Sec. 13a.01.06.04. Requirements — Educational Equity in Maryland

A. The Maryland State Department of Education shall establish systems of structure and support for school systems, students, teachers, and other stakeholders that ensure educational equity and excellence.

B. Each local school system shall develop an educational equity policy and regulations, to be reviewed every 3 years, with the goal of providing educational equity to all students.

C. The policy and regulations shall:

(1) Be designed to create and maintain environments that are equitable, fair, safe, diverse, and inclusive;

(2) Be based on the goal of providing educational equity for all students;

(3) Direct the identification and utilization of resources to provide equitable access to educational opportunities and services, by among other steps, the use of disaggregated student data to analyze trends and identify gaps and equitable solutions;

(4) Identify partnerships with the Maryland State Department of Education, local government agencies, and stakeholders to support educational equity;

(5) Provide tailored and differentiated professional learning to build capacity for cultural responsiveness to address areas of inequity identified by the school system;

(6) Ensure equitable access to effective teachers for all students;

(7) Require that an equity lens be used in all staff recruiting, hiring, retention, and promotion processes;

(8) Require that an equity lens be used in reviews of staff, curriculum, pedagogy, professional learning, instructional materials, and assessment design;

(9) Provide the access and opportunity for all students to successfully read on level by the end of grade 2;

(10) Direct that equity be addressed in the Local Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Consolidated Strategic Plan;

(11) Identify the school system’s process for analyzing data to develop goals, objectives, strategies, and timelines for the implementation of equitable and culturally competent practices in each school;

(12) Identify the method of evaluation to measure the effect of equitable practices in the school system and schools; and

(13) Designate an individual responsible for the facilitation, monitoring, and implementation of the system equity initiatives within the Local ESSA Consolidated Strategic Plan.