English Language Arts Scores Drop Slightly
Talbot School Superintendent Dr. Sharon Pepukayi has always been up front about the system needing to address the academic challenges it faces and make needed changes in instruction and monitoring. This year will be no different as the recent Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP) scores for Talbot show virtually no growth in Math and Language Arts.
In Math, the Talbot showed miniscule growth from 23/24 when only 18.3% of the county students tested proficient to 24/25 when only 18.9% scored proficient in math. The county ranked 18th in Math last year, 15th this year. The top county in Maryland this year was Worcester which scored 47.7% of students proficient. Somerset County* was once again at the bottom with only 10.1% proficient in math.
The county’s ELA scores actually dropped from 23/24 to 24/25; going from 47.3% proficient to 45.4% proficient in 2024/2025. Talbot ranked 14th among all counties last year, 13th this year. Worcester ranked at the top with 68.5% of their students proficient in English Language Arts and Baltimore City was at the bottom with 31.2% scoring proficient.
State rankings don’t matter if you are a student who is among those who are not proficient in math or English Language Arts..
The score release came today, August 26, the day after the first day of classes for Talbot and many other systems.
Coming later this Fall will be the grade-by-grade breakdown as well as disaggregated data for different student subgroups. Those scores may be a better overall analysis of what is happening in school districts and which groups of students are lagging behind the most. It will also be a better indicator of which, if any, systemwide improvements are making a difference and what more needs to be done.
Based on this first glimpse of scores, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done.
*Somerset County recently experienced controversy over the elected school board voting to fire their superintendent, Ava Tasker Mitchell. The unelected State Superintendent Carey Wright stepped in to stay that firing for 180 days, the length of a school year. She also threatened the Somerset County School Board President and Vice President with removal if they appointed Dave Bromwell as interim Superintendent. Many see this as a gross over-reach on the part of State Superintendent Wright and the State Board of Education (also unelected).
Perhaps Dr. Wright should focus on getting systems on the right track academically instead of inserting herself in local decisions.
-Jan Greenhawk
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