8-26-2025 4:18am

County Schools To

BCPS to launch cursive writing pilot program in November

TOWSON, MD — Twenty-four Baltimore County elementary schools will kick off a new pilot cursive writing program beginning on Monday, November 3, the start of the school year’s second quarter.

The pilot will run through the end of the 2025-2026 school year and will include students in Grades 2-4, though individual schools may focus only on one or two specific grades. Educators will learn about the pilot and how to teach it in October.

Schools that have signed up to pilot the cursive writing program are Arbutus, Chadwick, Chapel Hill, Charlesmont, Chatsworth, Dundalk, Halethorpe, Hawthorne, Hebbville, Hernwood, Hillcrest, Middleborough, Middlesex, New Town, Pinewood, Pleasant Plains, Pot Spring, Randallstown, Scotts Branch, Seventh District, Villa Cresta, Vincent Farm, Watershed Public Charter, and Woodholme elementaries.

“This pilot is an opportunity to renew the emphasis on cursive writing in our classrooms and explore its benefits more intentionally,” said Jennifer Craft, executive director for Literacy and Humanities in the BCPS Division of Curriculum and Instruction. “I am excited about the promise this initiative holds for our students.

Cursive writing is not just about penmanship; it gives students another powerful tool to grow as confident readers and writers. We are eager to see how this practice will strengthen focus, memory,writing fluency, and communication skills, while reinforcing the literacy foundation that supports longterm academic success.”

Craft noted that cursive writing has never been out of the BCPS curriculum, only that it hasn’t been emphasized. Cursive writing instruction has been part of the Open Court reading program BCPS has used for years in Kindergarten to Grade 3.

The BCPS pilot was developed with an eye toward including increased writing results in areas like notetaking and essay-writing, reinforced spelling and vocabulary proficiency, deeper reading and listening comprehension, and a boost to overall writing fluency and academic confidence.
To achieve those goals, Craft said, the pilot will focus on basics such as fine motor control (forming
cursive letters with proper pencil grip, fluid motion, and spacing), making sure cursive letters begin on a baseline and are connected, and linking letters with connecting strokes that reinforce spelling and word sequence awareness.

Next spring, BCPS will gather both quantitative and qualitative data to measure the impact of the pilot on student achievement and teacher implementation. Decisions regarding the pilot’s continuation or possible expansion will be based in part on data collected from this year’s program.

In 2010, many states dropped formal cursive instruction after it was not included in the Common Core State Standards that many states followed, but interest in reviving the skill has been growing nationally and locally. This year, about half the nation’s states require cursive instruction in their public school curriculums.