Defintion

In 2016-2017 Maryland identified Focus Schools as those schools in the top 10 percent of Title I schools with the largest within-school gaps between the highest-achieving student group and the lowest-achieving student groups. This list remains the same for the 2017-2018 school year. The Focus schools are expected to collect and analyze data to identify problematic areas of instruction and learning. This will allow schools and Local Education Agency (LEAs) to address their identified areas of need through professional development, instructional transformation, parent engagement, and the development of other specialized strategies that they deem necessary. These improvement measures will be monitored by LEAs and MSDE to ensure that they are effective in closing the gaps, thus improving the overall performance of the school.