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Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) is a division of the
state government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonom ...
of
Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...
in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
. The agency oversees
public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...
school district A school district is a special-purpose district that operates local public primary and secondary schools in various nations. North America United States In the U.S, most K–12 public schools function as units of local school districts, w ...
s, which are 24 local school systems—one for each of Maryland's 23 counties plus one for Baltimore City. Maryland has more than 1,400 public schools in 24 public school systems, with 2019 enrollment of approximately 900,000. Of the student body, 42% are on FARMS (i.e., qualify for Free And Reduced Meals) and 22% are Title 1 (i.e., schools with high percentages of poor children). MSDE is led by the State Superintendent of Schools, and receives guidance from the Maryland State Board of Education. The agency is headquartered in downtown
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...
at 200 West Baltimore Street (off North Liberty Street/Hopkins Place, just west of
Charles Center Charles Center is a large-scale urban redevelopment project in central Baltimore's downtown business district of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Beginning in 1954, a group called the "Committee for Downtown" promoted a master plan for arresting th ...
) in the Nancy Grasmick Building.


School districts

The largest school districts in Maryland are:


History


1800s

The first superintendent of schools for the State of Maryland was authorized in the 1865, by the General Assembly of Maryland under the third and revolutionary/radical
Maryland Constitution of 1864 The Maryland Constitution of 1864 was the third of the four constitutions which have governed the U.S. state of Maryland. A controversial product of the Civil War and in effect only until 1867, when the state's present constitution was adopted, ...
ratified briefly under the Unionist / Radical Republican Party then in power in the state and nationally during the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...
(1861-1865) and continuing into the post-war
Reconstruction era The Reconstruction era was a period in American history following the American Civil War (1861–1865) and lasting until approximately the Compromise of 1877. During Reconstruction, attempts were made to rebuild the country after the bloo ...
of the late 1860s and into the 1870s. The new appointive office continued to be supplemented later with the creation of a State Board of Education to supervise the various levels of activity in public education among the various then 22 counties of Maryland (plus Baltimore City - an independent municipality recognized with the status of a county) which all had widely different situations from the
Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. The ...
and the Blue Ridge in the Western panhandle to the
Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the Eastern Shore of Maryland / ...
and adjacent rural counties of the southern portion of the "Free State" to the
Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augu ...
and the Eastern Shore (
Delmarva peninsula The Delmarva Peninsula, or simply Delmarva, is a large peninsula and proposed state on the East Coast of the United States, occupied by the vast majority of the state of Delaware and parts of the Eastern Shore regions of Maryland and Virginia. ...
) to the short
North Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...
coast. Several different funding levels and growing opportunities for the elementary/grammar schools, intermediate/junior high/middle schools and high schools/secondary education, with Baltimore City (public schools authorized by the state in 1826 and finally opened by the city in 1829 with first four schools (2 boys and 2 girls). In 1839, a
high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
opened for boys only, known first as "The High School"; it is the third oldest public high school in the United States, and the oldest in state. The high school later became known as the Male High School in 1844 with the opening then of two public high schools for girls, Eastern and
Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...
, then known as the "Central High School of Baltimore" since 1850 for near 20 years and finally renamed B.C.C. in 1868. Then rural sparsely populated
Baltimore County Baltimore County ( , locally: or ) is the third-most populous county in the U.S. state of Maryland and is part of the Baltimore metropolitan area. Baltimore County (which partially surrounds, though does not include, the independent City ...
instituted small one-room schools in wood-frame buildings beginning in the 1850s, supplementing the original colonial era "free schools" nominally established with only one in each of the counties. Baltimore County was second in the state with the first and only public high school in the newly purchased old Franklin Academy in
Reisterstown Reisterstown is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 25,968. Founded by German immigrant John Reister in 1758, Reisterstown is locate ...
becoming as Franklin High School in the 1850s. Followed by secondary schools in the
county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US ...
of
Towson Towson () is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The population was 55,197 as of the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Baltimore County and the second-most populous unincorp ...
as
Towson High School Towson High School is a high school in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States, founded in 1873. The school's current stone structure was built in 1949. Located in the northern Baltimore suburb of Towson and serving the surrounding communities ...
in 1873. A "Negro" / "Colored" (now African-American) elementary schools were authorized 1867, after a long controversy and public demand by the free black population of the, supplemented in 1883 by a "Colored High School" - second oldest in the nation next to Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C. Baltimore 's new secondary school for its large free blacks population grew to be a crowning academic/cultural and social achievement for the former slaves over the next decades. The "Colored High" was later renamed Frederick Douglass High School in 1925, recalling its earliest beginnings as the independent private Douglass Institute founded in 1865, immediately after the
Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...
on the 400 block of East Lexington Street, by Davis Street alley, on the north side around the corner from the
Battle Monument The Battle Monument, located in Battle Monument Square on North Calvert Street between East Fayette and East Lexington Streets in Baltimore, Maryland, commemorates the Battle of Baltimore with the British fleet of the Royal Navy's bombardment ...
from the
War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It be ...
. It was located between North Calvert and North Streets (later renamed Guilford Avenue) in the former Newton University adjacent townhouse buildings. Founded in the 1840s, Newton's buildings served as a hospital for
Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...
wounded in the recent strife. Former Baltimorean and escaped slave
Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became ...
himself presided over the dedication ceremonies in September 1865, and later frequently lectured at the Institute. The Institute endured 18 years until the establishment by the City Schools system with a small struggling high school after continuous pressure and campaign for African-American schooling opportunities. Then "polytechnical" / schools for "manual training" founded that same year of 1883, with the "Baltimore Manual Training School" (later renamed 1893 as the "
Baltimore Polytechnic Institute The Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, colloquially referred to as BPI, Poly, and The Institute, is a U.S. public high school founded in 1883. Established as an all-male manual trade / vocational school by the Baltimore City Council and the Balti ...
" ("Poly").


1900s

A second high school for Negroes was established in 1910 and in the next decade was renamed the Paul Laurence High School for East Baltimore. A new nationally popular lower form of
secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final ph ...
with
junior high schools A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school. ...
for lower grades 7, 8 and 9, were instituted in 1920. Supplementing the four academic citywide single sex schools, then were neighborhood comprehensive "co-educational" ("co-ed") high schools opened-1922, beginning with ( Forest Park High School in the northwest part of the city and later Southern High School by Federal Hill in old South Baltimore. New types of vocational-technical schools established in the 1920s, reorganized and reconstructed in 1955 with
Carver Vocational-Technical High School Carver Vocational-Technical High School – fully George Washington Carver Vocational-Technical High School – also known as Carver Vo-Tech, is a public vocational-technical high school located in the western part of Baltimore, Maryland, United ...
on Presstman Street in West Baltimore's
Sandtown-Winchester Sandtown-Winchester is a neighborhood in West Baltimore, Maryland. Known locally as Sandtown, the community's name was derived from the trails of sand that dropped from wagons leaving town after filling up at the local sand and gravel quarry back ...
neighborhood and followed by the merger of several previous vocational institutions and renamed as Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School on Hillen Road by Lake Montebello in the northeast city. The state's practice of segregated schools was ended by 1954, with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 that segregated schools violated the U.S. Constitution. The junior high schools were reorganized into
middle schools A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school. ...
lowered to include grades 6, 7, and 8 in the early 1980s and surrounding suburban
Baltimore County Baltimore County ( , locally: or ) is the third-most populous county in the U.S. state of Maryland and is part of the Baltimore metropolitan area. Baltimore County (which partially surrounds, though does not include, the independent City ...
also leading the way along with
Anne Arundel County Anne Arundel County (; ), also notated as AA or A.A. County, is located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 588,261, an increase of just under 10% since 2010. Its county seat is Annapolis, whi ...
to the south of the city. This slow growth of public education was later joined by Montgomery and Prince George's counties as the Washington, D.C. suburban region began reaching out into surrounding
Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...
following
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. By the 1970s, with the acceptance of various constitutional amendments to the old fourth and last / current 1867
Constitution of Maryland The current Constitution of the State of Maryland, which was ratified by the people of the state on September 18, 1867, forms the basic law for the U.S. state of Maryland. It replaced the short-lived Maryland Constitution of 1864 and is the four ...
, from the various articles and sections submitted to the voters in various referendums after the failure of the newly revised 1967 Constitution proposed by the recent 1966 constitutional convention which was held to modernize the old 1867 Civil War era state charter, contained provisions to set up an executive cabinet-level Department of Education for the State, along with the revamped structure of state government under the governorship of
Marvin Mandel Marvin Mandel (April 19, 1920 – August 30, 2015) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 56th Governor of Maryland from January 7, 1969, to January 17, 1979, including a one-and-a-half-year period when Lt. Governor Blair ...
, who reorganized the Maryland executive departments structure using the best of the 1966-1967 Constitutional elements by pushing them through "piece-meal" then passed by the General Assembly of Maryland (state legislature) of whom he was a long-time leader in the late 1960s and early 1970s.


Rankings

In 2009, the Maryland state public schools system was ranked #1 in the nation, overall, as a result of three separate, independent studies conducted by publications ''
Education Week ''Education Week'' is an independent news organization that has covered K–12 education since 1981. It is owned by Editorial Projects in Education (EPE), a nonprofit organization, and headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland in Greater Washington ...
'', ''
Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...
'', and ''MGT of America''. ''"
Education Week ''Education Week'' is an independent news organization that has covered K–12 education since 1981. It is owned by Editorial Projects in Education (EPE), a nonprofit organization, and headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland in Greater Washington ...
"'' has ranked Maryland public education #1 in the nation for two years in a row, since 2008. ''"
Education Week ''Education Week'' is an independent news organization that has covered K–12 education since 1981. It is owned by Editorial Projects in Education (EPE), a nonprofit organization, and headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland in Greater Washington ...
"'', the nation's leading education newspaper, looked at data in six critical categories over the past two years, and placed Maryland's state education system at the very top of national rankings. Maryland placed at the top of the list in ''"
Education Week ''Education Week'' is an independent news organization that has covered K–12 education since 1981. It is owned by Editorial Projects in Education (EPE), a nonprofit organization, and headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland in Greater Washington ...
"''’s annual “Quality Counts” tally, with the nation's only B+ average. The new report found that no other state has a more consistent record of excellence than Maryland. Results for the State were above average in all six of the broad grade categories, and ranked in the top seven in five of the six categories. According to ''"
Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...
"'' magazine, Maryland public schools rank first in the nation in the percentage of high schools offering—and students taking—college-level courses. The ''
College Board The College Board is an American nonprofit organization that was formed in December 1899 as the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB) to expand access to higher education. While the College Board is not an association of colleges, it runs a ...
'' ranked Maryland's public schools system, first in the nation amongst students earning a score of three or higher on national AP exams. The state budget for education was $5.5 billion in 2009.


School assessment

The ''Maryland School Assessment'' (MSA) is a test of reading and math meeting
NCLB The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) was a U.S. Act of Congress that reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act; it included Title I provisions applying to disadvantaged students. It supported standards-based education ...
requirements. Grades 3-8 are tested in math and reading, and grades 5 and 8 are tested in science. However, Maryland is field testing the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers this spring that are made specifically for the Common Core State Standards Initiative. Maryland plans to end usage of MSA and expand the PARCC Assessment the following year. Maryland substituted PARCC for the MCAP during SY 2018–2019.


Former superintendents

* Nancy Grasmick served as state superintendent of schools from 1991 to 2011. * Lillian M. Lowery served as superintendent of the department from 2012 until 2015. * Jack R. Smith served as interim Superintendent of the Department from 2015 until June 2016. * Karen Salmon served as superintendent of the department from May 2016 until June 2021


References


External links

*
Maryland Report Card
— MSDE public schools performance and data
2017 Maryland Report Card

Public Use Data for Download


at the
United States Department of Education The United States Department of Education is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. It began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was split into the Departmen ...

MDSE Division of Rehabilitation Services (DORS)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maryland State Department of Education Education, State Department of Education, State Department of State departments of education of the United States