With addition of quality childcare division, CTE unites 79 team members.
On October 24, the Johns Hopkins University School of Education Center for Technology in Education (CTE) held an annual retreat at the Historic Oakland Manor in Columbia, MD with the goal of creating space for their staff to get to know one another and come together in person as a team.
Nearly 70 team members joined together from across the country and participated in activities geared toward getting to know one another. Eugene Schnell came in the afternoon to lead the group through a FIRO-B session meant to enhance self-awareness and improve interpersonal communication using the results of a test they’d taken before the retreat.
They also learned about their overall accomplishments and impact as an organization. Since FY22, sponsored project funding at CTE has grown 49% from $8.5 million to an expected $12.7 million in FY25.
Before they were joined by their new teammates, in 2023 CTE reached 32,000 students and 420,000 teachers across all projects over the course of a year. The Maryland Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) served 11,500 students and 1,500 teachers, and the Maryland Online Individualized Education Program (MOIEP) served nearly 79,000 students and 8,800 teachers. And 948 teachers used the COS Gateway. Through CTE’s Comprehensive Assessment System (which includes both the Kindergarten Readiness and Early Learning assessments) they trained 17,992 teachers and assessed 320,791 students.
And thanks to their new team members, in the past year, 70% of all licensed child care programs in the state participated in Maryland EXCELS. That includes 83% of all eligible child care centers and 62% of all family child care homes (almost 5,000 programs). Program Quality Specialists reviewed over 30,000 pieces of documentation from childcare providers (like lesson plans, handbooks, etc.) in 2023 and are on track to do the same or more this year. Over 500 Maryland programs have achieved accreditation.
Overall, the retreat accomplished its goal, and CTE’s newly united 79-person team is excited about what the future holds.
