The Maryland Department of Education is introducing a new star-based rating system today that allows parents, teachers, and students a way to find out how their school is performing. Each school will receive a star rating—one being the lowest, maximum five stars—based on academic achievement on the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC test), absenteeism rates, graduate percentage, and a well-rounded curriculum.

The new rating system allows the public to compare schools across districts around the state. Next year, the ratings will include results of a survey given to students and educators asking how they view their school.

“This new Maryland report card, in my opinion, is the first time we’ve had such a complete picture of system performance so that educators and parents really have something to view that’s transparent and easy to understand,” said Karen Salmon, state superintendent of schools. “It also looks at areas that we should be looking at, like chronic absenteeism, preparation for postsecondary success, access to a well-rounded curriculum and also graduation rate for the high school— it’s very good to be very comprehensive.”

The information will also more organized than its current format. Everything will be presented on one page that allows parents and educators to see not only how many stars a school has earned, but other data that went into the rating, including the number of points the school earned for each factor and its percentile ranking compared to other schools in the category. The total earned points percent, or the total number of points earned by the school across the measures, divided by the total possible points, is also included.

The star ratings were required by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which replaced the No Child Left Behind Act in 2015. This new system, approved by the Maryland State Board of Education last June, will be more nuanced and will judge schools based on more than just test scores and graduation requirements.

This new report card is also going to help school districts better identify their lowest-performing schools—those in the bottom five percent. School administrators will work with the state to develop improvement plans, and some federal funds will be available to help make changes at those schools.

“We will be providing additional funding and also additional support to do professional development,” Salmon said. “So those schools will get additional assistance and resources towards those particular schools. That’ll be a team effort.”

Just six months after the deadly shooting at Great Mills High School in St. Mary’s County, Governor Larry Hogan announced a new tip line for students, faculty, and parents to report any suspicious or dangerous activity on school grounds. The Safe Schools Maryland Tip Line is a tool meant to create preparedness, prevention, and school safety.

“Incidents of targeted violence at our schools are rarely sudden impulsive acts,” Hogan said in his announcement. “Instead, in the majority of these incidents, another person, or persons, was aware of what the student was thinking or planning to do.”

Now, in Maryland, there are three ways to report potential threats at school: The Safe Schools MD mobile app available in the Apple app store or Google Play, or by calling 1-833-MD-B-SAFE. Hogan says that the tip line is not intended to replace 911 and that all calls and reports will go directly to the Maryland Emergency Management Agency (MEMA).

According to the website, issues that can be reported are not limited to possible school violence but also include harassment, mental health crises, and bullying. Kiona Black, a training and exercise administrator at MEMA, said that the system got a tip within minutes.

“The first tip came in while the governor was speaking,” Black said. “I processed that while I was sitting in the room, and it was read and received within seven minutes.”

The Maryland State Department of Education (MDSE) announced on Wednesday that Maryland was awarded $3.6 million in federal grants to strengthen classroom safety. A five-year, $2.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education will allow the state to roll out the Maryland School Emergency Preparedness Program—a partnership between MSDE, MEMA, and local school systems.

“These grants will help Maryland in implementing our Behavioral Threat Assessment Model and the mental health training and intervention support initiative,” said Dr. Karen Salmon, states schools superintendent in a statement. “These funds will help Maryland update and modernize emergency operations plans in schools throughout the state and utilize state-of-the-art techniques to better identify potential threats to student safety.”

According to CNN, there have been 23 school shootings in the U.S. in 2018 where someone was injured or killed, averaging to about one shooting per week.

“Sadly, all too often, students choose to remain silent because they are afraid of retaliation, rejection, or being stigmatized by their peers,” Hogan said. “We need to empower our students to break that code of silence.”