Maryland report‑card preview: chronic absenteeism drove many schools' star declines despite academic gains

MSDE officials gave the State Board a preliminary look at the Maryland Report Card results on Dec. 5 and said the full, disaggregated dataset will be published publicly on mdreportcard.org on Dec. 13.

Chandra Hazlett and accountability staff summarized the point‑based Maryland Accountability System, which is scored on a 100‑point scale across academic achievement, academic progress, English‑learner progress, school quality and student success, graduation rate and readiness for postsecondary success. They said the state returned to its pre‑pandemic ESSA methodology and added a grade‑8 social‑studies assessment as a new measure in this year's calculations.

Preliminary figures showed a median school total‑earned percent of about 56%. Staff reported that 37% of schools earned a 4‑ or 5‑star rating and that, compared with the prior year, more schools clustered at 3 stars and fewer at 5 stars. MSDE officials attributed much of the downward star movement to chronic absenteeism — a 15‑point component of the accountability system — which has not recovered to pre‑pandemic levels and therefore depressed several schools' overall ratings even as achievement scores rose in some grades.

Hazlett said parents and the public will be able to download PDFs for each school and use new tools, including a "similar schools" feature due in January, allowing districts to benchmark schools with comparable demographics. Board members asked MSDE to clarify how gains in MCAP achievement can coexist with lower star ratings; staff stressed the interaction of multiple indicators (especially chronic absenteeism) explains the apparent paradox.

MSDE emphasized resources and communication tools that will accompany the Dec. 13 release so families can interpret the accountability measures and compare results across similar schools.