MSA Results to be Recalculated for Two Howard County Schools

July 10th, 2012

The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) released the 2012 reading and mathematics Maryland School Assessment (MSA) results today. All Howard County schools were expected to meet improvement targets for students overall, as well as each racial/ethnic group, students impacted by poverty, English language learners, and students receiving special education services. The release indicates that Clarksville Middle School did not meet the reading and mathematics improvement targets for the special education student group, and that Mount View Middle School did not meet the mathematics target for the special education student group. These results are inaccurate and MSDE has agreed to recalculate the proficiency rates for these schools by August 2012. It is expected that both schools did in fact meet the reading and mathematics targets for the special education student group.

The inaccurate results are due to a highly unusual technical error, at no fault of the students, teachers, or administrators. Both Clarksville and Mount View middle schools have highly commendable proficiency rates on the MSA. At Clarksville Middle, 97 percent of students earned scores of proficient or advanced in reading; 98 percent reached those levels in mathematics. At Mount View Middle, 98 percent of students scored at proficient or advanced in both reading and mathematics on the 2012 MSA.

Additional information on the performance of the Howard County Public School System and individual schools is available at mdreportcard.org .