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Previous work around school "quality" has typically identified schools that are "beating the odds." Such an approach finds "outlier schools" by analyzing student outcomes, and studies these schools to determine what they appear to be doing well. However, in our early thinking about improving school quality, we began reframing quality around adult behaviors and inputs and the context they build in a school -- factors we can leverage. This redefining of "quality" around adults resonates with us because of problems we perceive with approaches that place the most weight on student outcomes, which are biased by family poverty and factors outside of schools' control. Next, we asked "If we have metrics on adults, can we predict the student outcomes used in previous accountability metrics?" Eventually this reframing could serve as a new nomenclature for quality and a model for guiding improvement.

In 2012, the Community School Engagement Strategy was adopted by the Family League of Baltimore as a way to address historical racial and structural inequalities that have produced unequal educational outcomes among the city's children and youth. The goals of community schools include integrating health and social supports for children and their families, and providing additional opportunities for academics, socioemotional learning, and enrichment for youth during and after school. This study identified community schools with higher student attendance and more positive school climate than peer community schools. School community coordinators were interviewed to learn how their work was structured to elicit "effective practices" around attendance and climate. Overall, coordinators reported that having clearly designated roles, reliable protocols and procedures, and a leader who consistently communicated expectations to parents and students helped ensure that community schools could maintain high attendance and a positive school climate. Alignment of goals across school and community stakeholders, supportive, respectful relationships with families, and cooperative partnerships with community-based organizations also served to make that work coherent and effective.

This report is the first publication of a multi-year project examining the relationship between student commutes using public transportation and on-time arrival and absenteeism. This report begins to develop a basic understanding of how students commute to high school in Baltimore with a focus on those using public transportation. The report is structured as a series of questions and the answers to those questions. A model was developed of the public transportation network in Baltimore using geographic information systems (GIS) software. From that network, the most efficient routes to school (routes that took the shortest overall time) for all high school students who lived in Baltimore City and were enrolled in a public high school during the 2014-15 school year were estimated. Researchers believe that they are a reasonable approximation, especially in the absence of other means of observing student commutes. The methodological appendix at the end of the report explains the models, assumptions and data in more detail. It is especially important to develop an understanding of student commutes now, given the upcoming significant changes to the public transportation system that will be fully implemented by the summer of 2017. The Maryland Transit Administration's (MTA) BaltimoreLink Plan represents a major overhaul of the of the local bus system in Baltimore. The primary goals of BaltimoreLink are to improve the reliability of the system, increase access to high-frequency transit, strengthen the connection between the bus and rail systems, and increase service to job centers in the metropolitan area. The initiative also includes funding for transfer facilities, dedicated bus lanes, signal priority, and signs. The report begins with basic information about where schools and students are located and the public transportation system in Baltimore to orient the reader to the basic structure of both systems and how they intersect spatially. The remainder of the report explores questions related to key aspects of commuting to school using public transportation such as travel times, the complexity of routes to school and student safety.

This Fact Book follows a series of reports completed by the Baltimore Education Research Consortium (BERC) between 2011 and 2015, that examined Baltimore City graduates' enrollment in college and later degree completion (Durham, Stein, & Connolly, 2015; Durham & Olson, 2013; Durham & Westlund, 2011), as well as indicators of college readiness as demonstrated by students' high school performance and remedial needs as determined by the colleges in which they enroll (Connolly, Olson, Durham, & Plank, 2014). This Fact Book is intended to provide an update to previous tables and findings in earlier reports, and it is geared toward stakeholders who are closely following district progress in achieving its goal of producing college and career-ready graduates. Many of the findings are organized by school, as much of the work on college access is organized the same way--with school leaders continually updating their strategies from one cohort to the next. It is BERC's hope that schools who demonstrate success over time can serve as beacons to other school leaders and practitioners who wish to replicate productive strategies.

This report documents the interim progress of the Baltimore Community School (CommSch) strategy by examining outcomes for the 2014-15 school year. Results show that CommSch parents more often reported being connected with community resources by school staff compared to parents at other schools. They also were more likely to report that school staff cared about their child and that the school was working closely with them to help their children learn. While the current report does not show any significant differences between Community Schools and non-Community Schools in measures of organizational health and school climate, students in the longer-operating Community Schools had higher attendance in 2014-15, which suggests that school is a place they want to be and offers activities they do not want to miss. Findings did not indicate that students had higher attendance in all CommSchs; specifically, attendance in high schools remains a serious challenge, and it appears there is a relationship between the amount of time a school has implemented the model and student attendance. As might be expected, the more seasoned schools produced differences relative to non-Community Schools students not yet noticeable among students in newer schools. In summary, the findings for CommSchs suggest promising indications of increased engagement as reflected in a significantly higher levels of parent connections to school staff and community resources. Attendance is also higher for many students in CommSchs than in non-CommSchs, especially those implementing for five or more years. Results continue to indicate that OST participants attend school more often than similar peers. While causation cannot be proved with this comparative study design, the consistent findings are encouraging, especially for middle school grades where disengagement from school often begins. Key findings from the report include: (1) Parents reporting a more "connected" feeling to Community Schools than those in non-Community Schools; (2) Students in grades 6, 9, and 10 were less likely to transfer out of their school, relative to students in the same grades in non-Community Schools; and (3) Community Schools operating for 5 years or more had fewer chronically absent students. The following are appended: (1) Baltimore Community Schools by Implementation Year; (2) Family League's Vision of Community Schools in Baltimore; (3) Methodology for Community Schools Analyses; (4) Regression Results from Community School vs non-Community School Analyses; (5) Methodology for OST Analyses; (6) 2014-15 OST Serving Information; and (7) OST Outcome Analyses.

This panel examines research on early education from two research practice partnerships, the Baltimore Education Research Consortium (BERC) with Baltimore City Schools and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and the Stanford-SFUSD Partnership with San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) and Stanford University in San Francisco, California. First, it explores how BERC convened the Early Education Data Collaborative (EEDC), a collection of Baltimore agencies that provide services to children from birth through the early elementary years whose goal is to understand how different pathways to kindergarten may be associated with kindergarten readiness and later learning outcomes. Second, it explores a line of research by a Stanford University professor and her team of doctoral students working with SFUSD's early education department. The Stanford team worked with SFUSD to establish and test a new Pre-Kindergarten (Pre-K) early literacy assessment aligned to K-12 measures, and also established a kindergarten readiness indicator that has been used by SFUSD over the past three years. The Baltimore sample included 11,897 kindergarten students across two cohorts with matched program and birth records. The San Francisco Transitional Kindergarten study examines literacy outcomes, as measured by the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System, of Kindergarteners enrolled in SFUSD in the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 school years. The sample contains 6,174 students, 5% of which (309 students) had enrolled in the TK program. Another 17% (1,051 students) attended the district's Pre-K program. The remainder of the students had the option to attend a Pre-K program offered by San Francisco. Both studies examine the use of longitudinal data sets from large urban school districts with robust early education programs. The Baltimore study provides an analysis comparing kindergarten readiness measures for the three most common pathways to kindergarten: Baltimore City Schools Pre-K, Baltimore City Head Start, and both programs. Preliminary results from the first cohort of students from the Baltimore study show when the mother's background and the circumstances of the child's birth are accounted for (Model 2), students with prior experience in only Head Start are more likely to be ready for kindergarten than students who did not attend either program (odds ratio: 1.260; 95% CI: 1.016, 1.563). When the mother's background and the circumstances of the child's birth are accounted for (Model 2), children who attended both Head Start and BCPS Pre-K are nearly four times as likely to be identified as ready for kindergarten as children from neither program (odds ratio: 3.904; 95% CI: 3.058, 4.983). Children who attended only BCPS Pre-K were three times as likely to be ready for kindergarten than children who attended neither program (odds ratio: 3.314; 95% CI: 2.744, 4.009) when family background is taken into account. Preliminary results from the SFUSD Transitional Kindergarten (TK) study indicate that the program may have increased fall student literacy outcomes. Fall results, however, indicate that TK students are not more likely to be able to read books. Four data tables are appended.

The total number of Baltimore City Schools (City Schools) graduates who enrolled in college the next fall declined across the Classes of 2007-2014. The percentage of graduates enrolling in college also decreased by more than 7.0 percentage points, from 49.8% to 42.0%. At the same time, the total number of high school graduates increased, as cohort graduation rates among City Schools students increased by 8.2%. High school graduation rates may reduce college enrollment rates in the aggregate by simultaneously increasing the overall number eligible for college and changing the composition of a graduating class, as some of these added students may experience greater barriers to continuing their academic career. Where graduates choose to begin college also appears to have significant implications for future degree completion. Approximately 2.0 - 6.0% of graduates who first enrolled in a 2-year college completed a 4-year degree within six years, while about 10.0% completed either a 2-year or 4- year degree (or both). In contrast, approximately 43.0% of those who started at a 4-year college completed degrees within six years. For the first time, the authors present comparisons of fall college enrollment by sending high school. The results represent the vast differences between schools in student characteristics, resources, and challenges, as they found stark variation in enrollment outcomes, both within and across high school types. As would be expected, entrance criteria schools have had the largest percentages of its graduating students enrolling in higher education in the fall after high school, though the share attending 4-year colleges has declined in recent years. This latter trend reflects the pattern for the district as a whole. Moreover, entrance criteria schools differ in terms of enrollment rates by as much as 25.0%. We also found that a number of Traditional high schools' graduates enroll in college the following fall at rates that are somewhat higher than for CTE high schools with entrance criteria. Five appendices are included: (1) Data Sources and Collection Methods; (2) Data Processing and Methods of Analysis; (3) Graduation (4-Year Cohort Rates) and Fall College Enrollment for the Baltimore City Schools Graduating Classes of 2010 through 2014; (4) First Fall College Enrollment and College Type for the Baltimore City Schools Graduating Classes of 2012 through 2014, by High School; (5) Degree Completion Outcomes within Six Years for City Schools Graduates and Subgroups, Classes of 2007 through 2009.

Despite--or perhaps due to--the lack of consensus on its definition, there is abundant interest in and research on school climate. Researchers have determined that improving school climate is one way to increase academic achievement, school safety, school completion, teacher retention, healthy social interactions, and student well-being (Cohen, 2010; Dynarski, Clarke, Cobb, Finn, Rumberger, & Smink, 2008). Baltimore City Schools understands the importance of school climate and deploys multiple tools every year to understand and describe it. This report follows up on a previous Baltimore Education Research Consortium (BERC) report, "Positive School Climate: What It Looks Like and How It Happens" (ED553170). In that report, examples of principal and school actions to improve school climate were highlighted and reviewed. At its conclusion, questions remained about how schools, principals, and district administrators measure school climate. This subsequent report provides an overview of the data currently being collected by City Schools related to school climate and a proposal for how these disparate data sources can be summarized to inform school organizational health. It is guided by the following research questions: (1) What data are being systematically collected by City Schools that can speak to school climate, effectiveness, and organizational health? (2) What are the strengths and limitations of each data source? and (3) How do the different data sources relate and correspond to each other? The following are appended: (1) A Climate Tool: The 12 Indicators of School Climate for All City Schools, 2012-13; (2) National Center for School Climate: The 12 Dimensions of School Climate Measured; (3) The Climate Walk Tool; (4) Baltimore City Schools School Effectiveness Framework; (5) Baltimore City Schools Instructional Framework; and (6) Instrument Item Correspondence with NSCC [National School Climate Center] Climate Domains and Organizational Health Tool.

This report compares high school indicators of college readiness for the Baltimore City Schools Class of 2011 with actual readiness as determined by Maryland colleges. Each Maryland college determines its own criteria for entering credit bearing courses or taking developmental courses. As a result, findings are reported separately by college rather than the district or high school. This analysis focuses on the four colleges in which most graduates enrolled, the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC), Baltimore City Community College (BCCC), Morgan State, and Coppin State Universities. This report provides: (1) A brief look at "all members of the City Schools Class of 2011" including a description of their high school and middle school indicators, demographic characteristics, and college enrollment rates; (2) A look at "the graduates who went to Maryland colleges" focusing on the colleges that enrolled at least 10 members of the City Schools Class of 2011; (3) A look at "the graduates who, upon enrolling, were assessed for developmental course need," and then were "deemed as needing developmental courses," with a special focus on the match or mismatch between high school indicators of readiness and the colleges' assessment of students who needed developmental courses; and (4) A look at "the graduates who, upon enrolling, were not assessed for developmental course need," again with a special focus on the match or mismatch between high school indicators of readiness and colleges' judgments about readiness. The following are appended: (1) Methodology; (2) High School Indicators by High School Type; (3) PSAT Test-Taking by High School; (4) High School Indicators of College Readiness for Students Assessed as Needing Developmental Courses by College; and (5) High School Indicators of College Readiness for Non Assessed Students.

The term "school climate" has been around for more than a hundred years to explore the idea of school environmental or contextual factors that might have an impact on student learning and academic success. During the past three decades there has been growing research to support the importance of a positive school climate in promoting academic achievement, school safety, dropout prevention, teacher retention, healthy social interactions, and well-being (Cohen, 2010; Dynarski, Clarke, Cobb, Finn, Rumberger, & Smink, 2008). Although school climate has been studied for a long time, researchers have yet to develop a common definition. Most often cited, however, is a definition developed by the National School Climate Center (NSCC): "School climate refers to the quality and character of school life. School climate is based on patterns of students', parents' and school personnel's experience of school life and reflects norms, goals, values, interpersonal relationships, teaching and learning practices, and organizational structures. A sustainable, positive school climate fosters youth development and learning necessary for a productive, contributing and satisfying life in a democratic society" (retrieved from the NSCC website November 26, 2013). The purpose of this report is to describe how principals, staff, and students in five schools have made deliberate attempts to improve their school climate. Data were collected through observations, focus groups, and interviews during the spring of 2013. Through this report, the authors answer the following research questions: (1) What factors most influence a school's climate, from the perspective of the students, teachers, and staff? (2) What strategies or practices can a school adopt? and (3) How does a principal intentionally create a positive school climate? Two appendices include: (1) NSCC Model of School Climate; and (2) Protocols.

The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation has partnered with Baltimore Education Research Consortium (BERC) to complete a series of reports examining the implementation and impact of the Baltimore Elementary and Middle School Library Project (Library Project). This report on the first year of the project examines the experiences of the principals, librarians, teachers, and students at the three schools that received new libraries. Also, teachers' and students' perceptions of their school library were compared across the Library Project and comparison schools. Findings of the report include: (1) all three schools with a new library viewed them as inviting, attractive, and well-resourced spaces; (2) a knowledgeable, skilled, and motivated library staff is essential to maximizing the potential of these new libraries; (3) librarians and teachers need additional professional development to best integrate the library technology into instruction; and (4) the community partnerships initiated through this project are adding significant resources to the education of students in these schools. The implications for the school district and future efforts are discussed. The following are appended: (1) Survey Instruments and Response Rates; (2) Teacher Survey Responses; (3) Student Survey Responses; and (4) Interview Protocols.

Out of School Time (OST) programs have been shown to promote positive personal, academic and social development (Huang, Gribbons, Kim, Lee, & Baker, 2000; Welsh et al., 2002). The Family League of Baltimore City works with partners to sponsor a range of after-school programs in Baltimore City Public Schools (City Schools) to provide healthy safe environments for children after school including nutritious meals. The strategic planning and development of the program logic model provides an ultimate outcome of increased graduation rates and career and college readiness. More short-term goals include increased student attendance and academic performance. Other desired outcomes are improved health and social and emotional development, but to date, no measures have been identified to document these changes. This report describes the students served and focuses on the outcomes of attendance and academic performance. Based on the findings, while OST participation was associated with higher school attendance and promotion rates, this analysis cannot make a causal statement that participation increased attendance or promotion. As a result from the analysis, the authors make a number of recommendations for the Family League including but not limited to: (1) Utilize the Community Schools strategy to better recruit priority students, so that services will better reach those students who need and will benefit from them the most, especially, students with a history of chronic absenteeism and those who receive special education services; (2) Collect and monitor the reasons why students leave or are dismissed from OST programs to help OST programs retain students and identify any barriers to student attendance.; (3) Disaggregate results data by program/school to begin looking at which programs are best recruiting priority youth, and which programs are demonstrating the most impact; and (4) Identify best practices or strong models for serving high school youth and implement them in Community School High Schools. The following are appended: (1) Family League OST Logic Model; (2) Methodology; (3) Demographics; and (4) 2011-12 and 2012-13 Outcome Tables.

In this paper, we offer an overview of the history and development of the Baltimore Education Research Consortium (BERC). As a part of this overview, we describe challenges and dilemmas encountered during the founding years of this consortium. We also highlight particular benefits or sources of satisfaction we have realized in the course of pursuing this particular sort of university-school-district-community collaboration. We conclude by offering examples of our current studies, best practices we have come to prioritize during the past five years, and a brief statement of our future plans and visions.

For this brief, the authors analyzed a cohort of children referred to Baltimore's Infants and Toddlers program (BITP), for kindergarten readiness. Usually, pediatricians, parents, or early education staff refer a child to BITP upon observing a delay in development or speech and language skills. Thereafter, BITP staff assesses the child to determine eligibility for services, then refers eligible children to appropriate services. Among students who were not assessed by BITP, students who could not be contacted scored above the district's composite Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA) average, but children who were withdrawn scored below. The highest overall mean outcomes were among eligible children who completed services. These findings suggest the need for continued communication with parents on the importance of completing the services their children are eligible to receive. This analysis cannot determine why children who transition to kindergarten for additional services had the lowest levels of proficiency, but the fact that they remained entitled to services suggests they required continued support. Further study might rule out other explainations such as unmet needs or gaps in services.

Using publicly reported data from the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) and the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH), this brief examines the relation between the number of Baltimore-born children and the subsequent kindergarten enrollment in Baltimore City Public Schools (City Schools). The authors use this birth information to make predictions about kindergarten enrollment into the future. They examine the number of babies born to Baltimore residents and then compare that number to the subsequent enrollment of five-year-old children in City Schools kindergarten. To be sure, each City Schools kindergarten cohort includes children who moved into the city after they were born, but the concept of enrollment rate is useful for understanding enrollment dynamics over time.

This brief is the seventh in Baltimore Education Research Consortium's (BERC's) "Launching into Adulthood" series, which examines the trajectories of Baltimore graduates over six years. BERC established a partnership with Baltimore's Promise and the Maryland Longitudinal Data System (MLDS) that has made it possible to examine both college and earnings outcomes among City Schools graduates. This brief considers graduates six years after high school, and whether college enrollment, degree completion, median annual earnings, and the percent earning a livable wage differ according to education service receipt in 12th grade. Specifically, the authors compare outcomes for graduates whose family income made them eligible for free or reduced-price meals ("lower-income"), graduates who received special education services, and the average for the graduating cohort as a whole. As background, about 60% of the cohort were from lower income families and 12% received special education services in 12th grade. [Support from Baltimore's Promise allowed BERC to complete this research.]

This brief is the fifth in Baltimore Education Research Consortium's (BERC's) "Launching into Adulthood" series, which examines the trajectories of Baltimore graduates over six years. BERC established a partnership with Baltimore's Promise and the Maryland Longitudinal Data System (MLDS), which has made it possible to examine both college and earnings outcomes among Baltimore City Public Schools (City Schools) graduates. In this brief the authors examine patterns of college enrollment, degree completion, earnings and making a livable wage by the type of high school from which students earned their diploma. As in each of these briefs, the authors chose graduates in 2009 to examine outcomes six years later. [Support from Baltimore's Promise allowed BERC to complete this research.]

This brief is the sixth in Baltimore Education Research Consortium's (BERC's) "Launching into Adulthood" series, which examines the trajectories of Baltimore graduates over six years. BERC established a partnership with Baltimore's Promise and the Maryland Longitudinal Data System (MLDS), which has made it possible to examine both college and earnings outcomes among City Schools graduates. The author's chose a single class, graduates in 2009, to examine college experiences and workforce activity. This brief explores whether college degree completion, median annual earnings, and earning a livable wage differ by gender and race. [Support from Baltimore's Promise allowed BERC to complete this research.]

This brief is the third in Baltimore Education Research Consortium's (BERC's) "Launching into Adulthood" series, which examines the trajectories of Baltimore graduates over six years. A partnership with Baltimore's Promise and the Maryland Longitudinal Data System made it possible to examine both college and earnings outcomes for Baltimore City Public Schools (City Schools) graduates. The authors chose a single class, graduates in 2009, to examine college experiences and workforce activity. In this brief the authors focus on the 29% of City Schools graduates who enrolled immediately into a 4-year college the fall after high school. [Support from Baltimore's Promise allowed BERC to complete this research.]

This brief is the fourth in Baltimore Education Research Consortium's (BERC's) "Launching into Adulthood" series, which examines the trajectories of Baltimore graduates six years later. A partnership with Baltimore's Promise and the Maryland Longitudinal Data System made it possible to examine both college and earnings outcomes for Baltimore City Public Schools graduates. The authors chose a single class, graduates in 2009, to examine college experiences and workforce activity. In this brief the authors focus on the 26% of City Schools graduates who were not enrolled in a college nation-wide and were not found working for a Maryland employer during the fall after high school. [Support from Baltimore's Promise allowed BERC to complete this research.]

This brief is the second in Baltimore Education Research Consortium's (BERC's) "Launching into Adulthood" series, which examines the trajectories of Baltimore graduates over six years. BERC established a partnership with Baltimore's Promise and the Maryland Longitudinal Data System, which has made it possible to examine both college and earnings outcomes among Baltimore City Public Schools graduates. The question addressed in this brief is, how much were graduates earning six years after high school graduation? Was it enough to make a livable wage? And how many of those who went to college and completed degrees were earning a livable wage? The authors chose a single class, graduates in 2009, to examine college experiences and workforce activity six years later. [Support from Baltimore's Promise allowed BERC to complete this research.]

This brief is the first in Baltimore Education Research Consortium's (BERC's) "Launching into Adulthood" series, which examines the trajectories of Baltimore graduates. A partnership with Baltimore's Promise and the Maryland Longitudinal Data System made it possible to examine both college and earnings outcomes for Baltimore City Public Schools (City Schools) graduates. The authors chose a single class, graduates in 2009, to examine college experiences and workforce activity. In this brief the authors explore City Schools graduates' destinations during the fall after high school, in college and the formal workforce. [Support from Baltimore's Promise allowed BERC to complete this research.]

This brief examines kindergarten readiness and attendance in kindergarten for children enrolled in publicly provided early education programs as well as similar children who entered kindergarten without enrolling in these programs. Key findings detail the effects for children if they were enrolled for at least 90 calendar days as a three- or four-year old in an early education program.