PGCPS reports gains on 2025 MCAP; district highlights 'on-cusp' students, writing zeros and plans for school-level dashboards

Prince George's County Public Schools officials reported measurable gains across grade levels on the 2025 Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP) during a Sept. 18 presentation to the Prince George's County Board of Education, while cautioning that challenges remain for multilingual learners, students with disabilities and younger students who scored zeros on constructed-response items.

“While we recognize there is more work ahead, the data reveals meaningful areas of progress that we must both celebrate and build upon,” said Dr. Joseph during opening remarks on the results. The district said about 74,000 students took MCAP last year, an increase of roughly 2.5% (about 1,800 students) from the prior year; PGCPS reported a 3.3% increase in students with disabilities, a 14.5% increase in economically disadvantaged students, and a 7.1% increase in multilingual students.

Dr. Jamie Bowers, of the district’s testing, research and evaluation team, said Prince George’s County made gains in almost every grade level in English language arts (ELA) except grade 4, and gained across every grade level and course in mathematics. Bowers said the district identified roughly 20,000 students within 10 scale score points of proficiency (about 13,700 in ELA and many in mathematics), calling this “on-cusp” population a major focus for the district.

The district reported an overall mathematics gain of about 3.9 percentage points, which it said exceeded the state’s gain by roughly two percentage points; the district’s ELA gain was about 2.8 percentage points, approximately 0.1 percentage point less than the state’s gain.

Bowers and other presenters highlighted two patterns of concern: (1) elementary students accounted for a substantial share of constructed-response “zeros” on ELA items, which, because each constructed response carries significant points on the MCAP, can meaningfully lower a student’s overall scale score; and (2) students who have “exited” multilingual or special-education services tended to outperform peers who remain in those programs.

District leaders described several responses. Dr. Doug Strader said PGCPS will publish dashboards that allow the public and board members to drill from district-level results down to the school level; the dashboards will include MCAP results, growth measures and school metrics such as truancy, suspensions and enrollment demographics. Dr. White, the district’s chief academic officer, said the system will strengthen English-language development (ELD) teams in schools, expand targeted interventions and implement a systemwide writing plan that schedules a common writing task each quarter so teachers can score and calibrate against a rubric.

Board members used the presentation to press for more detail and for tools they can use with constituents. Board Member Robin Brown asked whether the district would make school-level data available; Strader said the upcoming dashboards would provide that access. Several members asked about grade 4’s lack of growth; presenters said they plan to examine benchmark and writing data to determine whether early-grade writing zeros carried forward to fourth-grade results.

Board Member Dr. Moss and others asked whether the county should question the state’s assessments when wide, jurisdiction-wide drops appear; Dr. Strader said he serves on a state-level advisory body and that PGCPS will continue to review technical issues, but emphasized that MCAP is only one measure and that multiple measures matter for understanding student progress.

Board members and staff also discussed use of evidence: Dr. Joseph said the district is moving from research-based selection of programs to more evidence-focused evaluation that measures effect size and return on investment before scaling practices.

Ending: PGCPS officials portrayed the MCAP results as cause for cautious celebration and outlined data tools, a writing initiative and strengthened ELD and MTSS interventions as next steps; the district will release school-level dashboards and follow up with deeper analysis on grade 4 and constructed-response performance.