Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS)
Professional Development & School Support
Project Goals:
In response to Baltimore City Public School System’s fiscal
year 2004 deficit and resulting state-mandated audit, Superintendent Bonnie
Copeland hired ERS to evaluate BCPS’s professional development program
in the context of a coherent district strategy for instructional improvement.
Funded by The MacArthur Foundation, the audit’s objective was to
jump-start the district’s professional development efforts, focusing
investment in areas most likely to improve teaching and learning.
Analysis & Findings
ERS analyzed Baltimore’s use of professional development
resources in coaching, planning, training, education, and induction by
school, program, and teacher. Through the analysis, ERS and Baltimore
discovered that:
- Despite expenditures of 6% of its operating budget on professional development, improvements could result from more consistent professional development spending across schools and teachers.
- Baltimore’s significant investment in coaching would have greater impact with parallel investments in planning, selection, and training.
- Stronger links should be made between new teacher induction and career development strategy and school-level improvment.
Recommendations & Next Steps
As a result of ERS’s work, Baltimore is redesigning its professional development system, focusing efforts at the school level and adding significant amounts of time to the daily schedule for teachers to learn collaboratively from each other in their efforts to raise student achievement in every classroom.
School-Level Resource Use:
Converting to Small High Schools
Project Goals & Findings
To help BCPSS consider the advantages and costs of converting large comprehensive high schools into smaller, more individualized learning environments, ERS provided Baltimore with a per pupil cost comparison of the two alternatives. Using actual teacher salaries, ERS determined a 4% increase in per pupil regular education costs when converting from comprehensive to smaller high schools. The slight increase was due to higher per pupil administrative costs associated with the lower student enrollment in small high schools.
Next Steps
Further analysis has been recommended in order for Baltimore to better understand the current level of funding for large, comprehensive high schools and to account for the special needs of students.
Maximizing Resources at the School Level
Project Goals & Findings
After investigating BCPSS’s school level resource use, ERS’s has identified the need to better track and report the actual resources used in schools, a critical component to giving schools more control over their own resource decisions. To help leaders at the building level maximize their existing resources, time, and personnel to improve instruction, ERS has identified site-level changes in resource use most likely to impact student performance, including:
- Shifting core teaching personnel to math and English
- Reducing choice of electives and schedule
- Teaching core content by special education teachers
- Offering fewer non-academic electives and teachers w/ innovative funding for non-academic courses
- Reassigning and reducing student support and administrative staff
- Locating teacher support staff at individual schools and holding them accountable for student performance
Implementing these changes will require negotiated changes in the contractual, legal, and political landscape surrounding schools.
Project Goals & Analysis
As the school system evolves from a set of homogenous schools to a “portfolio” of more varied schools, including small, city-wide, and charter schools, BCPSS must ensure that all students in the system are receiving appropriate funds. To establish that each school has the right level and mix of resources and the appropriate flexibility to use these resources effectively, ERS conducted an in-depth analysis of Baltimore’s allocation system and district-wide per pupil spending. The analysis sought to answer the following questions:
- How does district spending vary by student type?
- Is school funding adjusted for the needs of the student population?
- Is money allocated to schools equitably and strategically?
Findings & Next Steps
ERS’s analysis provided Baltimore with insights into per pupil spending. ERS identified drivers of spending differences at elementary, middle, and high school levels, which included school size and teacher salaries. Better integration of SWD services with regular education classrooms and service provision models that best serve students within the school system are two additional opportunities to even funding differences.
Baltimore is among the first districts in Maryland to implement charter schools and ERS’s work has helped BCPSS and the state determine funding levels for charter schools which reflect the student population and capture appropriate central costs.