State Loses Federal Grant For Key Student Tracking Study

The state’s higher education system will have to rely on short-term options to continue a years-long educational progress study, thanks to a recent grant rejection.

The national Department of Education last month rejected an expanded proposal from the University System of Maryland to measure student progress from kindergarten beyond college, in order to evaluate Maryland's school systems. Legislators nationwide have made tweaks to their educational systems to seem more attractive to judges who award shares of the $3.4 billion Race to the Top stimulus funding

Lawmakers passed legislation during the 2010 General Assembly to enhance the state’s "longitudinal data" program, but without the immediate $13.1 million requested in grants, officials are looking to other options. The state will likely pursue “less expensive, less efficient” ways to implement the plans for the research system, according to authorities who worked on the proposal. They are holding out hope that help will come from the Race to the Top program, but it's not clear how much money will come to Maryland.

“It’s hard to say right off the top of our heads,” said Ben Passmore, director of policy research and analysis for the University System of Maryland. “This is stuff that we have to do. We have to come up with solutions to this stuff anyway.”

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