Prince George’s County Public Schools released test data that shows a majority of its students scored at levels that were not “meeting expectations” on standardized tests in English and math.
During the Maryland-school system’s second quarter last year, 76% of tested students earned scores that were not “meeting expectations” in reading, English and language arts, and 95% of students earned scores that were not “meeting expectations” in math.
At a board of education meeting on Thursday, Chief Accountability Officer Dr. Douglas Strader presented the testing data to the county’s Board of Education.
Student test scores came from the county’s “benchmark assessments,” which the county issues for two subjects, English and math. Dr. Strader called the “benchmark assessments” the “cornerstone of our assessment program.”
The reading, English and language arts tests evaluated students in grades three through 12, and the math tests evaluated students in grades K-12.
Data gathered from county tests administered in the second quarter of 2021 show that 19% of students’ scores were “below expectations,” and 57% were “approaching expectations” on English tests. The data also shows that 56% of students’ scores were “below expectations” and 39% were “approaching expectations” on math tests.
“The assessments are expected to be formative in nature. The items themselves are designed to test the outer limits of that particular instructional window. We don’t have items discussing the entire continuum,” Dr. Strader said at the meeting. “Instead, it’s really about, ‘did the students meet the targets?’”