BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of MD schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
53.8%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
67.1%
based on MD schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-13.3pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 54% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 67% typical for Maryland schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations compares each school with others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school lands here when its results trail those comparable schools, which is not the same as having low scores. A higher-scoring school can still fall in this tier if similar schools score higher still.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual.
How this is calculated →What is MCAP?
Maryland public-school students take the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP) in English Language Arts and Math each spring (grades 3-8 + grade 10). MCAP uses a 4-level performance scale, with Levels 3 and 4 indicating proficiency.
What does "% Proficient (Levels 3-4)" mean?
It is the percentage of students at the school who scored at Performance Level 3 ("Proficient") or Level 4 ("Distinguished") on MCAP. Levels 3 and 4 are MCAP's grade-level benchmark — top 2 of 4 performance levels. A higher number is better.
What does 92.5% mean for English Language Arts at Poolesville High?
It means about 92.5 percent of students tested at Poolesville High performed at grade level or above on the MCAP English Language Arts test in 2024-25. The statewide average for Maryland that year was 50.6%. The other students fell into the lower performance levels.
How is the state average calculated?
It is a weighted average, not a simple average of each school's number. We multiply each public school's score by how many of its students tested, add those together for all schools in Maryland, and divide by the total students tested that year. This way a big school with 1,500 students counts more than a small school with 50 students, which is the right way to ask "how did the typical student do this year?". District and county averages on this page use the same method, just scoped to that district or county.
Where does this data come from?
Maryland State Department of Education, Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP). School-level Performance Level data scraped from the Maryland Report Card SPA. Headline metric is the cumulative 'Proficient or Distinguished' rate (Performance Levels 3 + 4 on MCAP's 4-level scale).
How often is it updated?
MCAP is administered once a year (spring). Results are released by the state in the summer or early fall. We refresh this page after each annual release.
