| Vital Statistics | |
|---|---|
| Public schools | 1,366 |
| Public school teachers | 55,140 |
| Pre-K-12 students | 869,113 |
| Annual pre-K-12 expenditures | $7.9 billion |
| Minority students | 49.6% |
| Children in poverty | 11% |
| Students with disabilities | 12.4% |
| English-language learners | 3.2% |
Summary of Grades
Maryland scores at or above average in two of the four graded policy categories in Quality Counts.
The strongest showing for the state is in the area of standards and accountability. Maryland does well on standards and earns full credit for the school accountability indicators. The state sanctions and provides assistance to all low-performing schools. It also provides rewards to high-performing or improving schools.
Maryland scores at the national average in teacher quality. The state holds both teacher-preparation programs and K-12 schools accountable for teacher quality. For example, Maryland’s report cards include data on teacher qualifications. But the state does not require all of its middle school teachers to pass subject-knowledge tests.
The state ranks second-to-last in the nation on indicators related to school climate, performing poorly across many of the areas in this section. Maryland is one the few states that does not have a program for public school open-enrollment. Elementary school class sizes in the state are larger than the national average, and fewer students in Maryland attend smaller schools.
Maryland earns a below-average grade in resource equity. In particular, Maryland receives the worst wealth-neutrality score in the nation. This indicates that per-pupil funding levels in the state’s poorer districts are considerably lower than in its wealthier districts.
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| Quality Counts Grading Breakdown | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Note: Details may not sum to totals due to rounding.
