The Maryland State Board of Education meets Aug. 22 in Baltimore. Photo by William J. Ford.
Maryland’s latest standardized testing results show major improvements in English and slight increases in math proficiency within the state’s public schools, but there remain achievement gaps between white students and those of Black and Latino descent.
The state Department of Education released test results Tuesday from the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP), which students took during the 2022-23 school year.
The data are from tests taken by students in grades three through eight in math, English language arts and science. Schools administered the science tests from March 6 to March 24 and math and language arts tests from April 3 to May 26.
Student test scores improved in English language arts and math compared to scores on tests students took in spring 2022, which was the first full statewide assessment since students returned to in-person instruction after many spent much time in virtual schooling due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Advertisement
The math results don’t exceed test scores from the 2018-19 school year, or pre-pandemic. A shortened version of the test was administered two years ago to assess how students fared during online instruction.
The MCAP is among factors that determine the state’s annual report card and school star rating system. New reports were last issued in March, the first time the state issued the annual report card since 2019 because of the pandemic.
Besides assessing MCAP results from math and language arts, state officials also broke down data on students in fifth and eighth grade who took science tests and on students in 10th grade English and students enrolled in Algebra 1, Algebra 2 and Geometry.
State Boardmember Joan Mele-McCarthy said she had hoped that more students who are English learners and students with disabilities would score proficient in English language arts.
Almost 12% of students with disabilities scored as proficient in English language arts, versus 11% last year. But there was a slight decline in English learners who scored proficient, down from 13% last year to about 12%.
Advertisement
“All this money we are pumping into general [education]…We need to be thinking about these groups of learners and look at the kids who are economically disadvantaged,” Mele-McCarthy said. “I look at these stats all the time and I am not celebrating. I am not admonishing anyone. I’m just being passionate here.”
Superintendent Mohammed Choudhury said planned funding from the state’s Blueprint from Maryland’s Future should help all students. Also, the percentage of students with disabilities and English learners who scored proficient was higher than in the 2018-19 school year when 8% of each group scored proficient in language arts.
“I would not say that there has not been any progress. I would challenge that premise. We have made a lot of gains,” he said. “At the end of the day, we need to up our game.”
Here’s a summary of data comparisons from some test results this year and MCAP data the state released last year.
English language arts
Advertisement
Overall, nearly 47% of all students in third to eighth grades scored on a proficient level in 2023, an improvement over 2022 when about 44% scored proficient.
A graph from Maryland State Department of Education showing percentage of students proficient in English language arts. Screenshot.
In terms of race, 34% of Black students scored proficient versus 31% last year. Among students the state designated as Latino/Hispanic 31% scored proficient compared with 29% last school year.
The achievement gaps for Black and Latino students are still significant, compared with 63% of white and nearly 75% of Asian students scoring proficient. Last year, about 59% of white students and 73% of Asian students scored proficient.
Among third to eighth grade students from the state’s 24 school systems who took the test this year, Worcester County schools recorded the highest percentage, at 68%, who were proficient in English language arts. For Worcester, that was a 4 percentage point increase from last year.
Advertisement
Although Baltimore schools recorded a nearly 5 percentage point increase from last year, the city still recorded the lowest percentage in the state at 25%.
One of the biggest increases came in the number of students statewide who took and were tested on the high school course labeled “English 10.” This year, about 73,422 students took the test and 53.5% scored proficient. That is about the same percentage who scored proficient last year when 68,823 students took the test.
“What we’re doing in literacy is working. We just need to master it,” Choudhury said.
Math
In math, nearly 25% of third-to-eighth-grade students scored proficient in 2023. It represents an almost 3 percentage point increase from test scores in the spring 2022.
Advertisement
A graph from Maryland State Department of Education showing percentage of students proficient in math. Screenshot.
In terms of race, 12% of Black and Latino students recorded a proficient level in math, about two percentage points higher than last year.
About 40% of white students were proficient in math, nearly three percentage points higher than last year. Math proficiency also increased three percentage points among Asian students rising from 53% to 56%.
Baltimore recorded, at 9%, the lowest percentage of students in grades three through eight who were proficient in math, but it was an improvement for the city of two percentage points from last year.
Worcester County students recorded the highest percentage of students who scored proficient, at 47%, a 10 percentage increase from last year.
Advertisement
Of about 74,400 students who took Algebra 1 and were tested this year, 17% scored proficient. Last year, of 76,608 students, 14% scored proficient.
Board Vice President Joshua Michael, a former math teacher, praised the slight improvements in math. However, he called the results “sobering.”
Although math proficiency percentages remain below pre-pandemic levels, Choudhury said there remains hope.
“Is it working in each individual school? No. It is in the aggregate,” he said. “This is not mission accomplished. We have work to do.”
The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration will provide an additional $23.1 million in federal aid to the agency’s national Home Visiting Program in the District, Maryland and Virginia.
More money is on the way for a home-visiting health care program designed to provide better care for pregnant women, new parents and infants.
The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) announced an additional $23.1 million in federal aid to the agency’s national Home Visiting Program in the District, Maryland and Virginia.
The extra money is the first time in a decade that the program has received an increase in federal funds, HRSA administrator Carol Johnson said.
Advertisement
“What those resources mean is that we’re able to support nurses, social workers and trained home visitors, and help with those early days of being a new parent,” Johnson said. “All of this has been shown to really make a difference in kids’ outcomes. Kids are so much stronger because they get these kinds of supports.”
Johnson said the program’s success hinges on convenient health visits in a comfortable at-home setting.
“When you’re a new parent, if you have to take off from work and take a few buses to get to an appointment, you’re probably not going to do it,” she said. “But if that person comes to your house and they’re full of resources and knowledge, it’s going to make a huge difference to you.”
Rockville, Maryland-based HRSA spearheads the national program, teaming up with local health organizations to target and reach parents.
Home health care workers can provide breastfeeding support, safe sleep tips and developmental screening for babies. They can even help parents find key services like affordable child care or job and educational opportunities.
Advertisement
“It’s changed my life,” past program participant Fatima Ray said.
Ray said she was introduced to the program in 2015 when she needed help with her infant daughter. She and her husband were first-time parents and stumbled through the first few months with a newborn.
“It felt good, like I had someone on my team,” Ray said. “Those questions you forget to ask the doctor sometimes, she would answer them.”
The experience impressed Ray so much that she became a home health visitor. She is the maternal health coordinator at Primo Center, a homeless shelter for families in Chicago.
“The same care that was given to me, I just want to pass it on,” Ray told WTOP. “I know how much it made a difference in my life. Home visiting matters.”
Advertisement
President Joseph Biden signed bipartisan legislation in 2022 that doubles funding for the program over five years. The move was part of a campaign promise to lower risks linked to pregnancy and improve maternal health, especially among women in rural, tribal and low-income communities.
The national home visiting program will receive $440 million Maryland’s local programs will get $10 million of those funds. Virginia is slated to receive $11 million and D.C.’s home visiting programs will see a $2.5 million increase.
“This will push home visiting forward a lot more,” Ray said. “It’s just going to help tremendously.”
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
Michigan State won a big time road game over Maryland, improving their record to 2-0, and giving head coach Jonathan Smith his first Big Ten conference victory as the head man of the Spartans.
A big part of that win was the connection between Aidan Chiles and Nick Marsh, and more specifically their 77-yard touchdown connection tying the game 24-24 late in the fourth quarter.
Chiles and Marsh spoke to the media after the team’s win, which you can watch via Spartan Mag on YouTube:
Advertisement
Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan State news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Cory Linsner on X @Cory_Linsner
The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday
Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US
Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US
A 16-year-old student at a high school in Maryland has been detained after he allegedly shot and killed a 15-year-old student in one of the school’s bathrooms.
The name of the suspect has yet to be released. The victim, Warren Curtis Grant, died following the shooting at Joppatowne High School. Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler made the announcement at a press briefing.
The suspect fled the scene but was detained close by just minutes later.
“He has yet to be charged but will be charged, and at the time those charges are preferred as an adult, we will release the name of the suspect,” Gahler told the press, according to The Guardian.
Advertisement
The sheriff added that his office has handled more than 10 cases in the last two years “where the suspect was either the victim, witness or the suspect in an incident handled by the Harford county sheriff’s office.”
A member of the Harford County Sheriff’s department tries to clear the way for an emergency vehicle as it heads toward Joppatowne High School after a shooting at the school, Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, in Joppatowne, Md (AP)
While the sheriff’s office told the public to avoid the area after the shooting, it said that it was an “isolated incident, not an active shooter.”
An “active shooter” situation refers to when a suspect is firing against everyone they see rather than targeting a particular person.
An area church was used as a reunification center for students and their parents. The school is located about 20 miles northeast of Baltimore.
Gahler noted that more than 100 law enforcement officials responded to the scene.
The fight at Joppatowne High School took place just two days after the shooting at a high school outside Atlanta, Georgia where a 14-year-old shot and killed four people.
