How Baltimore County high schools did on the 2024 Maryland School Report Card
By Sarah Sternhagen, Editor-in-Chief
Every year the Maryland State Department of Education releases a School Report Card to measure the achievement of K-12 public schools. These reports can shed light on the quality of education students are getting in the public school system.
Schools are given an overall achievement rating out of five stars, five being the best score and one star being the worst score. The stars are based on points schools accumulate in categories like student performance on standardized tests, English language proficiency, student progress over the years, progress towards graduation, the graduation rate for high schools and student absence rates.
The majority of TU’s in-state students come from Baltimore County, where there are 31 public high schools. Below is a breakdown of the number of schools that were awarded each star amount.
| Star Rating | Number of High Schools with the rating in Baltimore County |
|---|---|
| 5 | 3 |
| 4 | 3 |
| 3 | 11 |
| 2 | 7 |
| 1 | 0 |
| No data available | 7 |
Baltimore County High Schools did not meet their annual targets for academic achievement, graduation rate or progress in achieving English language proficiency. They did show improvement for graduation rate, readiness for post-secondary success and school quality and student success.
Maryland high schools overall also did not meet their annual targets, but did show improvement in readiness for post-secondary success and school quality and student success.
Towson High received a four out of five star rating.
Maryland started using the 5-star rating in 2018. Though it does attempt to measure the quality of education students are getting, a large focus of the report is instead to promote student progress.
“You can be a very low performing school and achieve points because you’ve got your students to progress,” John Foley, a lecturer in the department of Secondary and Middle School Education at Towson, said.
Foley said that since schools know what’s measured, such as attendance, school administration can use the data to see where they need to improve. The rating system isn’t always a perfect measure, but Foley said it’s an improvement from when the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP) test was the only measure of student achievement. Now, student progress is a much bigger focus.
This emphasis is reflected in how the scores are broken down on the 2024 Maryland Report Card website. One column is dedicated to if the school met their annual target, and another if there was improvement regardless of if the target was met.
