Every Family Deserves to Experience Excellence

Last week, TheGrio published an article that explored whether Prince George’s County’s public schools are delivering on the promise of opportunity that has drawn generations of Black families to our community.

The article raises an important question about our public schools, one that matters to every family: Are we providing the quality of education every child deserves?

For generations, Prince George’s County has represented possibility for Black families. Black professionals, entrepreneurs, educators, public servants, families and children have built community here and created opportunity.

We should be proud of that history. We should also recognize the responsibility that comes with it.

Because while the article focuses on the experiences of Black families, the responsibility before us extends to every child and every family we serve.

That is a question worth confronting.

Not defensively. 

Not because one article defines our school system. 

But because becoming excellent requires the courage to listen when families share their experiences with us.

Excellence exists throughout PGCPS. Our challenge is making it predictable.

Families should not have to discover the right program, live in the right neighborhood, win a lottery or possess special knowledge about how to navigate our system to feel confident about the education their child will receive.

That question is personal for me.

When I served as superintendent of Metro Nashville Public Schools, my son Isaiah was approaching his senior year of high school. I was not satisfied with the experience he was having, and I made the difficult decision to send him back to Maryland to finish high school.

I could make that decision because I had options. I still owned a home in Maryland, and I had the financial resources to make a different choice when I believed my child needed something more.

Many families do not have those choices.

But I remember the stress of being a parent who believed excellence was eluding his own child.

That experience stayed with me. It deepened my conviction that families should never have to choose between cultural identity and academic excellence.

A good public school provides both.

A great public school system makes both predictable.

Progress requires us to confront what is difficult, remain clear about where we are going and keep pushing toward what our children deserve.

That is the heart of Forward by Design.

Families should not have to search for excellence in Prince George’s County. They should be able to expect it in every school, in every classroom, every day.

This conversation carries particular meaning here because of the extraordinary place Prince George’s County holds in the story of Black America. We should be proud of that history. We should also understand the responsibility that comes with it.

And our responsibility belongs to every child.

Our classrooms are filled with Black children, Latino children, Asian children, White children, multilingual learners, students with disabilities, children whose families have lived here for generations and children whose families have only recently made Prince George’s County their home.

Every one of them deserves excellence.

That promise is ultimately realized through people.

It is realized by the teacher preparing tomorrow’s lesson tonight. The bus driver greeting a child before sunrise. The school secretary responding to a worried parent. The food service worker who knows a student by name. The principal standing at the schoolhouse door.

Excellence is experienced in thousands of moments like these.

Every family deserves to know that when they entrust a child to us, we will see that child, challenge that child, support that child and prepare that child for a future filled with possibility.

That is why the vision of Forward by Design matters so much:

Excellence Everywhere. Every child. Every day.

Those words cannot simply describe our aspiration. They must increasingly describe the experience of the families we serve.

This past weekend, our Board of Education and executive leadership team continued the work of bringing greater focus to that promise.

We have been clear that excellence can become meaningless when everything becomes a priority. If we are serious about improving outcomes, we must be disciplined about where we concentrate our attention.

This year, we are organizing our public commitments around four areas:

Reading. Mathematics. Transportation. Customer Service.

They may appear different, but they are connected by one fundamental idea: trust.

Families must be able to trust that their children will become strong and confident readers.

They must be able to trust that their children will develop the mathematical knowledge necessary to access advanced coursework, college, careers, technology and the opportunities of an increasingly complex world.

They must be able to trust that when we say a bus will transport their child to school safely and reliably, we will work relentlessly to fulfill that responsibility.

And they must be able to trust that when they call us, email us, enter one of our schools or ask us for help, they will be treated with dignity, urgency and care.

Academic excellence and the experience families have with our organization cannot be separated.

You experience our values through what we do.

The larger question before us, then, is not whether excellence can be found in Prince George’s County.

We know it can.

The question is whether every child can depend on it.

A child’s opportunity should not depend upon a school assignment, a lottery result, a ZIP code, a disability, a home language, race, ethnicity, family income or whether a parent understands how to navigate a complex educational system.

Excellence must become increasingly predictable.

That is the work before us.

We are not pursuing these priorities because a dashboard tells us to or because they sound good in a strategic plan.

We are pursuing them because behind every data point is a child, and behind every child is a family placing its trust in us.

Our public commitments will tell our community what matters most to us this year.

Our actions will tell you whether you should believe us.

And we intend to make those actions visible.

By the Thanksgiving holiday, our goal is to present a dashboard that will help our Board, employees, families and community understand our progress across these four priorities. We will be transparent about where we are improving, where challenges remain and where our work must become stronger.

There is enormous promise in Prince George’s County, extraordinary talent in our children and tremendous capacity within this organization.

Our task is to turn that promise into something families can see, feel and experience in every school.

There will always be more work to do. But our direction should be unmistakable.

We want families to choose Prince George’s County not simply because they can build a good life here, but because they know their children can receive an extraordinary education here.

That promise belongs to every family.

It belongs to every child who walks through our doors.

Excellence Everywhere. Every child. Every day.

Let us make it visible.

Let us make it measurable.

Most importantly, let us make it real.

Dr. Shawn Joseph
Superintendent