Reports
The Fund regularly publishes reports that combine strong analytics with community input to address some of the most pressing problems facing our students.
The Fund’s newest report Should I Stay or Should I Go? Retaining the Teachers Baltimore City Students Need, examines teacher burnout, retention and recruitment in City Schools. Through in-depth interviews with a demographically representative sample of 202 current City Schools teachers and nine former teachers from 100 of the 164 schools in the district, the Fund learned about educators’ working conditions, what makes the job difficult, and what they love most about teaching. The report culminates with recommendations from teachers and the Fund for Educational Excellence to improve conditions and retain and recruit the educators Baltimore City students need.
Recent Reports Include:
Should I Stay or Should I Go? Retaining the Teachers Baltimore City Students Need examines teacher burnout, retention and recruitment in City Schools. Through interviews with a demographically representative sample of over 200 City Schools teachers, the Fund learned about educators’ working conditions, what makes the job difficult, and what they love most about teaching. For more on Should I Stay or Should I Go?, visit ffee.org/teacherretentionstudy.
NOT IN SERVICE: Why Public Transit Must Aim To Serve Students examines how students experience public transportation in Baltimore and the implications that experience has for their academic and career opportunities. For more on NOT IN SERVICE, visit ffee.org/not-in-service/.
Broken Pathways: The Cracks in Career and Technical Education in Baltimore City Public Schools reveals an inflexible construct lacking promised hands-on experiences and career advising, and makes practical, specific recommendations for restructuring CTE to better support student success.
Calculated Choices: Equity and Opportunity in Baltimore City Public Schools pairs analysis of access to advanced academic programs in the middle grades – and the implications for high school admission – with student and parent perspectives on public school choice in Baltimore City. What students and parents want in their schools – and how they find the right school fit – mirrors the reality of inequitable access on the ground.
Building a Bright Future: Understanding College Readiness in Baltimore City Public Schools takes a close look at college readiness in Baltimore City. From conversations with 225 individuals, we found that for our students, college-readiness requires strong, rigorous academic preparation as well as focused supports to help with social/emotional development, college guidance, and financial literacy.
City Speaks: Community Voices on Baltimore Schools documents the findings of our city-wide listening campaign that engaged the community in defining priorities for our public schools. Taken together, the findings and key themes we heard from 859 participants in 63 conversations across all 55 Baltimore City communities paint a picture of what Baltimore residents most want for our students.
- As a follow-up to the Fund’s fourth report, Broken Pathways: The Cracks in Career and Technical Education in Baltimore City Public Schools, the Fund worked with the district to organize the Re-Imagining Career and Technical Education in Baltimore City Public Schools community conversation to hear perspectives from 120 parents, students, community members, and local businesses. The district has committed to using the data we collected from the event to inform its four-year strategic plan for career and technical education.
- In its September 2017 report to the Board of Commissioners, the Office of Enrollment, Choice and Transfers cited our Calculated Choices recommendations for improvement and, in response, outlined new efforts to enhance staff training and student/parent communications.
- In response to Building a Bright Future, at the end of the 2015-16 school year, the Board of Commissioners approved a policy mandating that every high school offer at least one Advanced Placement (AP) course.