Story Behind the Curve
The children of Dorchester County perform below the state average on the MMSR.Of particular concern is their poor performance in language and literacy, a strong indicator of school success.Although there has been significant improvement in school readiness for Dorchester’s children in the last ten years with a total of 77% of children rated fully ready, the county still lags behind the rest of Maryland in children entering school ready to learn.
Dorchester’s performance on MMSR can perhaps be correlated to the underperformance of third and fifth grade Dorchester County Public School students on the Maryland State Assessments.Third grade students are significantly behind their same grade peers across Maryland.In fifth grade, the gap still exists but is narrower, suggesting perhaps that children starting school not fully ready take a longer time to “catch up” and narrow the achievement gap. Conversely, if more students in Dorchester entered school fully ready to learn then perhaps their achievement as measured on statewide achievement tests would be comparable to the scores across the State.Strategies to improve these indicators
Why Is This Important?
Children that fall in the achievement gap area of the 3rd grade assessment are always playing catch-up.
Children who enter school ready to learn are more likely to meet proficiency standards on the MSA (reading performance).
Data Discussion
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