Maryland Report Card: 20 Harford County schools saw performance score drops in 2022-23
Twenty Harford County Public Schools saw a decrease in their overall school performance score for the 2022-23 school year, while four schools saw an increase, according to data released by the Maryland State Department of Education on Wednesday.
The annual scoring, known as the Maryland Report Card, rates schools based on several criteria, including student achievement and level of chronic absenteeism, an MSDE document says. The schools are scored from one to five stars.
Overall, Harford’s average score dropped from 3.89 in the 2021-22 school year to 3.6 in 2022-23. Comparatively, the statewide average score is 3.23, a decrease of 0.19 from 2021-22. In nearby Baltimore County, the average score was 3.12.
The district has four two-star, 17 three-star, 28 four-star, and four five-star schools.
Of the 53 schools in Harford, 38% had score drops in the 2022-23 school year.
Sean Bulson, superintendent of Harford schools, said the ratings do not accurately represent the district’s improvements. He specifically cited the change in how MSDE measures student growth and absenteeism as reasons some schools went down in the rankings.
“It can be difficult to accurately gauge improvements in our schools when the way the star ratings are measured continues to change,” Bulson said in an emailed statement. “Our student data improved in each, but the metrics to evaluate these categories changed, and so some star ratings went down. We know there is still a long way to go.”
The four schools — Magnolia Elementary, Bakerfield Elementary, Halls Cross Roads Elementary and Harford Technical High School — that saw an increase account for 7.5% of the district’s schools.
The scores that both gained and lost stars saw their scores move up or down only one star. Harford Technical High, located in Bel Air, went from a four- to a five-star rating. Bakerfield Elementary went from a three- to a four-star school.
As for the schools that saw a decrease, 15 went from a five- to a four-star rating. Of those, 14 are elementary schools. Fallston was the only middle school to fall from a five- to a four-star rating.
Of the 20 Harford schools that saw a decrease, 18 are elementary schools. Since absenteeism is a key metric for the rating, the high number of elementary schools in Harford with dropped scores aligns with the increase in overall chronic absenteeism seen statewide from Maryland’s elementary schools.
In the 2018-19 school year, elementary schoolers accounted for only 14% of chronic absenteeism within the state. This number increased to 26% in the 2022-23 school year.
