MSDE staff outline end‑of‑course assessment rollout, pilot work and a nine‑day scoring turnaround target

The Transformation and Accountability Committee received a detailed update on Maryland’s implementation of end‑of‑course (EOC) assessments and technical supports from Chandra Hazlett, assistant state superintendent for assessment, accountability and performance reporting at the Maryland State Department of Education.

Hazlett said the EOC policy traces back to a 2018 graduation task force, which recommended removing the old passing‑score graduation requirement and instead having assessment results count for 20% of a student’s course grade. She told the committee the state board in July set the implementation to begin in the 2023–24 school year and limited the initial rollout to science and government; English language arts and mathematics were removed from this implementation phase because of alignment with the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future.

To reduce technical burden on districts, MSDE ran a pilot with about eight local education agencies to test transfer of assessment results into local grading systems. Hazlett said that pilot produced technical solutions that now support automatic import for "pretty much every system across the state," and that MSDE worked with vendor partners and local technical staff to provide monthly office hours and training for local staff.

On scoring timeliness, Hazlett reported MSDE and its vendor have reduced score‑return time to districts to nine days through an "on‑demand scoring" approach and additional vendor staffing; she and the chair clarified this is nine working days. Hazlett identified two primary risks to that target: higher‑than‑expected student counts (an uptick in registration) and clustering of testing toward the end of assessment windows, which can create peaks the system must absorb.

Board members asked whether MSDE can shorten the cadence of monitoring (quarterly or biannual versus annual) and what communications and parent resources have been provided. Hazlett said most of the relevant data (state assessments and statewide surveys) are collected annually but that MSDE has supported LEA peer‑to‑peer sharing of communication strategies and will follow up with communications staff about public materials and resources for caregivers.

Hazlett said MSDE will continue to monitor potential course‑selection effects from the policy change (that the EOC will count for 20% of a course grade) and will report findings as data become available. The committee did not vote on the EOC policy at this meeting; members asked MSDE to return with monitoring data and operational updates as the assessment windows progress.