The race/ethnicity subgroups (if available) are written as provided from the original data source.

Census Tracts
Census tracts are determined based on students’ September residency in AY2023 or AY2024. This means that the census tract for a student in 2023 reflects their residency as of September 2022, and the census tract of a student in 2024 reflects their residency as of September 2023. Future collections will report census tracts that reflect end-of-year residence.

Some students did not have a census tract reported in the data submitted to MLDS Center. These students are assigned the census tract that corresponds to the school of attendance. Student residency census tract was adopted as a data element in 2023. As a result, in early years, census tract may be biased towards the tract of the school students attend, rather than the tract in which students reside. The collection of census tract will continue to improve with each collection year. The increased reporting accuracy accounts for a portion of the fluctuations in student counts between census tracts, particularly between 2023 and 2024.

County
County reflects the location of the most recent school attended in a year. For example, a student that begins the year in Baltimore County but then moves into Baltimore City halfway through AY2023 will be classified under Baltimore City rather than Baltimore County. The only exception to this is for the Chronic Absenteeism metric which reports students at each school they attend.

Percents Calculations
Percents are calculated as the total count of the subgroup with a certain outcome divided by the total count of the subgroup. For example, the % proficient in the Grade 3 ELA MCAP (White) is calculated as the count of White 3rd grade students who were proficient in the Grade 3 MCAP divided by the count of White third grade students who completed the Grade 3 MCAP. Apprenticeship is reported as raw counts because students may complete apprenticeships in various grade levels, which would make determining a denominator to generate percents from challenging.

Percents above 95% and below 5% are recorded as ≥95% and ≤5%, respectively.

Repeated Grades
Students that repeated a grade will be counted multiple times. For example, a student who is in 3rd grade in AY2023 and then repeats 3rd grade in AY2024 will be counted in the Grade 3 ELA MCAP measure for both AY2023 and AY2024. The only measure that will not be impacted by repeated grades is the four-year high school graduation rate, because it defines cohorts based on the year in which a student was first in 9th grade.

Race & Ethnicity
Analyses preference Hispanic=Yes over race, therefore race is not reported for students who identify as Hispanic. Race is provided only for those students who are not Hispanic. Because race may not be available for every student, the sum of students across all race or ethnicities may, therefore, not add up to the overall count. Currently, students classified as Two or More Races, American Indian/Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander, and Unknown are excluded from the analysis.

Gender
Students are reported as male or female. Students that are missing a gender characteristic or identify as neither male nor female are excluded from the analysis.

Juvenile Services Involvement
Students are reported as being justice involved if they had a probation or commitment record with the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services up to and including the date of observation in the analysis. For example, when reporting on 8th grade MCAP proficiency, juvenile services involvement is reported up to and including the year of 8th grade. Students may have had juvenile services involvement after 8th grade, however that involvement is not counted in the analysis. These values are not exclusive of other student characteristics – for example, students may be both “Child Welfare-Involved” as well as “Juvenile Services Involved.”

Justice involvement is not reported for the KRA, 3rd Grade MCAPS, and PreK measures as justice involvement is not recorded for youth below age 14. There are limited offense categories in which a youth may be reported as justice involved between the ages of 10 and 13, therefore justice involvement is reported for the 8th grade MCAP measures.

Child Welfare Involvement
Students are reported as having a child welfare involvement if they had an out-of-home placement record with the Maryland Department of Human Services or a fostercare indicator in their attendance records from the Maryland State Department of Education up to and including the date of observation in the analysis. For example, when reporting on 3rd grade MCAP proficiency, child welfare involvement is reported up to and including the year of 3rd grade. Students may have had child welfare involvement after 3rd grade, however, that involvement is not counted in the analysis. These values are not exclusive of other student characteristics – for example, students may be both “Child Welfare-Involved” as well as “Juvenile Services Involved.”

Note: DHS data contained within the system are current through fiscal year 2023, therefore the number of child welfare-involved youth are likely understated in the analysis. On average, 1,000 children across all age groups are added to the child welfare system in Maryland each year. Child welfare data through 2024 will be available in the MLDS system in Fall 2025."

Disability Status
Students are reported as having a disability status if they had a special education indicator in their attendance records from the Maryland State Department of Education up to and including the date of observation in the analysis. For example, when reporting on 3rd grade MCAP proficiency, disability status is reported up to and including the year of 3rd grade. Students may have had a disability status after 3rd grade, however that status is not counted in the analysis.

Grade 3 ELA MCAP & Grade 3 MATH MCAP
This measure includes students that were in 3rd grade in AY2023 or AY2024. If a student was retained in 3rd grade from 2022 to 2023, and took the Grade 3 ELA MCAP and Grade 3 MATH MCAP both years, only their 2023 proficiency levels are considered. For students with multiple test attempts within a year, the score for the earliest attempt was used to determine proficiency. If a student attempted the assessment at more than one school or more than one local school system within the academic year, the earliest attempt was used to determine proficiency.

Data presented in aggregate for all Census tracts if community is defined as more than one tract. If these data are blank, please refer to your county dashboard for county-level data. It is linked at the top of this dashboard.