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       Prince George’s County students saw slight gains on the latest round of Maryland state assessments, according to data shared by the school district this week.

       Black students in the county performed better than their peers in the state on the English language arts assessment taken in the spring, the data shows.

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       Results from the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program — the state’s tests — were initially released in August. Prince George’s Schools Superintendent Millard House II’s team shared disaggregated results for the county during a school board meeting Thursday.

       Overall, Prince George’s students in most grade levels showed an increase in the percentage of those who were proficient on the 2023 English language arts exam compared with the 2022 assessments — with the exception of fifth-graders, who showed a 0.2 percentage point decline. The largest increase was seen among sixth-graders, who showed a 6.8 percentage point increase in proficiency. (Maryland defines proficient learners as students who are “prepared for the next grade level or course and are on track for college and career readiness.”)

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       House said during the school board meeting that the new test results were “something to quite frankly be proud of.” He added: “We want to focus on what’s next and really push it even further.”

       He pointed out that among the top 50 schools in the state showing the greatest improvement in English language arts scores, more than half are in Prince George’s. That, he said in a statement, is “proof that our students are trending in the right direction.”

       Math scores remain relatively low, like in other jurisdictions across Maryland. Prince George’s students’ results did show a small percentage increase compared with last year, with the exception of eighth grade, where there was a 0.2 percentage point decline. The largest gain in mathematics was among third-graders, who had a 4.7 percentage point increase.

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       The school district is Maryland’s second largest. Fifty-one percent of students are Black, 40 percent are Hispanic/Latino and 4 percent are White.

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       The district’s analysis showed that 42 percent of Black students in grades three through eight and 10th-graders tested proficient on the English language arts assessment, compared with 33 percent of Black students in the same grades statewide.

       English learners in the county also tested slightly above their peer groups in the state, with 12 percent testing proficient, compared with 11.1 percent across the state.

       Maryland students fall short of pre-pandemic levels in math

       In math, Black students in Prince George’s County tested proficient at a rate similar to other Black students in the state — 11.5 percent of the county’s Black students were proficient, compared with 11.7 percent across the state. Students in other race or ethnic groups showed lower proficiency rates than the rest of Maryland.

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       Test scores across the United States plunged to historically low levels after students returned to in-person instruction, with recovery efforts sorely needed in mathematics. Prince George’s County Public Schools followed that trend line: Last year, most students were testing below grade level in reading and mathematics on district exams. The county’s school board members expressed concern as they reviewed the scores.

       But the tone of Thursday’s meeting was different. Most school board members congratulated the school district’s academics teams for the gains made during the past year.

       “First off, let’s go academics,” Shayla Adams-Stafford (District 4) said. “Where are Black students succeeding in Maryland? The answer is here in Prince George’s County.”

       Most Prince George’s students scoring below grade level on district tests

       Compared with Maryland’s 23 other public school districts, Prince George’s was close to the middle of the pack in English language arts performance and one of the lower-performing school districts overall in mathematics. But officials have said that the school district’s demographics make it difficult to compare it with other jurisdictions — it has the largest percentage of English language learners and one of the highest percentages of non-White students in Maryland.

       School board member Lolita Walker (District 9) said the data overall was promising, especially for Black and Brown students in the county. But, she said, “as we take a look at proficiency in some of these charts, they are relatively low in comparison to where we would ideally like to see.”

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