To . Schools are so important to go hand in hand with real estate and county population too. I think its a couple of things. I think partly its a normal shift in enrollment and demographics. Weve had we certainly have had growth in our immigration population students who are coming here from other parts of the world. Thats clear in our numbers. But also we expanded our specialty programs last year. So we had waiting lists for gifted Children Montessori french immersion. So we expanded programs like that. Thats not the only ones but we expanded programs like that and started three new elementary spanish immersion programs. There have been people coming to board meetings and saying for a long time we want to be a part of the school but we want the programming thats important to us. So we have e panneded those programs as well as International Baccalaureate programs. We certified New High School last year and started our first primary years, Elementary Program for ib and one at James Madison and one in ellwood. They feed douglas high school. I think its really talking to people who are considering their options and saying wow, theres new options in Prince Georges County and were really excited. Its a mix of why. But i think we certainly give credit for at least the expansion of several of our very popular programs and addition of new ones. When you started out you had some longterm goals, some shortterm goals. Your first year was very intensive and youve seen results from terms of graduation rounts which has to be mayor mount up there when you see those numbers improve. Absolutely. I feel very strongly theres no reason our district cant be doing a lot better. One of the things we wanted to do at the very early stages as we did our analysis of the entire district while we created a Transition Team from outside experts, had an entry plan when we came in and began a yearlong project on a Strategic Plan which were releasing next week in its entirety we wanted to show that we really can do it. So we came in and we looked at data points and a couple of the really important ones were things like ninth grade promotion rate. Its very clear a couple things are very clear. It was almost identical to our Graduation Rate and theres a lot of data going back over a decade that says children who are suspend friday school in ninth grade, children who fail a course in nine grade are very unlikely to graduate on time or at least in the top part of the graduating class. So we said so what are we going to do about this . We worked with our data people. We worked with some other folks and created this Early Warning system. We give our principals in middle school and High School Based on the metrics we run for them in Central Office and we give them a list that says you need to take a look at kevin. Based on what we have in our data points what we see strategically, hes not likely to pass the ninth grade. So what are you going to do for him . And let the schools decide what the right interventions were. It saves them a lot of time. They dont necessarily have to do all that work to develop the list. They have to worry about the intervention part. The other thing we did, we had some high schools that had a computerbased Credit Recovery system so kids who had fallen behind who missed a course for graduation had the ability to make this up online under the supervision of a teacher but you can do multiple courses at one time. So kids were able to catch up without having to worry about night school or Summer School which can be a struggle for some because they dont have the money to pay for night school or Summer School. We got a ninth grade promotion improvement and in the first year we got an overall graduation increase of 2. 47 . For other groups of children it went up over 4 for special ed up over 8 , up to 8. 02 . The only place where it dropped significantly was english language learners. With students who speak french spanish, erdo we need to keep looking at options for those people to help them acquire the language so we can have them graduate on time too. Its exciting. Well take a quick pause. A lot more to get to on viewpoint. Stay with us as we continue the conversation with dr. Kevin maxwell, ceo of Prince Georges County schools. If youd like to learn more about whats happening in the School System theres the website. Well be right back on viewpoint. Wow something sounds sweet in here need a little honey in the bowl. Yeah badabopbopbopa no . Must be the honey welcome back to viewpoint. Again, our guest this sunday morning, dr. Kevin maxwell, the ceo of Prince Georges County schools. You have worn many hats over your long career in Prince George anne arundel as a teacher and longtime principal. We were talking about improving dropout rates. How do you convince or persuade a kid to stay in school . Is there a Common Thread you can share . I think there are a couple of intertwined things. One is helping them find success. Its not always about you go through the process of teaching and assessing and teaching an assessing, reteaching, reassessing. Thats a part of it. But when kids fall behind you really have to help them with the options of how do you get ahead. They fall behind for a lot of different sometimes they simply strugal in a subject. Sometimes there are situations they have no control over around family or moving or homelessness or things. Thats not your typical kid, but those are certainly part of what contributes to the issues we deal with. But i would say beyond sort of the rules and regulations of schools and the teaching and learning process, theres a relationship piece to it that to me is really central to the success of children. In my long experience as a teacher, as an assistant principal, middle school principal, High School Principal in two different districts, and even in my role as superintendent in the last nine years ive always had stew departments i interact with either on School Visits or i have an advisory now or i had one when i was in anne arundel, of high school students. Theying connected to that conversation and personalizing things for kids. When youre a teacher or principal, you need to meet kids on their level. They appreciate that. If you say, kevin, whats going on this week . Where have you been . Whats happening . How can i help you . I had a student at one of my schools once that was having an issue with senior english and not getting some things turned in on time. He came in one day and throwing up his hands, im not going to get this paper done the teacher is not going to accept it because im late. I sat him down at my computer in my office i sat him down and said finish your paper. He said but. I said, no butts. Finish your paper and i will talk to your teacher. He graduated. I was at a program at a university in another state, a program on Educational Leadership and i was walking across the campus and this gentleman was jogging and he stops dead in his tracks and hes like mr. Maxwell, dr. Maxwell. He said yeah. It was this childs father. He stopped to say thank you because he went on to a twoyear school and transferred into a fouryear school. Hes doing great. If you hadnt sat him down and said look finish this get this done and helped make that possible for him, he would have nod great ated. It would be a whole different story for my son. Sometimes its an individual attention and knowing someone cares and is holding them accountable. Correct, correct. I dont think the student was right that the teacher didnt care. I think there are deadlines, there are rules, you have to learn to follow them. There are also times when exceptions are appropriate and other opportunities should be available for kids. Its kind of navigating that piece. Its like i said oh well waive the paper. I said get the paper done. She graded the paper. Its about making sure that kids are sometimes pushed sometimes pulled but at the bottom of everything they understand you care about them and want them to be successful. Prince georges county is unique in many ways your growing student population about 128,000, more than half are from lowincome families. What kind of challenge does that present for you and your teachers and staff . So let me be really clear. I think it was summed up well in a presentation i saw at a National Conference a couple years ago. And they were talking about this issue. They said poverty in america is a reality, its not an excuse. I think you have to approach things from that perspective. When you get back to what does each child need some of our kids come in really ready for kindergarten and prepared to come in and engage in school. Some of our kids dont. Our charge our responsibility when kids come to us is to give them the tools to succeed. Thats why as part of our Strategic Plan and part of our budget request is to expand allday pre kindergarten opportunities for children to give them that extra full day year of getting ready for kindergarten. Our Kindergarten Readiness numbers are going up. We certainly have shown in the state of maryland that through that move some years ago now, over ten years ago now to allday kindergarten the test scores moved up across the state because of the early start. Early childhood education is really important. Well be right back on the other side with dr. Kevin maxwell, ceo of Prince Georges County schools. Stay with us. Thank you, cable for the slower internet upload speeds. For making me wait longer to share my photo albums. Thank you cable, because if we never had you we wouldnt know the incredible difference verizon fios makes. In Customer Satisfaction studies, fios is rated 1 in Internet Speed and reliability 8 years running. Plus, fios has the fastest wifi available from any provider. Period. See the difference for yourself. Get a fios triple play online at an amazing price, guaranteed for two full years plus, get a 300 bonus with a twoyear agreement. Call the Verizon Center for customers with disabilities at 800. 974. 6006 tty v welcome back to viewpoint. Our guest this morning is dr. Kevin maxwell, ceo of Prince Georges County schools. On your first year added about 800 new teachers. Youve been a longtime teacher and principal, too, before superintendent here and in anne arundel county. What does it take to be a good teacher in 2015 . I think it takes first and foremost knowledge of the content, whatever it is youre teaching. If youre smanish teacher or physics teacher, elementary teacher, kindergarten teacher, you need to know that body of work youre expected to pass on to children. I think its also really really important that you understand the pedagogical work the how to teach, so you know but can you impart that . Its not a lot of help if you come in and sort of say here are the facts and if the kids dont learn them i think the other piece and i alluded to this earlier, i think theres sort of a range, theres never any one way or the other kind of thing, theres a range of personality style that relates to other people. If youre in sort of the social sectors and you dont feel comfortable relating to other people maybe thats not the right place. I think development of relationships with your colleagues developing those relationships with your students and parents, i think thats critical to advancing the work. I think the last piece is and in Prince Georges County and other districts across the country, there has to be a little bit of a sense of urgency about the work. This is really important work for our country, for our counties for our states for our cities to make sure were properly educating the next generation of workers. Its a competitive world out there. Were not were a pretty powerful country, but were not as big as other countries. We have over 330 Million People here but china and india, big competitors in the world marketplace, they have 2. 5 billion people between them. If we enjoy the quality of life we have here in this country, we cant do a bad job at this. We have to do a good job. That sort of sense of urgency, that being having the ability to use data and say, okay how do i move my class ahead, how do we move our schools ahead . Let me ask you, technology how has that helped children learn . Are children smarter and more efficient, learning faster today . I think some are in at least one way. That is theyre much better and this is true in the workplace, theyre much better at finding information, not necessarily knowing information. Interesting. I think its a different things. They know where to look up facts, they know where to find answers, but i dont know that always the way we primarily use technology those are important skills. Kids need to leave k12 education, prek12 education and head into the workforce knowing how to use those basic tools of technology they need to be able to read and produce spread sheets be able to do donts use email and to some degree other methods of communication, texting and the Younger Group with tweeting and i know there are other ones out there, but i think that so the communication piece is important. I think that in schools being able to create reports and use the tools that are at your hand are really really important. I just think theyre smarter in some ways for it but theres still a nontechnology piece. I think the important thing to understand about technology is a lot of the assessments are moving to online. The new park assessments as opposed to the msa, these are online assessments. You cant have a child walk into a testing session where its online and interact with the technology for the first time. I think the technology is helping with creativity. There are a lot of tools on today todays computers, in science, arts graphics all those things are really helpful and help kids express themselves and helps them with that creative thinking part of things. Excellent. Take another quick break. Well be right back with dr. Kevin maxwell, the ceo of Prince Georges County schools. Stay with us. Welcome bark. Our guest again, dr. Kevin maxwell, ceo of Prince Georges County schools. We talked about your roles, teachers roles, the students role. Parental engagement do you see it improving and how do you get parts more involved . I do see it improving. There are a couple things quickly. We reorganized the School District a little last year to focus on that work and created a new department for Community Engagement and outreach and took somebody from our comer office and put her in charge of it and well expand that Department Going forward. We had about 30 or 31 Community Outreach folks, parent advocates essentially in our title i schools and we expanded it to 30 schools and by another 20 next year. Their role is to reach out to parents affiliated with that particular school as opposed to that department which is a countywide program. We are having more interaction, particularly on the school level which is what we really want. We want parents to be engaged in their childs life and in their school. We mentioned earlier in a segment about 65 are from low income households within the county. There are many middle income africanamerican families send their children to private schools. The county is 25 white, only 5 in the public School System. How do you bring those people back into the public School System . I think listening is a good way to start. I think again what weve heard from parents who want to be a part and right now have been taking other opportunities is they wanted more montessoris, more french immersion, weve added spanish immersion. I think those programs are the kinds of things middle class families are looking for and i think in their heart they understand there are differences. If youre really wanting your child to have parochial education and a religious program, i respent that. I would say in a lot of the private schools, teachers are not highly certified,. They may not have the content knowledge. We know in our public schools, our teachers are prepared to teach. County executive rayshern baker is push thing the plan for 125 million tax increase. Let me give you 25 seconds to sell residents as to why this is important . No one is coming to meetings i attend saying we have too much. Theyre saying we have too little. That we need things. I think its really clear that we need the resources. Weve been cut multiple years by over 100 million during the great recession. We havent recovered from that yet. We have already shown results in year one. Well show more in year two. We have a fiveyear Strategic Plan that sets targets. We will improve this School District and parents should invest in it now. Congrats with the results youre seeing. Good look with your Strategic Plan next week. Well see that unveiling. Dr. Kevin maxwell, thank you. Thank you for having us in on viewpoint. Well see you later for reporters notebook. Right now on news 4 today, a cooler and breezy day is ahead for your sunday. Cold air from the west will be moving in. Meteorologist Veronica Johnson is in for chuck tracking those temps. First, were following a developing sorry this morning. A crash in ft. Washington left one person dead. This happened on livingston road after 1 00 in the morning. Youre looking at the scene. A single car crash. The driver did die at the scene. He lost control of the car causing it to roll over and end up in that wooded area you see right there. The driver was thrown from that vehicle. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to news 4 today. Im angie