2012 Maryland School Assessment (MSA) Results Available Online

The Maryland State Department of Education has made available online the 2012 Maryland School Assessment (MSA) results, with brand new guidelines for determining accountability and rigorous, realistic progress goals individualized for each school.

The 2012 MSA was given in March to all Maryland students in grades 3 through 8. The results are available online at www.mdreportcard.org. Home reports showing each Wicomico student’s performance on the MSA were mailed to parents/guardians in June.

Maryland is committed to supporting the success of its students, and for the past four years has led the nation as the No. 1 state for public education, according to Education Weekly. Earlier this year, Maryland successfully sought a waiver from some of the requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the 2001 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Maryland’s waiver allows for ESEA flexibility, with NCLB measures like Adequate Yearly Progress and School Improvement labels replaced by a Maryland School Progress Index that will hold schools, school systems and the state accountable for achievement, gap reduction and growth.

The 2012 data release marks the first under Maryland’s recently granted flexibility from NCLB. Under NCLB, all students must score at proficient levels by 2014, and progress toward that goal was gauged by a statewide measurement known as Adequate Yearly Progress. Under Maryland’s new “School Progress” plan, each school is measured against its own targets, and must work to strengthen achievement across all subgroups. Under the School Progress calculation, nearly 85 percent (84.8 percent) of Maryland schools met the AMO targets for this baseline year. The percentage of Maryland students achieving proficiency increased this year for elementary Math and Reading and middle school Math.

This year’s data begins a new baseline, and schools and systems will work to cut in half over the next six years the percentage of students not scoring at proficient levels on the exams. As in the past, the accountability system measures all students as well as racial subgroups and groups of students receiving additional services, such as special education and English language learners. Schools and systems must work to hit improvement targets, known as annual measureable objectives (AMOs). AMOs will be calculated for the student population in each school as well as for special service and racial subgroups.

Gone are the categories of “School Improvement,” under which schools were sanctioned for not making progress. Maryland’s plan now focuses special attention on those schools with the most difficulty, but the requirement for restructuring and other sanctions is no longer part of the equation.

MSA proficiency is just one area of the Maryland School Progress Index, which will be made public later this year. The index will also include gap reduction and MSA growth for individual students for grades prekindergarten-8, and for the high school grades, High School Assessment (HSA) achievement, gap reduction on the HSA, graduation rate and cohort dropout rate, and college and career readiness.

More