PGCPS presents academic achievement update; board presses on attendance, writing and expansion of tutoring

Prince George's County Public Schools leaders presented a data‑focused briefing at the April 10, 2025 Board of Education work session that highlighted modest literacy gains, stronger benchmark growth in mathematics and ongoing efforts to reduce chronic absenteeism and expand high‑impact tutoring.

"We have shown a steady increase...about 3 percentage points across all of our grade levels" on DIBELS, said Jamie Bowers of the district's accountability division, describing DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) as the universal screener used for kindergarten through third grade. Bowers said the district is monitoring subtests where students have been persistently below benchmark (phonemic awareness in kindergarten; letter sounds and nonsense‑word fluency in grade 1; fluency in grade 2; comprehension in grade 3).

Ben Levinger of the Office of Monitoring and Accountability framed the attendance challenge and its academic consequences: "Chronic absenteeism is defined as just being absent for 10% or more of the school days that you are supposed to attend a school." He reported a small increase in elementary chronic absenteeism (from roughly 28% to 32%) and a five‑point improvement in middle school (24% to 19%), and showed the strong correlation between chronic absence and lower course grades (a cited example: roughly 30% failing rates among chronically absent high‑school students versus about 6% among students attending most days).

Superintendent House and Chief Academic Officer Dr. Judy White said the district is embedding interventions into the school day rather than offering them only outside regular instruction. "The interventions are actually within the curriculum day," Dr. White said, noting partnerships and vendor programs currently used in classrooms. Presenters named current tools and partnerships: Amplify (elementary literacy tutoring, cited in the briefing as active in 48 schools), Carnegie (math tutoring), Pear Deck (on‑demand tutoring), plus district monitoring and professional development to improve teachers' assessment literacy and intervention fidelity.

Board members pressed for sharper evidence of what works. Board Member Moss urged the district to focus on how gains seen in kindergarten are or are not sustained in first grade; Dr. White and literacy staff said that rising standards and administration timing can make mid‑year comparisons misleading and committed to reporting end‑of‑year DIBELS results. Several members asked about the district's process for evaluating vendors and interventions: Dr. White said the district checks whether schools use programs with the prescribed frequency and duration and will discontinue products that fail to meet fidelity or impact markers.

Writing performance on benchmarks received concentrated attention. Board members pointed to high percentages of students scoring "0" on online benchmark writing items in third and fourth grades. Assessment staff said many zeros represent students who did not enter a written response or responses that did not meet rubric thresholds, and pledged to return with disaggregated data showing attempted responses versus non‑responses.

On tutoring standards, board members urged a uniform definition of "high‑impact tutoring" for outside partners. Dr. White said the district has issued a request for proposals to identify a small set of vendors that meet the district's high‑impact criteria and that the RFP process is intended to be in place for the 2025–26 school year.

Several board members raised questions about human capital and teacher supports. Chief Dr. Baldwin and staff described Pillar 2 work on recruitment and retention, including incentives for nationally board‑certified teachers; presenters cited additional stipends for specific placements and support for teachers pursuing national certification.

Public commenters framed the community stakes before the presentation. Timothy Meyer, president of the Mount Rainier Elementary PTO, urged the district and community to "tell the PGCPS story" to protect blueprint funding and to align advocacy with teacher unions and statewide coalitions. An individual speaker, Terry Johnson, gave a personal account alleging she had been shifted into help‑desk duties and questioned her ability to compete for other district IT roles; the board did not respond during public comment.

District staff committed to follow‑up material requested by the board, including end‑of‑year DIBELS results, a breakdown of writing zeros, intervention fidelity data, and details about the tutoring RFP and vendor standards. The briefing concluded with no formal actions or votes; Chair Brandon Jackson adjourned the work session at 6:41 p.m.

Next steps: board members and staff said they will receive the additional data and return the topic to a future meeting as budget and implementation decisions are developed.