Anne Arundel County Public Schools students demonstrated continued growth on statewide assessments in the 2024-2025 school year, increasing the proficiency rate in 10 of the 11 grade band assessments in English Language Arts (ELA), math, and science, data released by the Maryland Department of Education today shows.
The district saw gains of 3.2 percentage points in both math and ELA at the middle school level and increases of 3.4 and 0.7 points, respectively, in those areas at the elementary school level. At the high school level, the percentage of proficient students rose by 5 points in 10th-grade ELA.
“This data is evidence that the work we have done over the last three years is paying dividends, but we need to be clear that we have a long way to go in our recovery from learning loss incurred during the pandemic,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Mark Bedell said. “Our goal is to get every single one of our students to the proficient level, and we’ll continue to work with our amazing teachers and support staff to get there.”
The scores follow other increases in AACPS student achievement over the past year, including gains in Advanced Placement and SAT scores. Students take Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP) assessments in English Language Arts in grades 3 through 8 and Grade 10, and take math assessments in grades 3 through 8 and when enrolled in Algebra I.
This year marks the third consecutive year of gains at the elementary and middle school levels in both ELA and math. Dr. Bedell pointed to the infusion of high-quality instructional materials, such as Reveal math and CKLA language arts curricula at the elementary level, over the last two years as significant factors in the improvements.
There is no question that the introduction of new curriculum and the way our teachers have embraced it has had a tremendous positive effect in both English Language Arts and math at the elementary level and I believe that will feed future positive results in middle school,” Dr. Bedell said.
The proficiency rate for county students in Algebra I fell by 8.3 percentage points. Dr. Bedell attributed that drop in large part to a change in course sequence put in place last year and the fact that far fewer eighth-graders took the Algebra I assessment as compared to the year before.
“I believe the drop in Algebra I scores is due to a decision we made to change the order of our courses in some high schools and teach all high school students Geometry between Algebra I and Algebra II at all of our high schools,” he said. “That shift, in addition to the fact that we had far fewer eighth-grade test-takers last year compared to the year before, simply didn’t yield the results we believed it would, and I own that.”
Proficiency rates on the Maryland Integrated Science Assessments (MISA) also increased at all levels, led by an 8.2-point jump in high school. Middle school proficiency rates rose by 6.2 percentage points and elementary school proficiency rates were up 2.4 points. MISA is administered to students in grades 5, 8, and at the time they take a required high school biology course.
At all three levels on the ELA assessment, the percentage of AACPS students achieving proficiency outpaced the state average when compared to the previous year. That gap was the widest in 10th-grade ELA, where AACPS scores outpaced the state by nearly 9 points.
Four county elementary schools – Broadneck, Central, Jacobsville and Waugh Chapel increased the percentage of proficient students in all six grade level assessments for ELA and math. Ten other elementary schools – Jones, Folger McKinsey, Hillsmere, Marley, Maryland City, Monarch Academy, Pershing Hill, Richard Henry Lee, Rippling Woods and Seven Oaks – had gains in five of the six content areas.
A summary of results can be found here. School-by-school results can be found here.