Sunday, February 04, 2007

How does Southern Maryland Compare?

In an article today in the Washington Post, they discuss the scores of Southern Maryland students on the Maryland School Assessments. Clearly, Calvert County middle schools outperform state averages in every Maryland School Assessment category. Where is St. Mary's and Charles? Unfortunately, Charles scores rank last of the three counties in five of the six areas. But on the good side, maybe, we ranked at or better than the state average in five of the six categories as well.

Southern Maryland students' scores on the Maryland School Assessment exams are listed below. The scores represent the percentage of students taking the exams who performed at the proficient or advanced levels.

GRADE 6
County...............Reading..........Math
Calvert................85.5...........74.2
Charles................71.6...........68.3
St. Mary's.............73.4...........73
State average..........71.9...........65.6

GRADE 7
County...............Reading..........Math
Calvert................85.6...........70.9
Charles................72.1...........60.7
St. Mary's.............76.9...........65.1
State average..........71.1...........60.1

GRADE 8
County...............Reading..........Math
Calvert................79.4...........62.7
Charles................69.6...........55
St. Mary's.............69.7...........53.2
State average..........67.............55

7 comments:

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
The Average Joes said...

Gee wiz, Dorothy. How did the Post get this information?

It's publicly available on MDSE's website, Scarecrow!

That couldn't possibly be true, Dorothy. The Board was told several months ago by the Great and Mighty Oz, and several other administrators in the Emerald City, that these comparisons don't exist.

Oh, but, Scarecrow, they do.

Golly gee, you don't say. I wonder what else is behind that curtain!
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Why did it take an article from the Post to shed light on CCPS's standing in the tricounty area? How is the Post able to obtain this data and reach these conclusions when our administrators couldn't, or should I say "wouldn't?" I SPECIFICALLY asked about our state and tricounty standing when these scores were released months ago. The Board was told, "School systems aren't ranked any more like they did with MSPAP. The information isn't sent to us by MSDE so there's no way to compare." Well, gee, technically, MSDE just provides CC with the scores for CC. They don't, so I'm told, send the other counties' scores or the specific rankings. But, each county's scores are available on MSDE's website. First grade math skills would enable anyone to rank the various systems based on the scores provided by MSDE. In my opinion, a proper and thorough report to a Board would include this infomation.

Could it be - gasp! - our administrators knew EXACTLY where we stood but thought they'd avoid the embarassment by saying, "MSDE doesn't rank systems anymore. That information isn't available," hoping that would pacify the wee little brains of those who would bother to ask. Guess they didn't count on a follow up article to the test scores. Would it have played out differently in the papers or reports to the Board if those in the Emerald City discovered Charles was leading the pack instead of bringing up the rear?

Anonymous said...

Perhaps a $10 Million planetarium will help get those scores up!

Anonymous said...

How in God's name can St. Mary's County be whipping are butts?

Please don't tell me that we still have our heads in the sand around here in Chucky County.

From the Ivory Tower on Radio Station Road, you'd think that we are one of the top 1,000 schools in the country?

Where's Jay Matthews, our resident attack dog?

Richard said...

I think a look at Anonymous' first sentence goes a long in way explaining why St. Mary's County might be ahead.

Jennifer Abell said...

Richard and Anonymous - Would you care to elaborate??

Richard said...

Well..."Anonymous" said "How in God's name can St. Mary's County be whipping are butts?"

I THINK they meant "our" not "are."