Superintendent Dr. Mark T. Bedell
Dr. Mark Bedell began a four-year term as Superintendent of Anne Arundel County Public Schools on July 1, 2022, and assumed his full duties leading Maryland’s fourth largest school district on August 8, 2022, after transitioning from the superintendency of Kansas City Public Schools.
Dr. Bedell is a talented, caring teacher, administrator and proven innovative public school leader with a track record of success in urban districts. In 2022, he led Kansas City Public Schools to full accreditation status for the first time in more than 20 years.
Dr. Bedell has spent his career pushing for educational equity. Under his steady leadership, Kansas City Public Schools created an innovative Equity Policy to direct the school system’s resources and programs to give every student the opportunity to reach their greatest potential.
Dr. Bedell has received many recognitions, including being named the 2023 Joseph E. Hill Superintendent of the Year by the National Alliance of Black School Educators.
In 2024, he was asked by Harvard University's Graduate School of Education to speak to approximately 170 principals in the Summer Leadership Institute about AACPS' work to cultivate relationships that will help move every student forward.
Dr. Bedell was also named a “Superintendent to Watch” by the National School Public Relations Association and “New Superintendent of the Year” by the Missouri Association of School Administrators during his first year leading Kansas City Public Schools.
He was named to 435 magazine’s Top 50 Power List as one of the most powerful people to shape the Kansas City region and to The Kansas City Business Journal’s Power 100 List. He was also recognized by The Kansas City Star as one of the 51 most influential Missourians.
In 2020, Dr. Bedell was a finalist for the Green-Garner Award, the top honor for urban school leaders across the country.
Dr. Bedell takes pride in the transparency that is among the core principles of his educational work. Upon taking his position in AACPS, he led a series of 16 “Listening and Learning” sessions designed to provide students, families, employees, and community members with a sense of his priorities and to allow those same people to provide their input on what the school system does well, what it needs to improve, and what they would like to see in AACPS. Dr. Bedell followed that in 2024 with a seven-session “Community Conversations” tour in which he and all members of his Cabinet were on hand to allow members of the public to interact, provide input, and get answers to their questions.
He regularly conducts assemblies with students, particularly those in middle school, in which he discusses the challenges he faced as a youth growing up in Rochester, N.Y., and the relationships he developed to help him overcome those challenges.
Under his leadership, AACPS was ranked 40th in the nation and No. 1 in the region among sought after school districts in a survey done by Test Prep Insight. The survey asked parent and guardians across the nation to identify the school districts they would most want their children to be in if they had the choice.
Dr. Bedell has written several articles and opinion pieces for newspapers, magazines, and journals. His numerous speaking engagements, awards, national board service for several high-level organizations and equity-centered keynotes make him a leading Superintendent in public education.
His most important honors, however, have come from students. In 2018, students at Southeast High School in Kansas City presented Dr. Bedell with an award for his efforts on their behalf and the positive impact he would have on future students. In 2022, Middle College students named Dr. Bedell “Superintendent of the Century.” The Middle College program started by Dr. Bedell has changed the lives of nearly 300 Kansas City Public Schools students who otherwise would have dropped out of high school.
Dr. Bedell and his wife, Robyn, an attorney, have three children. Their two oldest graduated from Kansas City Public Schools and now attend HBCUs. Their youngest is a middle school student in Anne Arundel County Public Schools.