{"id":88916,"date":"2026-08-19T08:25:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T12:25:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/?p=88916"},"modified":"2026-08-19T08:25:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T12:25:39","slug":"new-school-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/new-school-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland Kicks Off New School Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:<\/span><\/p>\n

MEDIA CONTACT:<\/span>
<\/span>Raven Hill, 410-767-0486<\/span>
<\/span>raven.hill@maryland.gov<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Maryland Kicks Off New School Year<\/b><\/h2>\n

<\/b>New teacher coaching program and attendance awareness campaign among highlights for 2026-27 school year. <\/span><\/i>

<\/b><\/h4>\n

BALTIMORE (August 19, 2026) \u2014<\/b> As schools begin opening their doors to students, the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) enters the 2026-2027 school year focused on strengthening teaching and learning statewide.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, Frederick County Public Schools is the first of Maryland\u2019s 24 local school systems to welcome students, with most other districts following <\/span>over the next week<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>The final first day will be September 1 in Wicomico County Public Schools.<\/span><\/p>\n

This school year marks the launch of Maryland\u2019s statewide literacy and mathematics teacher coaching program. MSDE has hired 51 teacher coaches to work in 13 districts with literacy coaches assigned to 63 schools. A pilot mathematics teacher coaching program will be implemented in 14 schools across the <\/span>Charles, Harford, Kent and St. Mary\u2019s school systems.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the first day to the last day of school, we are committed to ensuring strong, evidence\u2011based instruction for every student in Maryland schools,\u201d said <\/span>Dr. Carey M. Wright, State Superintendent of Schools<\/b>. \u201c<\/span>When we invest in educators, we invest in students. This investment in professional learning will benefit Maryland for years to come.<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis year brings important opportunities to accelerate student achievement across Maryland,\u201d said <\/span>Dr. Joshua Michael, Maryland State Board of Education President<\/b>. \u201cWe are strengthening instructional quality, improving access to effective teaching materials, and modernizing the way we measure student learning. Our focus remains on ensuring all students have the tools they need to thrive.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The state will also transition to a new testing program this school year. <\/span>Last school year marked the fifth and final full administration of the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP), which will be replaced by the newly designed Maryland System of Testing Academic Readiness (MSTAR) for third through eighth grades next spring. MSTAR\u2019s benefits include shorter<\/span> test length, faster reporting of test results, and increased score accuracy<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Last school year\u2019s MCAP results reflected a five-year high.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, the new \u201cMaryland Shows Up\u201d campaign will promote regular attendance among school districts, families, and community partners. The statewide chronic absenteeism rate fell to 25 percent in the 2024-25 school year, down 6 percentage points since the baseline 2021-22 school year. Preliminary data from the 2025-26 school year indicates additional declines.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEven a small number of absences can disrupt a child\u2019s learning,\u201d said Dr. Wright. \u201cIt is important for families, community partners, health providers and local leaders to reinforce the message that showing up every day in school matters.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

2026-27 First Day of School in Maryland School Systems<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Wednesday, August 19<\/b> \u2014 Frederick<\/span><\/p>\n

Monday, August 24<\/b> \u2014 Anne Arundel, Baltimore City, Charles, Dorchester, Howard, Queen Anne\u2019s, Talbot<\/span><\/p>\n

Tuesday, August 25<\/b> \u2014 Allegany, Calvert, Montgomery, Prince George\u2019s, Washington<\/span><\/p>\n

Wednesday, August 26<\/b> \u2014 Caroline, St. Mary\u2019s<\/span><\/p>\n

Monday, August 31<\/b> \u2014 Baltimore, Carroll, Cecil, Garrett, Harford, Kent, Somerset, Worcester\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tuesday, September 1<\/b> \u2014 Wicomico<\/span><\/p>\n

###<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:<\/span>
\nMEDIA CONTACT:<\/span><\/span>Raven Hill, 410-767-0486<\/span><\/span>raven.hill@maryland.gov<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>
\nMaryland Kicks Off New School   …Learn more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsreleases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/281"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88916"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88919,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88916\/revisions\/88919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}