Delmarva Parent Teacher Coalition
Somerset County remains the lowest-performing county in Maryland for English Language Arts (ELA) and Math, according to WBAL. Both Baltimore City and Somerset County have the worst student proficiency rates in the state. The results for the 2024/2025 MCAP student achievement are in, which support that claim.
Baltimore City Public Schools serves over 77,000 students (three times the total population of Somerset County, Maryland), while Somerset County Public Schools has just 2,900 students.
The state of Maryland assesses students in ELA and mathematics annually for students in grades 3-8 and once in high school in 10th grade. The MCAP fails to assess students K-2, 9th grade, and grades 11-12. Therefore, the MCAP does not accurately assess the academic performance of the entire district, does not identify achievement gaps or struggling students in-between, and fails to assess career or college readiness.
In English Language Arts (ELA), during the 2023/2024 school year, Baltimore City had only 27.7% of students reading at grade level, compared to Somerset having 30.4%.
By the 2024/2025 school year, Baltimore City’s proficiency increased to 31.2%, while Somerset County improved to 35.1%.
In Math, Baltimore City outperformed Somerset County in both years. In 2023/2024, only 9.8% of Somerset County students were proficient in Math, while Baltimore City had a slightly higher rate of 10.2%.
By 2024/2025, Somerset County’s math proficiency reflected a miniscule increase of .03 or 10.1%, while Baltimore City’s rose to 12.6%.
But Somerset County showed improvement, right?
Get this – Baltimore City has 77,000 students, while Somerset County has only 2,900. This significant difference in enrollment size makes expectations more realistic for a smaller county to have a much greater level of performance and improvement. Based on the population size, Baltimore City is outperforming Somerset County at an 8X faster improvement rate.
Growth rates based on population size:
Baltimore City: +2.40 percentage points per year
Somerset County: +0.30 percentage points per year
In Math, Baltimore City posted higher scores in both years and advanced at a faster pace, underscoring its clear dominance in the subject area. In ELA, although still behind Somerset in percentage terms, the city’s large‑scale gains carry greater weight — each point of improvement represents hundreds more students than the same increase in Somerset. From a systems perspective, achieving such progress while serving a larger student body stands out as a significant accomplishment for Baltimore City.
Imagine your child coming home with a report card with a Math score of 10% and an English Language Arts (ELA) score of 35%. That’s FAILURE and it’s unacceptable.
Recently, the Somerset County Board of Education terminated their Superintendent. In response, Mr. Henry from Maryland’s Office of the Inspector General for Education (OIGE) went on WBAL Radio and accused the Board for not acting nice during meetings and for issues related to their library policy and ELA curriculum. His comments were made in the media before the Board had a chance to respond to these accusations, which is seen as biased and unethical.
As a result of the newly published MCAP achievement results, maybe Mr. Henry now gets the message why the Somerset County Board of Education must take affirmative steps to protect their children from this dismal educational neglect.
There’s NO positive spin that can be put on this catastrophic performance that anyone can possibly make…not by any teachers’ union or even a terminated superintendent.
This is why “educators” and their supporting activists are so angry, as they are products of this catastrophic system. They are undeniably desperate to create diversions from the truth – that Somerset County Public Schools has failed our children. In an effort to save face, they show up to Board meetings to disrupt genuine progress and defame Somerset County Board of Education members who are wholeheartedly trying to fix the problem since January.
Fellows & Editors
August 28, 2025
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