we reestablished a department that is once again seen as a proactive force positively shaping what happens in every classroom across Maryland, ensuring its presence on the ground and supportive hand in every region of the state.

In this work, I have learned that it is not enough to center student interests, uphold evidence-based practices with fidelity, and and prioritize equity. One must also make adult compromises that will test your values, resolve, and your why. Even when you take the right course of action, you may be deemed wrong by some, especially when reforming long-standing, ineffective, and irresponsible practices with vested interests, or when it is politically convenient. You may be expected to apologize for these actions or even be blamed for entrenched issues, including manufactured ones, that existed before your tenure and are not your doing. These circumstances could be exploited against you as a leader, all while having to address them on a tight timeline.

James Baldwin precisely stated, "Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." Confronting entrenched issues head-on, even in the face of resistance and vitriol, is essential for driving meaningful change.

These adult tensions and "battles" will ultimately shape your tenure in a place. As a leader, you must navigate this complexity, particularly within dueling governance structures prone to adult interests and power struggles that have nothing to do with students' needs or your capabilities. One must be ready to navigate relationships where support is transactional and contingent on self-interest, shifting with the winds of convenience. In this complex landscape of large-scale transformation, adult agendas and contrived premises can overshadow empirical evidence, while common missteps in leadership can also be treated as sins. One must decide what their threshold for these compromises is and understand that the standard in which you operate will be a playing field that is much different and more challenging.

Given these dynamics, building social capital is essential—cultivating relationships with people who truly care for your well-being and have your back when it truly matters, especially when facing bad faith tactics due to what you represent and stand for. And even then, as W. Edwards Deming wisely noted, "A bad system will beat a good person every time."

I am especially proud of working to reignite the untapped potential and passion of our career staff at all levels, and of revitalizing the department's purpose and mission in a meaningful and enduring manner. I am proud of working with a MSDE team that approached our work with integrity and focus. We did our work to enable critical shifts in teaching, learning, and systemic infrastructure practices, setting the state on the path to realizing enduring impact. By building foundations that drive these changes, we aimed to realize equitable success for systemically marginalized students on a large scale. The lessons I've learned in these challenges are ones I will carry with me, preparing me for the next meaningful fires and challenges worth running into.

If you made it this far, I appreciate you taking the time to read my reflection. During my classroom days in Pico-Union in Los Angeles, I had the honor of serving middle schoolers who constantly questioned and challenged the perceptions crafted about them, their communities, and their potential. They taught me the invaluable lesson of critical media literacy. We should all engage with information thoughtfully and empirically, just as they did.

I leave you with reflections by some of the stakeholders who I have had the privilege and honor of serving and working with during my tenure in Maryland. These insights come from dedicated MSDE staff, the chairs of the Black and Latino Caucuses, local school systems, student and parent leaders, and grassroots advocates and coalitions representing the voices of marginalized communities. Their perspectives offer compelling examples of how my administration rebuilt, revitalized, and reimagined education in Maryland.

By centering a state agency on the needs of students, investing in our staff, and driving meaningful change across multiple complex work streams, we focused on transformation, equity, and student success. This approach ensured that our efforts not only immediately addressed the challenges of the post-pandemic era but also tackled entrenched issues, laying the groundwork for sustainable, long-term success at scale, especially for systematically marginalized students. I will forever be rooting for Maryland's students and educators, and MSDE.