We'll Be Back!

We’re taking a short hiatus this summer, but we’ll return in the fall with a refreshed quarterly newsletter.

EQUITY EXPRESS

June 2026

Director's Desk

The Blueprint for Maryland's Future, Part 1: From Promise to Practice

-Meria J. Carstarphen

As a former teacher, I know what it feels like to stand in front of students and want more for them than the system has made available. As a former superintendent, I know how difficult it is to move from big public commitments to daily implementation across schools, budgets, labor agreements, transportation systems, staffing models, and community expectations. And now, as I lead the National Center for the Elimination of Educational Disparities, I see the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future as one of the most important opportunities before us.

Keep Reading

Numbers That Matter:

The Blueprint for Maryland's Future, Part 2: Early Childhood Education

-Bill Caritj, Staff Writer

The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, passed by the Maryland General Assembly in 2021, calls for an increase of roughly $4 billion in funding over 10 years. Building on this month’s this month’s Director’s Desk article examining the key components and challenges of implementing the 235-page Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, we’re making a more in-depth examination of one component of this effort: Pillar 1, Early Childhood Education. The Blueprint’s Early Childhood Education pillar is designed to ensure that more children enter kindergarten ready to succeed academically and socially.

Using Evidence-Based Practice to Make Summer Professional Learning Matter

-Dr. Tajma Cameron, Assistant Professor, Science Education in the Dept. of Advanced Studies, Leadership & Policy and NCEED Research Faculty.

For me, summer professional learning matters most when it gives educators something the regular school year rarely offers: sustained time to reflect, learn, and change practice. Educators understand that meaningful and effective professional growth requires a commitment to examine evidence, study student work, collaborate with colleagues, and make purposeful adjustments that improve classroom instruction.

NCEED @ Work

Congratulations to NCEED’s Dr. Carstarphen and SEUS’s Dr. Valerie Riggs on the recent award of the Trustworthy AI in Law and Society (TRAILS) grant. Their project, High-Dosage Human-Enabled AI Tutoring to Build Trust in Using AI to Teach SoR with Young Learners, “uses high-dosage, human-enabled AI tutoring to increase the public’s comfort with and ability to use AI tools safely and to reduce uncertainty about AI’s roles and risks.”