[Baltimore Sun] Maryland Report Card: Baltimore City outpaces region in number of improved schools
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The Baltimore City Public School System saw improvement in the number of schools that scored a three-star grade or above on Maryland’s school performance rating system, according to 2022-23 data released Wednesday.
The Maryland Report Card grades individual schools on a one-to-five-star scale. Over a third of city schools, about 35% of its 148 schools, scored a three or above. The district is the only one in the region that saw more schools gain stars than lose them over last year.
The district has an average rating of 2.3 stars. Maryland’s overall average rating is 3.2 stars, a slight decrease from 2021-22.
This is the fourth year Maryland has used report cards and star ratings. A school’s performance is evaluated using a balance of academic and non-academic factors, such as standardized test scores and student and teacher surveys about school life.
Schools are compared using a 100-point accountability system tied to the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, a bipartisan 2015 replacement for the No Child Left Behind Act.
Carey Wright, the interim state superintendent of schools, cautioned comparing last academic year’s report to previous years because some metrics that were left out in previous years have returned, such as student absenteeism. Eighth grade social studies Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program standardized test scores were also added, as required by a 2017 law.
“… we cannot make perfect comparisons,” Wright said in a news release. “However, we celebrate those districts and schools that showed success and we will continue to support those that faced challenges.”
Student absenteeism was previously removed due to the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on attendance when classes went virtual. Statewide attendance has improved, but the number of students who were chronically absent for 10% or more of the school days is still worse than pre-pandemic. Schools that struggled with attendance likely saw their scores decline.
Wednesday’s report will become a baseline to compare future results, education officials said. Ratings seem to have shifted toward the middle with fewer one- and five-star scores.
In Baltimore and across the state, many schools kept the same rating they had the previous academic year from 2021-22. That means 68% of city schools had no change, 26% went up by a star, and 6% went down.
BCPSS had more room for improvement than other districts. In the region’s other five school districts — Baltimore, Anne Arundel, Carroll, Harford and Howard counties — almost a quarter of schools had no possibility of improving because they got ratings of five last cycle. Only one Baltimore school, the Baltimore School for the Arts, got a five in 2021-22. The arts school held onto its five stars, joined by Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, according to the school system.
Conversely, almost one in five Baltimore schools had no possibility of regressing because they got one star last time. For the other five districts, that applied to less than 2% of schools. And among those districts’ schools, 60% had no change, 7% went up, and 33% went down.
The report card also looks at high school graduation rates, growth in middle and elementary schools, the progress of English language learners and MCAP scores, among other factors.
Performance on standardized tests, particularly math, has not returned to pre-pandemic levels.
Schools that changed star ratings were more than three times as likely to lose stars rather than gain them. In Anne Arundel County, 44 schools, about 38% of all schools, dropped a star. Three elementary schools saw improvement compared to the 2021-22 academic year.
Eighteen Baltimore County schools, about 11% of all schools, improved while 37 schools, or 23%, lost a star.
Ratings of schools and districts can be found online at reportcard.msde.maryland.gov.
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