Community Schools Key Practices
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The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future
FCPS is proud to implement the Community School strategy in our schools. The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, which focuses on equity and closing opportunity and achievement gaps, ensures the establishment, funding, and expansion of community schools. Identified schools receive a community coordinator who ensures that assets and needs of the community are used to ensure appropriate wraparound services are available in the community. Each school also receives a Community School nurse.
The goal of our community school is to ensure equitable and high-quality academic experience for every child. We work to proactively remove barriers and ensure that there are rich experiences for every child in our school. Our work is focused on the Key Practices in the diagram below.
FCPS Community Schools Provide More Support to Students Who Need it the Most
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Each school does a comprehensive and on-going asset/needs assessment using information gathered from students, families, staff and the community. The data from this asset/needs assessment drives the work of the community coordinator and determines the wraparound services that are implemented in each schools.
In summary, FCPS Community Schools are devoted to Ensuring Equity and Academic Excellence for Every Child, Every Day!
The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future
Initiatives identified in Pillar 1 address full day Pre-K at no- or reduced-cost for more families, public-private Pre-K partnerships to expand options for families, expansion of wraparound services for students and families through Judy Centers and Patty Centers, increased funding for the Maryland Infants and Toddlers Program to support students with special needs, and more funding dedicated to elevating the quality of student experiences in early childhood education.
The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future is elevating the stature of the teaching profession through the implementation of a career ladder, competitive salaries, including raising starting pay to $60,000, incentives for National Board Certified teachers up to $17,000, as well as raising expectations for teacher preparation, induction, and mentoring programs to attract and retain high-quality teachers.
The College and Career Readiness pillar sets a new College and Career Readiness (CCR) standard that prepares graduates for success in college and the workforce by ensuring they have the knowledge and skills to complete entry-level credit-bearing college courses and work in high-wage and high-demand industries. The Blueprint aims to have all students meet the CCR standard by the end of their 10th grade year, develops CCR-Support pathways to support students in meeting the standard, enables students to enter a Post-CCR pathway that builds on the student’s strengths, develops a Career and Technical Education system that is aligned with industry’s needs, and ensures that prekindergarten through 12th grade curriculum, standards, and assessments are all aligned with the new CCR standard.
Pillar 4 initiatives focus on strengthening wraparound services through the expansion of community schools, establishing the Maryland Consortium on Coordinated Community Supports, targeting supports for students and families based on differentiated need, establishing a workgroup on multilingual learners, and developing a funding formula based on a new measure of concentration of poverty.
The Governance and Accountability pillar focuses on ensuring successful implementation of the Blueprint. It creates Expert Review Teams to visit schools, understand implementation on the ground level, and share best practices in Maryland. The Governance and Accountability pillar also creates a new Accountability and Implementation Board to plan and monitor implementation of the Blueprint.