News briefs: State school board retains firm for superintendent search, legislative work group meeting canceled

The Maryland State Board of Education announced Monday that it has hired a firm to begin a national search for the next state superintendent of schools.

Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates (HYA), an Illinois based firm that has conducted searches for various school systems in Maryland, was retained for $53,000 on a contract that runs through June.

The firm’s search team will be led by Monique Brown, a former superintendent of schools in New Jersey; Henry Johnson Jr., former assistant state superintendent of curriculum, assessment and accountability in the Maryland Department of Education; and Jack Smith, former interim superintendent of Maryland public schools.

The firm will work alongside the school board’s search committee to help recruit and vet qualified candidates and to engage with local school leaders, parents and other stakeholders.

Foremost among the duties of the person chosen to be state superintendent — during a four-year term that runs from July 1 through June 30, 2028 — will be overseeing a public school system of nearly 890,000 students and leading efforts on the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform plan.

“The State Board is pleased to take the next steps in the process of identifying an exceptional State Superintendent of Schools for the next four years,” board Vice President Joshua Michael, who chairs the board’s search committee, said in a statement. “We look forward to partnering with HYA to engage stakeholders across Maryland and source top candidates through a rigorous selection process. The State Board remains steadfast in selecting a state chief who is prepared to lead improvement in public schools and steward the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future.”

Carey Wright, who became interim superintendent Oct. 23, has said she plans to apply for the position.

No specific timeline has been set on any public meetings, but a board spokesperson said the board and the firm will “move forward with stakeholder engagement” in January.

The board’s next meeting is scheduled for Jan. 23.

Legislative work group meeting canceled

Because no one registered to provide live testimony at a legislative work group public hearing Wednesday, it has been canceled.

The Program Approval Process Workgroup, created to assess Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC) policies for approving academic programs, discussed recommendations last week in Annapolis. Among them was that the commission update its guidance on program duplication, submit a report on a higher education institutions’ mission statements to three legislative committees and create a “collaborative fund” for higher education institutions to tap when establishing new graduate degree programs.

Although no online meeting will be held Wednesday, the work group did receive 30 pages of written comments.

Representatives of Johns Hopkins University (JHU) submitted a 28-page report that include an executive summary, history and background on the commission and a summary of how other states “embrace comment periods [and] not objection processes.”

In the document — signed by Johns Hopkins President Ronald J. Daniels, Provost Ray Jayawardhana and Maria Harris Tildon, vice president of government, community and economic partnerships — the school makes five recommendations to improve the commission’s process for approving academic programs:

• Align goals of program review with students’ and the state’s interests.
• Adopt a streamlined program review process and eliminate barriers to innovation.
• Back growth for Maryland institutions of higher education by supporting programs that compete across state lines and draw students regionally, nationally and globally.
• Make the commission’s processes and procedures transparent, predictable, timely and evidence-based.
• Elevate the role of data, particularly regarding the workforce, in the process.

“We believe these changes are necessary to ensure that Maryland institutions can compete and succeed in the increasingly complex, national and global higher education environment,” states the JHU document. “MHECs current program approval process is well-intended but fundamentally flawed. The program duplication standard, in particular, has demonstrably harmed program growth in Maryland while failing to achieve its stated goal to promote equitable outcomes for Maryland’s HBIs (historically Black institutions).”

The University System of Maryland (USM) submitted nearly two pages of written testimony with suggestions including that the commission review mission statements at the same time that institutions undergo accreditation review by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and that schools be required to submit a letter of intent (LOI) rather than a two-year academic plan for the commission to review when considering approval.

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