Prince George’s Interim Superintendent of Schools Shawn Joseph wants the community to see state test scores in a different light.
The Maryland State Department of Education recently released its annual Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP) scores for school districts in the state.
There were modest gains in almost all jurisdictions, but the scores continue to show that a majority of students are not considered proficient in Math and English.
Prince George’s County continues to rank as the third-lowest performing district in Maryland. Overall, 38.3% of county students are proficient in English Language Arts and just 13.1% in math. At the High School level, for instance, at Flowers High School, considered one of the best in the county, just 6.2% of students were considered proficient in Math.
The numbers aren’t good, but Joseph is asking that they be considered in a different light.
“I don’t care as much about scores as I do about growth, let me lay that down,” Joseph said. “When we look at students who look like Prince George’s County Students, for example, our African American students last year performed 4.3% higher in ELA than their counterparts around the state and 1.9% higher in mathematics. Same thing for our Hispanic families.”
Joseph also said the demographics of the student population, which is now more than 40% immigrant and non-English speaking, make achieving proficiency unlikely for many students.
“If a kids comes to us five or six grade levels behind and we grow them two years in a year, they didn’t make proficiency, but they grew two grade levels. That should be a celebration,” he said. “So it’s not lowering a standard, it’s just being clear that kids come to us at different levels. Our job is to be clear about where they are and move them at an accelerated rate.”