Baltimore City Youth Data Scorecard

What is the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)?

The NAEP mathematics and reading exams are a national standardized assessment given every two years to a representative sample of students in the nation and all 50 states. The NAEP also assesses a representative sample of some urban districts, including Baltimore City Public Schools. Unlike the MCAP exam, the NAEP allows for accurate comparisons between locations across the country over time. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the scheduled 2021 exams were administered in 2022.

How is the NAEP calculated?

Individual scale scores from NAEP tests are converted into one of three achievement levels: NAEP Basic, NAEP Proficient, and NAEP Advanced. The NAEP Proficient and Advanced levels “demonstrate solid academic performance and competency over challenging subject matter.” Our scorecard displays the percentage of students who scored at least Proficient in the Baltimore City and Maryland samples.

How are we doing on this measure?

Math proficiency rates in Baltimore City and Maryland in both Grades 4 and 8 decreased in 2022 compared to 2019. Grade 4 rates were increasing from 2015 in Baltimore City until dropping to 7.2% in 2022. Grade 8 rates in Baltimore City have decreased steadily over the years, from 12.8% proficient in 2013, to 8.1% proficient in 2022. However, since 2022, 4th grade and 8th grade math proficiency increased continuously, putting City Schools in the top 25 percent of large urban school districts nationwide in math recovery.

Grade 4 reading scores in Baltimore City and Maryland both declined in 2022 to the lowest proficiency rates seen in over a decade (10.3% in Baltimore City, 30.6% in Maryland). While Grade 8 reading rates decreased in 2022 for Maryland students (32.8%), they remained steady in Baltimore City compared to 2019 (14.8%). In both math and reading for grades 4 and 8, Baltimore City lags behind the state of Maryland.

Data Source

NAEP Maryland State Profile, National Center for Education Statistics

NAEP Baltimore City District Profile, National Center for Education Statistics

What is the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP)?

The MCAP exams are Maryland’s state standardized tests administered annually in the Spring. The MCAP replaced the Partnership for Assessment and Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) exams in 2019. The MCAP was set to debut in the 2019-2020 school year, but due to the pandemic, the exam was next offered during the Fall of 2021. Because this test was taken at a different time than all other standardized tests, and because the Fall 2021 tests were modified and condensed, we do not include these results in our scorecard.

The MCAP was administered in its full form in the spring of 2022 and 2023. Despite the MCAP being a different test than the PARCC exams administered pre-pandemic, the State of Maryland routinely compares proficiency rates between the two tests as if they were the same. With two years of post-pandemic MCAP data (2022 and 2023), we can start to understand better how Baltimore City students are doing in Math and English Language Arts, and how proficiency rates compare to pre-pandemic levels.

How is the MCAP calculated?

Individual scale scores from MCAP tests are converted into one of four performance levels: Distinguished, Proficient, Developing, and Beginning. Our scorecard reports the percentage of students who score at least Proficient.

How are we doing on this measure?

MCAP Math Grade 3 proficiency rates in Baltimore City decreased significantly in the first tests after the pandemic in 2022, moving from 19.8% proficient in 2019 to 12.3% proficient in 2022. Proficiency rates bounced back in the years after, nearly returning to pre-pandemic levels as of 2024. Separating results by race and ethnic groups reveals that the gap between Black or African American students and White students is at its highest level since we started collecting data in 2015. Indeed, White students’ proficiency rates have increased each year of testing since 2015 and up to a high of 57.1% in 2024. In that same year, Black or African American proficiency rates were 15.3% while Hispanic/Latino students of any race had a proficiency rate of 15.4%.

MCAP Math Grade 8 proficiency rates in Baltimore City and Maryland have decreased since the pandemic. In both 2022 and 2023, Baltimore City rates were below 5% (Maryland does not report exact proficiency rates when they fall below 5% due to data privacy reasons). The proficiency rate for Maryland students was 7% in 2024, well below the 12.5% rate seen in 2019. Less than 5% of Black or African American students were proficient in 2023, compared to 8.8% of White students.

Data Source

Maryland Report Card, Maryland State Department of Education

What is the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP)?
The MCAP exams are Maryland’s state standardized tests administered annually in the Spring. The MCAP replaced the Partnership for Assessment and Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) exams in 2019. The MCAP was set to debut in the 2019-2020 school year, but due to the pandemic, the exam was next offered during the Fall of 2021. Because this test was taken at a different time than all other standardized tests, and because the Fall 2021 tests were modified and condensed, we do not include these results in our scorecard.

The MCAP was administered in its full form in the spring of 2022 and 2023. Despite the MCAP being a different test than the PARCC exams administered pre-pandemic, the State of Maryland routinely compares proficiency rates between the two tests as if they were the same. With two years of post-pandemic MCAP data (2022 and 2023), we can start to understand better how Baltimore City students are doing in Math and English Language Arts, and how proficiency rates compare to pre-pandemic levels.

How is the MCAP calculated?
Individual scale scores from MCAP tests are converted into one of four performance levels: Distinguished, Proficient, Developing, and Beginning. Our scorecard reports the percentage of students who score at least Proficient.

How are we doing on this measure?

The most promising results in post-pandemic MCAP scores come from English Language Arts (ELA), where proficiency rates for Baltimore City students in Grades 3 and 8 greatly increased in 2022 and 2023 compared to 2019. Specifically, only 16.2% of Grade 3 students were proficient in ELA in 2019, compared to 18.9% in 2022 and 24.1% in 2023. For 8th graders, only 5.3% were proficient in ELA in 2019, compared to 22.0% in 2022 and 29.0% in 2023. City Schools officials credited the rise in ELA proficiency across the city to intense literacy interventions in schools that began before the pandemic.

Although the increase in ELA scores across the city is something to celebrate, one cause for concern is the increasing gaps in proficiency rates between Black or African American students and White students. For example, in 2019 for Grade 8 ELA, the proficiency rate gap between Black or African American students (5.0%) and White students (10.7%) was 5.7 percentage points. This gap has ballooned to 36.5 percentage points in 2023, as both Black or African American students (25.1%) and White students (61.6%) increased proficiency rates post-pandemic, but a greater percentage of White students have benefited.

Data Source
Maryland Report Card, Maryland State Department of Education