Executive Summary
The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) requires standardized tests to measure proficiency in English Language Arts (ELA) and Math. MCPS has a diverse community of students; there are over 120 languages spoken by the more than 26,000 students enrolled in the ESOL program. The top 5 languages are Spanish (71%), French, Amharic, Chinese, and Portugese (MCPS ESOL). The MSDE defines this group of Multilingual Learners as “English Learner” and provides proficiency data for this demographic group.
Data for MCPS ELA and Math scores from 2015-2021 were analyzed to answer 3 questions
- What is the percent of proficient students by year in ELA/English 10 for the All Students and Multilingual Learners groups?
- What is the percent of proficient students by year in Math for the All Students and Multilingual Learners groups?
- What is the graduation rate and dropout rate by year for the All Students and Multilingual Learners groups?
The All Students group showed 49.2% proficiency across all ELA courses and years compared to 7.2% for the Multilingual Learners group. The All Students group showed 38.1% proficiency across all Math courses and years compared to 9.9% for the Multilingual Learners group. The All Students group had an average 89.4% graduation rate and 5.9% dropout rate compared to an average 52.7% graduation rate and 31.1% dropout rate for the Multilingual Learners group.
Background and Source Data
The MSDE defines the test scores that are considered to indicate proficiency. The MSDE provides data for standardized test results for all Maryland public school districts. Data are presented by year, subject, school district, individual school, and demographic groups.
Sources for MSDE data are:
- 2021: Excel format 2021 data
- 2018-2019: Excel format 2018-2019 data download
- 2015-2019: searchable format by individual school 2015-2019 searchable data
The MSDE data have a few considerations. Asterisks, <5%, or >95% are sometimes provided in the data. It appears this may be due to preserving anonymity of students in cases of small numbers. PARCC tests were administered from 2015 to 2019, but they appear to be referred to as MCAP in some of the MSDE data. No testing was done in 2020. A shortened version of the MCAP test that replaced PARCC was administered in Fall 2021.
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Results and Conclusions
Percent Proficiency of Students by Year for ELA
The percent of students with scores in the proficient range were compared by year.
All Students average proficiency ranged from:
- ELA3: 36.3 to 50.5%
- ELA4: 34.1 to 53.6%
- ELA5: 33.9 to 53.7%
- ELA6: 41.1 to 61.5%
- ELA7: 41.3 to 56.7%
- ELA8: 42.0 to 55.4%
- English 10: 43.8 to 64.7%
Multilingual Learners average proficiency ranged from:
- ELA3: 5.6 to 16.3%
- ELA4: 5.0 to 15.0%
- ELA5: 5.0 to 9.4%
- ELA6: 5.0 to 28.3%
- ELA7: 5.0 to 6.4%
- ELA8: 5.0 to 5.4%
- English 10: 5.0 to 12.1%
Most of the All Students group showed the lowest proficiency in 2021. The exceptions for the All Students group were ELA6 (2021 was the highest year of proficiency with 61.5%) and English 10 (2021 was the highest year of proficiency with 64.7%). However, 2021 was not the lowest year of proficiency for the English Learners group for any grade level. Notably, 2021 was the highest year of proficiency for ELA6 (28.3%) and English 10 (12.1%).
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Percent Proficiency of Students by Year for Math
The percent of students with scores in the proficient range were compared by year.
All Students average proficiency ranged from:
- Math 3: 22.8 to 54.6%
- Math 4: 34.6 to 52.5%
- Math 5: 34.3 to 47.7%
- Math 6: 31.2 to 42.8%
- Math 7: 5.4 to 31.6%
- Math 8: 5.0 to 38.9%
- Math Algebra 1: 10.3 to 44.3%
- Math Algebra 2: 6.7 to 95.0%
- Math Geometry: 5.0 to 91.2%
Multilingual Learners average proficiency ranged from:
- Math 3: 8.8 to 24.7%
- Math 4: 5.6 to 18.3%
- Math 5: 5.0 to 10.2%
- Math 6: 5.0 to 7.6%
- Math 7: 5.0 to 5.3%
- Math 8: 5.0 to 5.0%
- Math Algebra 1: 5.0 to 11.4%
- Math Algebra 2: n/a to 18.9% (data only for 2015)
- Math Geometry: n/a to 11.4% (data only for 2021)
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Graduation and Dropout Rates
Graduation and dropout rates were compared by year from 2017 to 2021. Data were not available prior to 2017.
Graduation rates for All Students ranged from 88.4 to 91.4%. Graduation rates for Multilingual Learners ranged from 40.7 to 67.4% and have increased each year.
Dropout rates for All Students ranged from 4.5 to 6.7%. Dropout rates for Multilingual Learners ranged from 20.6 to 39.0% and have decreased each year.
2021 showed the highest graduation rates and lowest dropout rates for both the All Students and English Learners groups.
Summary
The average proficiency for all English classes across all years and for all Math classes across all years was calculated. The average graduation rates and dropout rates across all years were calculated.
The All Students group had a higher average proficiency in ELA than Math (49.2 vs. 38.1%). The Multilingual Learners group had a higher average proficiency in Math than ELA (9.9% vs. 7.2%). The All Students group had a higher graduation rate than Multilingual Learners (89.4% vs. 52.7%), as well as a lower dropout rate (5.9 vs. 31.1%).
See the rest of our series on MCPS Test Score Data:
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