Maryland schools show progress in reading and math, but still have far to go
Students aren’t the only ones who get report cards every year. Schools do too.
The state of Maryland put out its annual report on Thursday, and it showed English and math scores have gone up in some of the D.C. area’s biggest school districts.
Montgomery County Schools held an event to celebrate their scores. Grace Rivera-Oven, the school board president, and Thomas Taylor, the superintendent, both touted district-wide gains at the event.
But many students are behind where they should be.
The big question at hand is whether kids are able to read and do math. Data shows that many of them are still struggling.
The number of middle schoolers in Montgomery County who can do math has gone up over the past three years, from 27% to 29% to now 32%.
But even with those increases, only about one in three Montgomery County middle schoolers is on track with their math skills.
Elementary and high schoolers are doing better at math, with 47% of elementary and 44% of high schoolers at grade level.
That still means less than half of those students are where they should be.
“We are far from closing achievement gaps in Montgomery County,” Taylor said. “I want to acknowledge there’s a ton of work we need to do. But it’s important to recognize progress when it’s happening.
Prince George’s County schools also saw many numbers go up — but those students are still struggling as well.
Last year, math proficiency numbers in Prince George’s County public schools were 19% for elementary school students, 12% for middle schoolers and 16% for high schoolers.
Across the board in Prince George’s County schools, less than half of all students are proficient in English.
“Frankly, there’s a lot of kids in both of these districts who are just not prepared,” said Liz Cohen. She’s an MCPS parents who also works at 50CAN, a nonprofit focused on educational policy.
Cohen says chronic absenteeism is a big problem that gets in the way of students learning, along with too much screen time.
“What we found is that the parents who say their kids are getting As and Bs in school, those kids are doing sports and clubs and volunteering and all those sorts of things,” Cohen said. “The kids who are getting Cs and Ds are doing almost nothing, and they’re on their phones a lot.”
Frederick County, Maryland schools had English and math proficiency rates that ranged from 33% to 74%, and Charles County schools ranged from 17% to 47%.
You can take a look at all of the school report card numbers for yourself below.
News4 reached out to all four school systems for an interview on Thursday, but none of them did so.
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