U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings made the announcement today in an appearance before the Education Commission of the States conference in Austin, TX. Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio also received approval of their plans. Seventeen states applied for the program.

“The plans these (approved) states submitted speak to the fact that many were among the first to embrace data-based decision making and accountability,” Secretary Spellings said in making the announcement. “I’m hopeful that they will build on this progress by creating effective new strategies that we can share and take to scale.”

No Child Left Behind has required states to view all schools that missed performance targets in the same way, whether they underperformed in one category or many. The new pilot program allows selected states to take a broader view of schools in need of improvement. It will be implemented in the 2008-2009 school year.

“We’ve strongly supported the goals of No Child Left Behind, but we have never believed that its one-size-fits-all view of school improvement was a good thing for Maryland schools,” said State Superintendent of Schools Nancy S. Grasmick. “We are pleased to be part of this pilot program because each of our struggling schools has individual needs that are best served through targeted remedies.”

Maryland’s proposal categorizes schools in need of improvement in two ways: the Comprehensive Needs pathway and the Focused Needs pathway. Comprehensive Needs schools are those that do not make their progress targets in the “all students” category, or are having difficulty making targets in three or more subgroups. Focused Needs schools have achieved targets in the “all students” category but have not achieved targets in one or two subgroup areas.

If these categories are applied to the state’s 2007 list of schools in need of improvement, approximately six in 10 of the 233 schools would fall under the “Comprehensive” group; four in 10 under “Focused.” MSDE officials believe the latter category could grow, as about 90 percent of schools that did not make their progress goals for the first time in 2007 did so because of more focused needs.

In addition, Maryland’s plan will refer to schools in the first three years of school improvement as schools in the “developing stage,” while schools in the later years are in the “priority stage” in both the Comprehensive and the Focused pathways.

The Focused Needs pathway will allow school systems to attend to the specific needs of each school in that group. For example, a school missing their progress goals—known as Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)—in just special education may need more targeted academic interventions than a school underperforming in several categories.

Maryland’s plan also will require systems with schools missing AYP to begin their interventions as early as the first year. Although schools that miss for one year are not subject to any sanctions under No Child Left Behind, MSDE officials believe that data patterns in certain subgroup areas may have emerged over several years that could allow the system to make adjustments that will help the school avoid falling into any improvement category.

In addition, the plan focuses greater attention on school leadership for struggling schools. By strengthening the principal and reemphasizing his or her role as instructional leader, MSDE expects greater improvement in the academic success of the school.

MSDE will continue its commitment to strong parental options through high-quality Supplemental Education Services (SES), which offer tutoring and other services to students at Title I schools. Maryland has the nation’s highest participation rate in SES, which has reached 68 percent across the state.