Deepening the Impact of Community Schools
There are 454 community schools in Maryland, located in every county with the highest concentration in Baltimore City. These community schools offer far more than a solid public school education. By their mission, these schools focus on the well-being of their community members and the high-need neighborhoods in which they are located. Research routinely shows […]
Improving Math Proficiency and Success at Baltimore Curriculum Project Schools
Everybody can be good at math. I’m a former middle school math teacher and know that many people feel like they’re not good at math. But if it’s taught well, everybody can be good at math. As a partner with Baltimore City Public Schools and as Maryland’s largest and oldest charter school operator, Baltimore Curriculum […]
Making Children’s Mental Health a Classroom Priority: A BCP Teacher’s Story
May is Children’s Mental Health Month. We asked Kat Locke-Jones,7th grade English Language Arts teacher at Hampstead Hill Academy, part of the Baltimore Curriculum Project’s (BCP) network of neighborhood conversion charter schools, to share her story as a mental health advocate in her classroom and across the Mid-Atlantic. In 2018, following the suicide of her younger brother Sean, her […]
How Assistant Principals Support and Sustain School Culture and Achievement
Why School Attendance Matters
We know we can teach every child. However, we cannot teach a child who does not come to school. Yet, nationally and in Maryland, student attendance continues to be a challenge for schools, “a hidden educational crisis,” so dubbed by the U.S. Department of Education. At the Baltimore Curriculum Project (BCP), school attendance is one […]
The Science of Reading & The “Reading Wars”
There’s been a battle for years over how children learn to read and the best way to teach them to read. These “reading wars” have heated up again since the pandemic and the post-pandemic learning loss facing our nation. While Maryland students have made impressive strides in English proficiency, as evidenced by the 2023 Maryland […]
What’s Ahead for BCP From our Board Members
We’re proud of the Baltimore Curriculum Project’s (BCP) deep roots in Baltimore and its public school system. Before we opened our first three neighborhood conversion charter schools in 2005, we had nearly a decade under our belt working with Baltimore City Public Schools by introducing and supporting the research-based, proven Direct Instruction reading program in […]
Helping Students Master Mathematics
I love math and love teaching math. I taught math at an elementary/middle school in Chicago and at the Baraka School in Kenya. What I really love are fractions, especially when cooking and doubling recipes. Fractions are handy, tangible and practical. The recent data from the 2022 Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP) scores for Maryland […]
Hampstead Hill Academy’s 8-Year Recharter
Hampstead Hill Academy (HHA) recently received an eight-year renewal term as a public charter school. The unanimous vote on February 23, 2023, by the Board of School Commissioners, Baltimore City Public Schools, is an incredible accomplishment for HHA students, faculty, staff, parents, and its proud principal, Matt Hornbeck. It’s also gratifying to the Baltimore Curriculum […]
The Role of Schools in Violence Prevention
There is an absolute crisis of violence across our country. In Baltimore, over the past five years, one in eight shooting victims taken to hospitals in our region has been a child between the ages of 10 and 19. How violence affects our communities and schools is a critical issue for all educators. What can […]