Calvert County elementary and middle schools continue to meet ever increasing student achievement targets, according to data released today by the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE). 

“We are pleased that our schools are doing so well, especially considering that we are transitioning to the new Common Core State Standards,” said Nancy Highsmith, Interim Superintendent.  “The fact that our students did so well on the state assessments despite the misalignment between the new curriculum and the state assessments speaks well of our students and teachers.”

School Progress

Each year, schools must meet their own unique achievement targets – called Annual Measurable Objectives (AMOs) – in reading and mathematics, which are set incrementally between the base year of 2011 and the target year of 2017. The overall goal is to cut in half by 2017 the percentage of students who are not scoring at the proficient level on the reading and math assessments. AMOs are also set for each racial and special services group in each school.  These targets help educators look at specific student needs and tailor instruction to meet those needs.

In Calvert, over 90% of the schools met their AMO targets this year. According to a press release from MSDE, almost 62% of Maryland schools met their AMO targets. 

SCIENCE MSA

The state also released grade 5 and 8 science Maryland State Assessment (MSA) scores today.

While Calvert County’s science MSA scores dipped slightly, they remain among the highest in the state.  Calvert’s grade 5 scores dropped from 86.5% proficient in 2012 to 85.2% in 2013, and grade 8 dropped from 87.6% in 2012 to 86.8% in 2013.  Maryland state proficiency scores were 67% and 71.4% in grades 5 and 8 respectively.

“We have increased our focus on science in recent years,” said Nancy Highsmith. “We realize how important science education is for our students, our state, and our nation.” 

This year, Calvert is departmentalizing academics in grades 3 through 5.  This means that instead of teaching all four of the content areas – reading, social studies, math and science – most teachers in grades 3 through 5 will either teach reading and social studies or math and science.