Carroll County presents local ELA and math assessment results and next steps

Carroll County Public Schools presented its spring local assessment data to the Board of Education on April 15, focusing on ELA and mathematics across preK–12.

District curriculum staff described a suite of tools — including early phonics screeners, the ACADE reading screener (used to meet Ready to Read requirements), MAP Growth, Benchmark Advance weekly checks and a set of common writing assessments — and said those measures guide intervention and instruction. “All of our assessment data is shared in multiple ways. We first share it with parents. It is shared with teachers,” Amarie Bird, elementary ELA supervisor, told the board.

Bird reported that primary literacy phonics measures remain strong (the PLA letter ID/sound score moved from 96% to 95.8%), and that the ACADE composite fluency measure rose from 66.4 to 67.4 at midyear. At the secondary level, Brian Weinhold, secondary ELA supervisor, said local reading and writing results have shown modest multi-year growth but remain largely flat in some grades. Weinhold said new common writing assessments, given quarterly, are intended to give teachers more actionable data between summative tests.

Mathematics supervisors said district diagnostic snapshots show middle-school students improving: middle school performance above the national average rose from 62% in fall to 69% at midyear, and high-school fall snapshots showed about 61% above the national average. “We have been growing on average more than a year’s worth of math knowledge for our students,” a math presenter reported, citing cumulative assessment changes and alignment work to the Maryland College and Career-Ready Standards.

Board members pressed for detail on several patterns: why seventh grade often outperforms sixth and eighth and whether assessment timing, test fatigue or student engagement affects results. Presenters said some middle-school spikes (strong seventh-grade scores) mirror state MCAP patterns and may reflect motivation and assessment design; they also cited fatigue around multiple spring testing windows.

To address gaps, district staff outlined next steps: more focused classroom coaching, professional learning in evidence-based literacy and math practices (including the science of reading), building student stamina for longer assessments, and developing shorter interim high-school writing checks so teachers can respond before the end-of-course summatives. In response to board questions, staff said they will continue to refine assessments to reduce teacher scoring burden and to align local measures more closely with MCAP expectations.

The presentation closed with the district reiterating that assessment data will continue to drive targeted supports and curriculum revisions, and that additional progress reports will be provided to the board as new interim and end-of-year data become available.