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Students of politics may find an interesting case study when they inspect the evolving relationship of Maryland's most powerful elected official and its education boss.

Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) and state Superintendent of Schools Nancy S. Grasmick have made headlines going back to 2006, when Grasmick successfully pushed for the state Board of Education to take control of 11 Baltimore city public schools while O'Malley was mayor (a move the General Assembly later reversed).

Late in 2007, after O'Malley stated that he did not trust Grasmick, the Board of Education voted to renew Grasmick's contract over the objections of the Baltimore mayor and allies in the Maryland General Assembly.

But time, national recognition for Maryland's public schools, a state leader who has made education a top issue and $250 million in federal money can change thinking.

"They don't always see eye to eye, but they put their differences aside to put their shoulder to the wheel," said Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Dist. 27) of Chesapeake Beach.

Before the state's Race to the Top push, Miller said, he didn't think anybody could have predicted the work O'Malley and Grasmick put into the effort and its level of success.

With Maryland's recent victory in securing $250 million in Race to the Top funds, Grasmick's job, which she has held since 1991, seems even more secure. As she begins work on implementing the program, O'Malley seems committed to the state superintendent's standards-based approach.

The federally funded Race to the Top program is designed to tie teacher evaluations and pay to student test achievement. The program also seeks to recruit high-quality teachers and improve underperforming schools over a four-year period, beginning next year.

Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy in Washington, D.C., who publicly backed the state's takeover of the Baltimore schools four years ago, said Grasmick's two decades of work on standards-based education reform meant she is well-placed to implement Race to the Top, which also relies on quantitative methods such as measuring student test scores over time to determine teacher performance.

"It would be advantageous for the schools and the state to have the same figure there who's been there for so many years," Jennings said.

The state school board voted to renew Grasmick's contract in December 2007 after Miller and House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Dist. 30) of Annapolis had requested that the board not take a vote until her term expired in July 2008. Grasmick's contract expires July 1, 2012.

At the time of the vote, O'Malley had not yet named any new members to the board. In an interview last week, Miller still referred to the board's vote on Grasmick as an affront to O'Malley.

Miller stressed that O'Malley's and Grasmick's relationship has come a long way.

Just over a year after Grasmick was reappointed as superintendent, Education Week magazine named Maryland schools the best in the nation, based on factors such as graduation rate and Advanced Placement scores.

O'Malley has made a priority of education during his tenure by freezing tuition for four years at state universities and has been able to tout his recognition in July by the nation's largest teachers union, the National Education Association, as the "greatest education governor."

Miller noted that although Grasmick was a "conservative person in terms of her thinking," O'Malley worked diligently to get General Assembly votes for education legislation that blended Grasmick's ideas with Race to the Top objectives in mind.

The result was the 2010 Education Reform Act, which links teacher and principal pay in part to test scores, increases the amount of time teachers must work before they receive tenure from two to three years and provides incentives for top teachers to move to struggling schools.

"I think she's done a magnificent job," Miller said.

At the same time, Miller said he wasn't concerned about the ultimate success of Race to the Top should Grasmick leave her position before the four-year program runs its course.

As the longest-serving appointed state education superintendent in the nation, Grasmick has proved that she has a unique combination of educational and political savvy, Jennings said.

For example, he said Grasmick was shrewd to wait until the second funding phase of Race to the Top to apply so she could gather political support and pass friendly legislation, despite objections from O'Malley earlier this year.

Grasmick declined to be interviewed, and O'Malley could not be reached for comment. A state Department of Education spokesman, William Reinhard, said Grasmick would not discuss her contract before it expires.

"The superintendent and governor have worked closely together on this, and have shared goals when it comes to education," Reinhard said. "We don't see that changing."

Grasmick is also in an unusual position of having worked for a former governor, Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., who is running for his former position.

Andy Barth, a spokesman for Ehrlich, said any consideration of Grasmick's position at the education department would not take place until after the November election.

Barth said Ehrlich had a good working relationship with Grasmick during his term from 2003 to 2006, but stopped short of saying she deserved most of the credit for educational progress made during O'Malley's term.

"He has the highest regard for Nancy Grasmick," Barth said, referring to Ehrlich.

But Sen. Paul G. Pinsky (D-Dist.22) of University Park, who has been critical of Race to the Top, said implementation would be difficult for Grasmick and O'Malley, an opinion shared by Jennings.

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Although the story now is Maryland's Race to the Top triumph, the emphasis will shift next year to negotiations with teachers unions over changes to their job performance ratings and pay, as well as implementing new student assessments, Pinsky said.

Pinsky works for the Montgomery County Education Association, the teachers union for county public schools.

"I think the question is: Is her approach to reform going to show the most results?" Pinsky said.

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