New Maryland test scores for English, math show little change across schools

English scores increased by 2% and math was up 1.8% in Anne Arundel County on the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program standardized test. This represented the Baltimore area’s biggest improvements.

Specifically, the county reported increases in 13 of 14 tested areas with third-grade English being the only category to drop.

The statewide percentage of test takers scoring proficient each rose by less than a percentage point. Across Maryland, about 48.4% of students scored proficient in English language arts, and 24.1% scored proficient in math.

In Anne Arundel County, 53.9% of students scored proficient in English, and 27.6% scored proficient in math.

“I want to be very clear that we have a lot of work to do to improve these scores,” said Mark Bedell, Superintendent of Anne Arundel County Public Schools.

Last year, the county system implemented a new math curriculum, Reveal, at the elementary level to provide students with a stronger mathematical foundation. This school year, AACPS is introducing the Core Knowledge Language Arts literacy curriculum, which focuses on the Science of Reading, at the elementary level.

“I believe Reveal has had – and will continue to have – a positive impact for our students in math and I expect CKLA will have a similar impact in English Language Arts,” Bedell said. “Our teachers and instructional teams are relentless in their pursuit to help every student we serve achieve and to simultaneously close gaps. We will continue to help them deliver instruction that produces the results we all want.”

This installment marked the third time the full MCAP was administered in Maryland. Test scores from the 2022-23 school year reflected improvement in both English and math by over two percentage points.

Given annually to third through eighth graders as well as to high schoolers, who take Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry and 10th grade English assessments, the MCAP math and English language arts tests provide a statewide snapshot of the academic progress of Maryland public school students. Science exams are administered at only two grade levels. While the state did not release detailed data for science, officials reported a 10 percentage point decline among fifth graders, with 23.9% proficient, and a 1.5 percentage decline among eighth graders, with 24.9% proficient.

Statewide, proficiency rates rose the most for Algebra I and II, growing by 2.8 and 3.4 percentage points, respectively. English proficiency among fifth graders had the third-highest growth, at 2.4 percentage points. The biggest declines were seen in third-grade English and in geometry, where proficiency rates each fell by more than a percentage point.

The new results come as several state initiatives roll out to improve performance, including a new approach to teaching reading. A $6.8 million grant will be used to teach educators the research-backed “science of reading” method, which focuses on phonics, understanding syllables and comprehending words’ meanings.

Reading and accountability have been early focuses of state Superintendent Carey Wright, who was appointed to the position in April after holding the role on an interim basis since October. Wright is widely credited for dramatically improving math and literacy test scores when she led Mississippi’s education department.

One of Wright’s first actions as Maryland superintendent was to create a task force to evaluate the state’s Maryland Report Card, which rates every school on a five-star scale. Wright expressed skepticism of a system that gives more than three-quarters of schools three or more stars when less than a quarter of students score proficient in math and less than half in English. The report card takes into account MCAP scores in addition to other metrics including graduation rates, attendance and surveys.

ELA proficiency generally held steady among student subgroups, according to an education department news release, while no groups saw declines in math proficiency. Achievement gaps persisted in both subjects for multilingual and economically disadvantaged students as well as students with disabilities.

The MCAP scores were presented to the board ahead of updates and public comment on a literacy policy proposed by Wright in July that would hold back third graders who can’t read on grade level. Board members greeted the proposal with skepticism and the possibility of letting parents waive a decision to retain a student was to be a topic of Tuesday’s hearing.

The MCAP took the place of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), which was last taken in the 2018-19 academic year. Despite the flat numbers released Tuesday, state school board members approved goals that seek 5 percentage point annual improvements each of the next two years for third-grade English, fifth-grade math and for the combined scores for grades 3-8 in each subject.

Baltimore area results

All six jurisdictions in the Baltimore area saw little improvement in proficiency — between 0.2 and 2 percentage points — across all grade levels in English and math from the year before. Baltimore County officials also pointed to new English language arts and math curricula as well as a new curriculum for multilingual learners.

Officials with Baltimore City and Harford and Howard counties did not immediately respond with comments about their districts’ data.

Harford County schools saw the smallest change from the year prior for math, increasing 0.2 percentage points, and Carroll County for English, increasing 0.3 points.

While Baltimore City continued to have the lowest proficiency ratings in both subjects among area jurisdictions, the city now has more than 10% of students scoring proficient in math — an improvement that cedes the state’s lowest ranking in the subject to Somerset County. For English, the city also improved slightly, to 27.7%.

Looking individually at the six grade-level math tests, the two algebra tests and one geometry test, math performance in the Baltimore region mostly held steady or improved. Carroll County saw the most notable increase — a 9.6 percentage point increase for Algebra I test takers.

Baltimore City’s proficiency rates for eighth-grade math and Algebra II remained below 5%, but Algebra I rose 2.4 percentage points to 8.8%.

English scores followed a similar trend with most Baltimore-area districts improving on most tests. The biggest jump was fifth-grade English in Harford County, where the proficiency rate rose 8.2 percentage points. Harford also had the biggest decline in English language arts, with the 10th-grade proficiency rate falling 5.4 percentage points.

Staff reporters Thomas Goodwin Smith and Matt Hubbard contributed to this article.

In comparison to last year, Harford saw a 0.2 percentage improvement in math proficiency, increasing from 24.6% in 2023 to 24.9% in 2024. For English language arts, Harford increased by 1.5% from last year going from 55.2% to 56.7%.

Since 2022, Harford’s math proficiency has increased by almost 5% and proficiency in English language arts has increased by nearly 7%.

Results from 2023 to 2024 remained relatively flat across the state, with the percentage of English and math test-takers scoring proficiently each rose by less than a percentage point, according to a news release from the Maryland State Department of Education.

Statewide, proficiency rates rose the most in Algebra I and II, growing by 2.8 and 3.4 percentage points, respectively. English proficiency among fifth-graders had the third-highest growth, at 2.4 percentage points. The biggest declines were seen in third-grade English and in geometry, where proficiency rates each fell by more than a percentage point.

About 48.4% of students scored proficiently in English language arts, and 24.1% scored proficiently in math across all grade levels.

MCAP is administered annually to third through eighth graders as well as to high schoolers, who take Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry and 10th grade English assessments. MCAP tests provide a statewide snapshot of the academic progress of Maryland public school students.

The percentage of MCAP English and math test takers scoring proficient each rose by less than a percentage point. About 48.4% of students scored proficient in English language arts, and 24.1% scored proficient in math.

Though scores were flat overall, there were some shifts among districts, including Baltimore City improving math scores to no longer be the lowest-ranked system in that subject.

This installment marked the third time the full MCAP was administered. Test scores from the 2022-23 school year reflected improvement in both English and math by over two percentage points.

Given annually to third through eighth graders as well as to high schoolers, who take Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry and 10th grade English assessments, the MCAP math and English language arts tests provide a statewide snapshot of the academic progress of Maryland public school students. Science exams are administered at only two grade levels. While the state did not release detailed data for science, officials reported a 10 percentage point decline among fifth graders, with 23.9% proficient, and a 1.5 percentage decline among eighth graders, with 24.9% proficient.

Search MCAP data: See English, math proficiency rates for every Maryland school

Statewide, proficiency rates rose the most for Algebra I and II, growing by 2.8 and 3.4 percentage points, respectively. English proficiency among fifth graders had the third-highest growth, at 2.4 percentage points. The biggest declines were seen in third grade English and in geometry, where proficiency rates each fell by more than a percentage point.

The new results come as several state initiatives roll out to improve performance, including a new approach to teaching reading. A $6.8 million grant will be used to teach educators the research-backed "science of reading" method, which focuses on phonics, understanding syllables and comprehending words' meanings.

Reading and accountability have been early focuses of state Superintendent Carey Wright, who was appointed to the position in April after holding the role on an interim basis since October. Wright is widely credited for dramatically improving math and literacy test scores when she led Mississippi's education department.

One of Wright's first actions as Maryland superintendent was to create a task force to evaluate the state's Maryland Report Card, which rates every school on a five-star scale. Wright expressed skepticism of a system that gives more than three-quarters of schools three or more stars when less than a quarter of students score proficient in math and less than half in English. The report card takes into account MCAP scores in addition to other metrics including graduation rates, attendance and surveys.

ELA proficiency generally held steady among student subgroups, according to an education department news release, while no groups saw declines in math proficiency. Achievement gaps persisted in both subjects for multilingual and economically disadvantaged students as well as students with disabilities.

The MCAP scores were presented to the board ahead of updates and public comment on a literacy policy proposed by Wright in July that would hold back third graders who can’t read on grade level. Board members greeted the proposal with skepticism and the possibility of letting parents waive a decision to retain a student was to be a topic of Tuesday's hearing.

The MCAP took the place of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), which was last taken in the 2018-19 academic year. Despite the flat numbers released Tuesday, state school board members approved goals that seek 5 percentage point annual improvements each of the next two years for third grade English, fifth grade math and for the combined scores for grades 3-8 in each subject.

How proficiency rates changed in the Baltimore area

All six jurisdictions in the Baltimore area saw little improvement in proficiency — between 0.2 and 2 percentage points — across all grade levels in English and math from the year before. The area's biggest improvements were in Anne Arundel County, at 2 points for English and 1.8 points for math.

While emphasizing that "we have a lot of work to do," Anne Arundel Superintendent Mark Bedell said that the district has been changing how elementary schoolers are taught, starting an approach focusing on the foundations of math last school year and beginning a science of reading curriculum this year. Baltimore County officials also pointed to new English language arts and math curricula as well as a new curriculum for multilingual learners. "Reading by Grade 3" is a focus in Howard County, where school system Director of Communications & Engagement Brian Bassett characterized MCAP scores as a single data point used with others like local assessments and classroom data.

Officials with Baltimore City and Carroll and Harford counties did not immediately respond with comments about their districts' data.

Harford County schools saw the smallest change from the year prior for math, increasing 0.2 percentage points, and Carroll County for English, increasing 0.3 points.

While Baltimore City continued to have the lowest proficiency ratings in both subjects among area jurisdictions, the city now has more than 10% of students scoring proficient in math — an improvement that cedes the state's lowest ranking in the subject to Somerset County. For English, the city also improved slightly, to 27.7%.

Looking individually at the six grade-level math tests, the two algebra tests and one geometry test, math performance in the Baltimore region mostly held steady or improved. Carroll County saw the most notable increase — a 9.6 percentage point increase for Algebra I test takers.

Baltimore City's proficiency rates for eighth-grade math and Algebra II remained below 5%, but Algebra I rose 2.4 percentage points to 8.8%.

English scores followed a similar trend with most Baltimore-area districts improving on most tests. The biggest jump was fifth grade English in Harford County, where the proficiency rate rose 8.2 percentage points. Harford also had the biggest decline in English language arts, with the 10th-grade proficiency rate falling 5.4 percentage points.

Staff reporters Bridget Byrne, Thomas Goodwin Smith and Matt Hubbard contributed to this article.

According to an update to a Baltimore Sun analysis of Coast Guard reports, through Aug. 2 there have been at least 50 such incidents since 2021, 11 of them this year, including the Dali’s loss of power. There were 16 in 2023, 14 in 2022 and nine in 2021.

The map below shows the approximate locations of 47 incidents in Maryland waters as documented in the U.S. Coast Guard’s Incident Investigation Reports database. Location data and other details for three of the more recent incidents — involving the Baltic K, Sheng Ping Ha and Denebola vessels — weren’t readily available.

The table below lists all 50 incidents including three without public U.S. Coast Guard reports. The Sun reported on the Denebola’s steering issue at the beginning of August, and the other two incidents were disclosed by the Coast Guard on Aug. 2. Search or filter the table by date and ship length.

The Baltimore Sun will periodically update this page as new information about incidents becomes available.

Baltimore Sun reporters Hayes Gardner and Alex Mann and editor Christopher Dinsmore contributed to this article.

Since Key Bridge collapse, several ships have experienced trouble in Maryland waters

Several dozen ships lost propulsion in Maryland waters before Key Bridge collapse: ‘You’re basically just drifting’

The reverence for Donald Trump in and around Somerset County Precinct 08-002 is everywhere — on yard signs, bumper stickers and flags waving from porches, storefronts and boat rigging.

Trump love is so pervasive in the rural precinct that it feels like an oversight that Janet Ford is not displaying the presidential candidate’s splashy campaign material inside her cozy restaurant. Called “From Scratch,” the eatery caters to local watermen and farmers in a county ranking last in the state in median household income.

Rest assured, the Republican restaurant co-owner and chef said, she most certainly backs the GOP nominee — just like almost everyone else in the southern Maryland precinct anchored by the Chesapeake Bay community of Crisfield. It’s just that Ford doesn’t want diners to have to digest politics with their omelets and homemade pies.

“I do try to keep it out of my business. I have family members and friends that are Democrats,” Ford said. “Everybody in our area knows I am a diehard Republican. We’re a huge Republican area and very huge Donald Trump supporters.”

In Crisfield — as much as anywhere in Maryland — being Republican means being with Trump.

A Baltimore Sun analysis of election returns from recent years found Somerset Precinct 08-002 — tucked into the state’s southeastern corner — is arguably the Trumpiest. The rural precinct is home to 302 registered Republicans and 75 registered Democrats. Politically relevant Crisfield is known for the J. Millard Tawes Crab and Clambake, which annually draws Maryland politicians of both stripes from across the state.

While statewide Maryland politics are dominated by Democrats, the figures show the grip Trump maintains on his strongholds even as former two-term governor Larry Hogan — the state’s most popular Republican who is now running for the U.S. Senate — remains an outspoken political critic and adversary of the former president.

The numbers also reflect a hardening of political loyalties in recent years as many of Maryland’s bluest counties have become bluer and the reddest counties redder. Democrats control Baltimore City and the large Washington suburbs of Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. Republicans dominate the Western Maryland counties of Allegany, Garrett and Washington, and most of the Eastern Shore, including Somerset County.

Trump may have lost his 2020 reelection bid to Democratic President Joe Biden, but the Republican beat Biden by nearly 15 percentage points in Somerset, increasing his margin from 2016 by 2.6 percentage points — the largest increase out of only three jurisdictions to do so.

In the presidential primary last May, the rural precinct that includes the From Scratch restaurant cast 77 votes for Trump and five for former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

That wasn’t Trump’s best precinct — a precinct in Essex gave him 81 votes and Haley zero, the highest among precincts with more than 50 total votes. Essex is part of a Baltimore County area that fit neatly into Trump’s 2016 message of trying to revive parts of the country left behind in a post-industrial economy. Bethlehem Steel, General Motors and other large plants employed tens of thousands of residents in the area decades ago.

But the Somerset County precinct showed its Trump loyalty in other ways. It voted — 49% to 43% — against Hogan, a prominent Trump critic, in his U.S. Senate primary against Robin Ficker, a self-funded, ardent Trump supporter and former state delegate who has run unsuccessfully for many state and federal offices. Ficker won 196 of Maryland’s nearly 2,000 precincts this year.

“Trump has become an extraordinarily influential figure in the party such that his opinion of others matters more than we probably would have seen in the past,” said Flavio Hickel, an assistant political science professor at Washington College on the Eastern Shore.

Because Haley dropped out of the race two months before Maryland’s primary, voting for her would have merely been a Trump protest vote, “and there was no appetite for that in these counties,” Hickel said.

Overall, 15 of Somerset’s 23 precincts backed Trump but not Hogan, who served two four-year terms as governor, ending in January 2023, and in 2018 became the first Republican to be reelected Maryland governor since Theodore McKeldin in 1954. These 15 precincts are out of 192 total where this occurred in Maryland.

The Essex precinct backed Hogan by 54% to 45%. Statewide, the popular former governor captured 64% of the primary vote while Ficker got 28%.

Hogan is facing Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks in the November election. The seat is open because of the retirement of Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin after this year.

Hogan has long counseled the GOP to move away from Trump, calling him divisive. Somerset County hasn’t budged.

Hogan has sometimes contrasted Trump’s style with that of former Republican President Ronald Reagan, suggesting Reagan’s more tempered approach was preferable for the nation because he wasn’t focused on scoring partisan points. In the 2020 presidential election, Hogan said he cast a symbolic write-in vote for Reagan, who died in 2004, rather than voting for Trump. In May, Trump became the first U.S. president convicted of felony crimes when a jury found him guilty of falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment to a porn star.

Hogan has said in campaign messaging this year that he would not be beholden to either political party. Because Democrats have twice as many registered voters as Republicans in Maryland, he would need the backing of a sizable number of Democratic and unaffiliated voters to win.

In Somerset, many Republicans believed Hogan was too quick to shut down schools and businesses during the pandemic in 2020. Hogan said he acted responsibly to protect public health and safety.

“I would not vote for him for dogcatcher of Somerset County,” said Ford, who believes Hogan’s pandemic policies hurt small businesses, including her own. Her popular restaurant has a country kitchen ambience and an outside sign reading: “Nothin’ like homestyle cookin’”

She said she likes Trump because “he says what he means and he doesn’t sugarcoat it. He doesn’t care if he hurts your feelings.”

Census figures consistently show Somerset ranking last among Maryland counties in median household income at about $52,000.

Republican state Del. Charles Otto, who lives on his corn and soybean farm in Somerset, near Wicomico Creek, believes Trump can help.

“He’s appealing to working people,” Otto said. “He’s a fighter.”

“Are we ready to officially just call it the Artscape curse?” one user on the social media platform X asked Saturday around 5 p.m.

It might be starting to feel that way to many Baltimore residents and Artscape-goers, whether it’s rain, excessive heat or a combination of both like this year, when events on Friday and Saturday were canceled due to storms.

This year’s Artscape was supposed to be the first full three-day festival since 2019 after the coronavirus pandemic and 2023’s Saturday programming was canceled when Tropical Storm Ophelia rained out festivities. After being canceled between 2020 and 2022, it’s easy to see why it felt like the event had been cursed.

Artscape, which has almost exclusively occurred in the month of July since 2000, usually experiences some sort of heat- or rain-related weather events.

An analysis of temperature and precipitation data recorded by the National Weather Service from 2000 to 2024 for Artscape weekends showed there have only been five festival weekends when there wasn’t any precipitation recorded and the daily temperature high wasn’t at least 95 degrees.

Of these five years — 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014 — only three experienced all three days being below 90 degrees.

But precipitation recorded does not mean it was during Artscape hours. Since 2000, 14 out of 22 Artscape weekends have had any amount of precipitation recorded in downtown Baltimore, which was as little as 0.06 inches on Saturday and Sunday in 2004. Five Artscapes had at least one day with a half inch of rain or more, two of which were this year and last year.

Excessive heat has never stopped crowds before, like in 2019, when festival-goers braved 100-plus temperatures. In fact, the event, which has almost always taken place in July outside the past two years, has had four weekends during which one of the festival days was the hottest day of the month. Friday’s high temperature in Baltimore was 102, but it won’t be known if that’s the month’s hottest until August is over.

Ten out of 22 Artscape weekends since 2000 have had at least one day when the temperature rose above 95 degrees. Baltimore City’s threshold for calling a Code Red excessive heat warning is a 95-degree heat index, a measurement of what the temperature feels like using humidity and temperature. Some Artscape days might have felt hotter than the apparent temperature, like Saturday’s, which had a peak heat index of 107 degrees in the afternoon.

Seven Artscapes have experienced at least one day when the temperature was at least 95 degrees and any amount of precipitation.

Police responded to the 6800 block of Liberty Road at approximately 10:05 p.m. after receiving a report of shots fired. Upon arrival, police located a man with gunshot wounds to the upper body. The man, Tracey Wayman Hankins Jr., 29, was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Baltimore County homicide detectives are investigating the circumstances and ask anyone with information to call 410-307-2020, with a cash reward of up to $2,000.

A 16-year-old girl was shot on Saturday evening following an attempted carjacking near Pimlico Race Course and Sinai Hospital, according to a news release from the Baltimore Police Department.

The girl told police she’d been parked with two other people in the 5100 block of Levindale Road when a person in a black ski mask approached her, holding a handgun. That person demanded the occupants get out of the car, but the girl reversed the car and drove away as the person fired, according to the release.

The girl received non-life-threatening gunshot wounds, and medics transported her to an area hospital for treatment, the news release says.

Officers responded at about 7:20 p.m. to the 800 block of West Lombard Street, where they were informed about the attempted carjacking and shooting, police said.

On Sunday, a woman was found unresponsive in the 800 block of North Avenue in the Midtown-Edmondson neighborhood. When police arrived, they found the woman suffering from a fatal gunshot wound, according to another release from Baltimore Police.

Officers responded at around 10:01 a.m. to a call about an unresponsive woman in a rear alley around West Lanvale Street, police said. Homicide detectives are investigating, and anyone with information is asked to call 410-396-2100 or 1-866-7LOCKUP to remain anonymous.

Baltimore City Homicides

Police responded to The Mint Room in the 9400 block of Baltimore National Pike at 8:54 p.m., where they found a man suffering from a gunshot wound, according to a news release. The man, not identified, was transported to the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore.

A 60-year-old Baltimore man was taken into custody at the scene and has been charged with attempted second-degree murder, police said. They believe the shooting was domestic-related and involved an altercation between the suspect and victim, according to the release. No other injuries were reported, and the motive is still under investigation.

The restaurant was open on Sunday. About a seven-minute drive from Old Ellicott City, The Mint Room serves cuisine from Northern India, according to its website, which describes the restaurant as having an ambience with “rustic contemporary decor.”