John Huber
When One Executive Steals, the Real Question Is: Where Were the Controls?
By John Huber, MarylandK12.com The criminal charges announced this week against a senior Worcester County Public Schools executive Denise Shorts are serious and disturbing. According to the Maryland Office of the State Prosecutor, Denise Renee Shorts, the system’s former Chief Academic Officer and Title I grant coordinator, is charged with felony theft exceeding $100,000, embezzlement, …
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Maryland’s Education Agenda: When Big Government Planning Meets Classroom Reality
By John Huber: MarylandK12.com Here is a full video breakdown: Each spring, the Maryland General Assembly sings a familiar tune about education: this is the year of fixes, reforms, and a renewed focus on classrooms. This session is no different. Lawmakers are debating cell phone bans, artificial intelligence guidance, safety mandates, and a range …
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Maryland Is Changing How School Performance Is Measured—Here’s What That Means
By John Huber · MarylandK12.com For years, Maryland leaders have promised that more time, more reforms, and a lot more money would deliver better results. Yet as families watch reading and math outcomes stall, the state is moving to change how school performance is measured and shown to the public through House Bill 1582, the …
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Teachers Say Student Behavior Is a Problem. No Kidding.
What Maryland’s Schools Pretended Not to Notice: By: John Huber MarylandK12.com Maryland teachers are now joining colleagues in all 50 states in acknowledging that student behavior is a “significant problem” in classrooms. This finding, recently highlighted by Education Week, is being treated as a troubling new development. For anyone paying attention to Maryland’s public …
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Understanding the Rise in School Threats, Safety Alerts, and Closures
By: John Huber MarylandK12.com I’ve also released a full video breakdown of this issue here: Across the United States, school leaders, educators, and families are confronting a difficult reality: an increase in threats. These threats can range from hoaxes and social-media driven reports to credible security concerns and they are disrupting education in ways not …
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BCPS Has Opened the Doors: Student Protest Must Be Accessible to All
Baltimore County Public Schools’ Rule 5600 explicitly guarantees students the right to freedom of speech and to assemble peaceably, with only reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions. Rule 5600 VIII. Student Expression: Students have the right to freedom of speech, religion and the right to assemble peaceably, but speech and behavior that are disruptive can …
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Shooting at Montgomery County HS Renews Debate Over School Safety Measures
By: John Huber MarylandK12.com A shooting at Thomas S. Wootton High School in Montgomery County, Maryland has once again forced school leaders, parents, and policymakers to confront an increasingly grim reality: incidents of gun violence in schools are no longer rare, shocking anomalies. They are part of a disturbing pattern. The incident occurred during the …
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Profanity, Protests, and Poor Test Scores: The Uncomfortable Truth About Maryland’s ICE Walkout
By John Huber, MarylandK12.com By any measure, Maryland saw a wave of student walkouts over immigration enforcement the first week of February. Students in Baltimore City marched from City College to Pearlstone Park; others at the Baltimore School of the Arts joined. In Baltimore County, students poured out of Kenwood, Woodlawn, Towson, Dulaney and Dundalk …
Failure Factory and the Architecture of a Broken System in Baltimore City Public Schools
By John Huber MarylandK12.com Chris Papst’s Failure Factory: How Baltimore City Public Schools Deprived Taxpayers and Students of a Future is not a polemic, nor is it a broad ideological critique of public education. It is something that is more difficult to ignore: it is a well- documented account of how a major urban school …
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From World‑Class Vision massive Budget Cuts: The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future; What happened?
By: John Huber Maryland K12.com The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future grew out of the Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education, widely known as the Kirwan Commission, which the General Assembly created in 2016 to examine whether Maryland’s funding system was adequate and equitable and to recommend policy and funding changes capable of moving the …