Maryland board reviews 2023 graduation data as subgroup gaps persist

The Maryland State Department of Education told the State Board of Education on Tuesday that the class of 2023 posted a four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate of 85.8%, down from the prior year.

Chandra Hazlett, who presented the department’s cohort calculations, said the state’s adjusted-cohort method follows federal guidance and that the class of 2023 experienced pandemic-era disruptions during key ninth- and tenth-grade years. “These students are still feeling the effects of the pandemic,” Hazlett said during the board meeting, citing school closures in ninth grade and higher chronic absenteeism in later grades.

Hazlett walked the board through subgroup and local-education-agency variability. The five-year graduation rate also declined recently; the department reported a 5‑year rate near previously published values but noted a downward trend. Hazlett said 2023 saw an increase in the state’s dropout tally and that 9.8% of cohort students were identified as dropouts in 2023. She also highlighted that roughly half of the students identified as dropouts during that year were from the Hispanic/Latinx group, a share substantially larger than that group’s share of the overall high-school population.

Board members pressed for more localized and disaggregated analysis. Member Greer asked whether the department collects exit interviews or similar information when students leave; Hazlett said the state does not collect exit-reason data centrally but that some local education agencies (LEAs) maintain withdrawal codes that can provide clues. “There is a code for whereabouts unknown,” Hazlett said, adding that tracking can be difficult when students move across state lines or enter the workforce.

Members and staff discussed several possible explanations — from students leaving school to work to migration — and asked the department to surface promising LEA practices. Board members called for deeper subgroup analysis and better public-facing data so parents and local leaders can ask targeted questions of districts.

Hazlett said the department will publish the full dataset and supporting downloads on the Maryland report card website by noon the same day. The presentation closed with an invitation to the board and the public to use the posted data for local-level review and targeted interventions.

Next steps: the department will post downloadable data and continue to work with LEAs on disaggregation; board members signaled interest in staff-level follow-up to explore exit data and targeted strategies for groups with elevated dropout rates.