Maryland is right to shift focus of community school funding to academics

The Maryland State Department of Education recently proposed changes to the regulations that govern the Community Schools Program to place greater emphasis on investments that support teaching reading and math. This is crucial because children in these schools face significant challenges.

Research shows that 75% of children who don’t read at grade level by third grade never catch up. Reading becomes about learning to read and then reading to learn everything else. Missing this window means lifetime struggles with math, science, history and other subjects that depend on literacy. This change helps ensure that thousands of children, and teachers, receive additional support that complements the shift to Science of Reading classroom instruction.

More kids are showing up in Community Schools — there is strong data on this point, that represents significant systemic changes that address children’s readiness to learn.  That is a real success from the Blueprint’s investment in Community Schools.  But readiness isn’t the same as results. Now it’s time to build on that success.

The proposed changes to the regulation addresses academic outcomes head on. For the first time, it requires that at least 40% of Community Schools Program funds, whether spent by a district centrally or by an individual school, go toward what the regulation calls “Academic Improvement Strategies” tied to measurable literacy and math goals.

Every school receiving these funds will have to set at least one literacy goal and one math goal, track real indicators of progress, and report results annually. If a district shows no growth after two years, it has to submit a corrective action plan. We support this shift, and we think every parent, educator, and legislator in this state should understand why it matters.

That’s the test for everyone with a role to play this year.

Parents: Ask your community school how its Concentration of Poverty funds are being spent on reading (and math!). Under the new rule, every school has to be able to answer that question with a specific literacy goal and a specific number attached to it. At back-to-school night or your first PTA meeting, ask what that goal is and how the school will know if it’s working.

Districts: This regulation is an opportunity, not just a compliance exercise. Districts that lean into the 40% academic allocation — genuinely investing in coaching, tutoring, and evidence-based instruction rather than the minimum required — will see it show up in their scores. The public comment period is your chance to shape how this gets implemented locally. Use it.

Legislators: Community Schools represent one of the most notable investments in Maryland’s Blueprint for the Future. That’s real money, and this regulation is the state’s clearest statement yet that it should produce real reading gains, in addition to better attendance. Legislators should watch how reading scores respond from this shift and be ready to reinforce it — including through continued investment in the literacy coaching that helps schools actually deliver on the academic goals this regulation now requires.

None of this is complicated, but none of it is easy either. Wraparound support and academic instruction were never supposed to be an either/or — kids need both. What this regulation says is that Maryland is done treating them as separate goals. The next test is whether every community school, every district, and every parent treats them that way too.

The public comment period is now open.  This is the moment to weigh in — and the moment to start asking your own school what its literacy goal is.