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CAROLINE COUNTY – At a September Caroline County Board of Education work session, the Board, along with other staff, held a comprehensive review of state-level test score data for Caroline’s students. Rather than just looking at where students ranked during the 2024-2025 school year, Superintendent Dr. Derek Simmons stressed the importance of observing trends over multiple years of testing. What they found was that despite ranking 23rd out of 24 districts in the state for wealth-per-student, Caroline County has the second-highest growth rate in test scores for mathematics and the sixth-highest growth rate in English language arts for Maryland during the years 2022-2025.
Dr. Simmons said that this year he decided to take “a different approach” to MCAP data analysis because he believes looking at the trend over a handful of years versus only one academic year “let’s us see where we are going.” “The trends have been steady and continuous,” he added. Dr. Simmons said that CCPS is not seeing the backslide that other school systems have noticed, and Caroline is “ moving and closing the gap, and we are doing it faster than the rest of the state.” In some areas CCPS students even beat the state’s average, such as Federalsburg Elementary’s third grade math scores.
In particular, the work that CCPS has put into ensuring low-income students are not falling behind is paying off. “Every bit of research that has been done on student performance for at least the last 20 years discusses the fact that poverty has the biggest impact on the students’ likelihood of success,” Dr. Simmons said. The Board looked at the population of students who receive Free and Reduced Meals and compared their test scores to see where improvement was made and where further work could be done. CCPS Communications Officer Sandi Barry wrote in her recap of the workshop, “Dr. Simmons pointed out that while Caroline is 23rd out of 24 districts in wealth per student, our students consistently rank at mid-tier or higher in assessment scores, showing that we are making great progress in eliminating the effects of poverty.”
CCPS was second highest in the state for growth in mathmatics scores between 2022-2025. Instructional Supervisor Dr. Nicole Vondenbosch said that going above and beyond teaching wrote mathematics was one of the successful strategies used to get students closer to proficiency. “Yes we taught them strategies and we made sure that they were fluent, but then we also had then apply those skills to higher-level thinking and problem solving tasks,” she said. For example, incentives that rewarded the students’ efforts led to boosted self-confidence, and students were more apt to pursue challenging problems.
Dr. Vondenbosch explained that focusing on the students’ foundational math skills is sort of the reverse of a trickle-down effect. “What we will hear from fourth and fifth grade teachers is that ‘You know what, I don’t have to spend so much time reviewing those things, because they know them.’” She mentioned that while different schools hold varying incentives, math coaches from each school meet once a month to share ideas, experiences, and what is working.
While the math MCAP testing data is useful for reviewing these state-wode trends, school officials warned to take the numbers and the test’s definition of “proficient” with a grain of salt. Dr. Vondenbosch said, “the correlation between what kids have to do every day in the classroom, to be proficient on MCAP…students have to consistently get an 85% or better on unit assessments just to be proficient on MCAP. What we’re finding is that our students have to basically have almost an A, or a high B, on all these assessments, just to pass the state assessments. That tells you how difficult it is.” She also explained that math scores after eighth grade can be tricky to use as definitive markers for overall performance, as that is when some students go into Algebra I instead of eighth grade math. Currently, 25% of eighth graders in Caroline County are enrolled in Algebra I.
For English language arts, CCPS scores ranked sixth in the state for their growth rate over the last several years. Instructional Supervisor Renee Hesson said that CCPS teachers “have had training in the science of reading and structured literacy.” She said this is somewhat unique to Caroline County, who pursued this training before the state of Maryland even offered it. “We made that our priority first and foremost…I think it was money very well spent,” she said. “Small groups and targeted instruction” was one of the ways English language arts teachers were able to foster such growth. This strategy was especially helpful in high school classrooms, where Hesson said “sometimes we underestimate the fact that they want some personalization to what they’re learning.”
Hesson warned again that the data is not always an accurate reflection of students’ abilities. For example, many high school students are aware that, under certain circumstances, they do not necessarily have to pass the MCAP test, they just have to sit for it. Motivating this group to “own their own learning” has also been a priority, according to Hesson.
Dr. Simmons recognized that while there is still work to be done in getting all Caroline’s students set up for success, CCPS is on the right track, “are we where we need to be? Not yet. But we’re moving,” he said. “We don’t want to lose sight of that, but the growth we’re seeing and the trends really are moving in the right direction.” He and the rest of the Board applauded the work of CCPS’s instructional supervisors, coaches, and teachers for pouring into the students and making this growth possible, “I’m proud of the work that the team is doing, and proud of the work that our kids are doing and showing up.”
