July marks an important milestone for Dr. Mark Bedell. Tracing Dr. Bedell’s path to AACPS leadership, it has now been one full year since he accepted a four-year term as Superintendent of Anne Arundel County Public Schools. We sat down for an interview to reflect on what this year has looked like and what Anne Arundel County Public Schools can expect to see moving forward. Dark clouds rolled in as we began our interview, and an urgent weather alert blared on the radio. Thunder rumbled in the distance, and before long, lightning danced across the sky. Inside Dr. Bedell’s office, it was calm, peaceful, and welcoming. He has that effect, calmly and efficiently addressing any situation that arises.
Passion For Education
Dr. Bedell has a deeply rooted passion for education and believes that education without equity is a disservice to all. When asked where this passion began, Dr. Bedell says it’s simple. “It comes from lived experience.” He recalled when a second-grade teacher called him dumb and ugly and said he would never amount to anything. Years later, those words still sting, but from that experience, Dr. Bedell says he learned the value of having someone advocate for you and believe in your potential. He recalled another experience where a tenth-grade teacher pulled him aside, told him that he was academically talented, and encouraged him not to throw it all away just because he was mad at the world.
After that conversation, Dr. Bedell says he opened up to the teacher about all of the struggles he was facing. “That teacher, along with another history teacher of mine, both said ‘You’re going to teach one day.’ They planted the seed. That was probably the defining moment for me. My experience allows me to advocate and fight for all children. I’m relentless in that pursuit. I’m out here trying to make the best decisions that I believe will impact children. My value system is truly aligned with doing the right thing for children and not ever succumbing to a political or adult-centered agenda.”
The Path To AACPS
He began his career in 1999 as a substitute teacher in the Nashville Metro School System while earning his Masters. From there, he began teaching full-time in Houston, Texas. He then became an assistant principal at an alternative school, followed by serving as an assistant principal, then principal in a high school setting. At that time, he says, he could apply his passion for educational equity to solving systemic problems in the educational institutions he worked for. “I turned a failing school completely around, and then I got promoted into the central office,” he says with well-earned pride. After these accomplishments, Dr. Bedell moved his family to Anne Arundel County when he was recruited to work in Baltimore County Public Schools. While he did move to Kansas City to fill the role of superintendent a short while later, the love of Maryland had its grip, and it wouldn’t be long before the Bedell family was back.
When the superintendent position opened up for AACPS, Dr. Bedell knew it was the right fit. “When we got the opportunity to come back to Anne Arundel County, we were excited. We really loved it as parents. We thought it was a high-quality school district and an awesome community to live in. By this point, we had accomplished everything we went to Kansas City to do.” During his six-year tenure in Kansas City, Dr. Bedell led the school system to full accreditation in 2022 after a 22-year absence. It was the first school system in the United States to lose its full accreditation status back in 2000.
Coming Back From COVID
Stepping into any new position will inevitably have its fair share of challenges, but coming into a new position while also trying to rebound from the implications of a global pandemic is unprecedented.
“Every superintendent who has experienced leading during COVID will tell you it’s arguably some of the worst years of our careers,” Dr. Bedell says. Besides the logistics and health concerns, Dr. Bedell says that one of the greatest struggles that school systems have had to recover from is the division that has been created. “Whether you mask or not, whether you do virtual schooling or not, whether you do synchronous or asynchronous learning, whether you are in a community where you are Wi-Fi privileged, or if you are trying to park in parking lots somewhere so your kids can access Wi-Fi. It didn’t matter what school district you were in.” He continues, “Fifty percent of the people were going to be happy with your decisions, and fifty percent weren’t.”
Coming back from COVID, Dr. Bedell says that his goal for the county was trying to get back to a “new normal.” In some ways, Dr. Bedell says that the global pandemic was a catalyst, albeit unwelcome, to innovate how we approach public education. While AACPS is a top-ranking school system, Dr. Bedell says there is always work to be done, and he is eager to show us all just how great we can be. “When it comes to innovation, we need to restore and bring joy back to teaching and learning.”
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Looking To The Future
With a full year behind him, Dr. Bedell says he and his staff have big plans to look forward to. He says that his number one goal as superintendent is to build a five-year strategic plan. He is determined to engage with the community and get their input directly.
This plan is set to be built around four main areas: equity; innovation; social emotional, and academic growth for all students; and adherence to The Blueprint For Maryland’s Future. Regarding equity, Dr. Bedell wants to ensure that every student in this county is exposed to the same opportunities for growth and development. This includes low, average, and high-achieving students.
The focus on intervention will help ensure that all students, no matter where they fall in academic performance, will be given the resources and guidance needed to continue expanding their educational goals. “Most people would think we are going to redirect resources to help only the kids who are at the bottom, assuming that that’s how we close gaps. I don’t operate like that.” He says, “I expect the top to move and I expect the bottom to move. I expect that we do what we need to do to accelerate the kids who are behind so that we are closing the gap while we are also moving the top performers as well.”
Social and Emotional Needs
Academics are important, but Bedell says that education cannot exist in a vacuum and that tending to students’ social and emotional needs will be critical to continued growth as a school system. When looking at The Blueprint For Maryland’s Future, Dr. Bedell says that to truly measure success and forward motion, plans and assessment tools to monitor the efficacy of interventions will help ensure that the school system is actively achieving the plan’s goals. “Interventions should be prescriptive. What are we going to focus on, and how do we monitor progress? There should be no surprises by the time we get to the end of the school year if we have been actively assessing along the way. Hope is great, but you don’t leave success up to hope. I love hope! But hope is not a plan.”
Another goal, says Dr. Bedell, is to continue to inspire staff and community members. “I believe in giving people space to utilize their crafts to move our system forward. I don’t micromanage. I let everybody know about my shortcomings. I let people know that I’m not a perfect leader. And I think that inspires people because they know I am not sitting up in my office hiding and running away from problems. I am human, but I face problems head-on.” Dr. Bedell also hopes to inspire more community involvement. While we have a quality school system, he says that it is also important to recognize that family involvement is what will propel us forward. Dr. Bedell says this is why the school system introduced the #BePresent initiative.
Redistricting
Before we ended our interview, Dr. Bedell said it was imperative that we discuss the topic of redistricting. He says that while this has been a tense topic of discussion, it is important to understand. AACPS will be moving forward with redistricting, which will be done in two phases. He says that redistricting cannot be avoided and is mandated by policy.
For those who wish to understand more about the redistricting process, Dr. Bedell encourages them to read the information that is posted on the AACPS website. “Here’s the most important part about redistricting,” says Dr. Bedell. “People need to know that this is a good problem to have. We are growing, and we have to balance the system. While it’s a good problem to have, it is not a fun process to go through. This is policy-driven, it has to be done, and there is no way around it. But this is going to be a community-driven process. Once we balance the system, we can make sure that all kids are in an environment where teachers can give them the attention that they deserve.”
Dr. Bedell believes strongly that a school system is only as strong as the sum of its parts, and one of the most valuable parts of that system is the community as a whole. He welcomes comments and questions from families and is eager to see just how far the school system can go with a combined effort from staff, students, families, and the community.
Jillian Amodio is a mother of two, mental health advocate and creator of Moms For Mental Health. She is passionate about family, health and wellness, and spreading joy like glitter! She lives in Cape Saint Claire with her husband, children, and crazy dog.