AACPS reports gains on Maryland ESSA 2024-25 report card; board presses state for faster, item-level MCAP data

Anne Arundel County Public Schools officials presented the district 2024-25 Maryland ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) accountability results at a board workshop and described how the district will use the data for school improvement while flagging limits in state-supplied assessment detail.

Kelly Katzenberger, chief accountability officer for Anne Arundel County Public Schools, and Michelle Hall, director of school improvement data, walked the board through the district —ESSA house— framework used to organize accountability metrics, including foundation measures such as chronic absenteeism and the Maryland School Survey and top-level MCAP ELA and math performance.

The presentation laid out how each metric contributes to a school —house— score: chronic absenteeism (15 points), the Maryland School Survey (10 points; seven student/three educator), access to a well-rounded curriculum (10 points), growth measures for elementary and middle schools (25 points split between ELA and math), and MCAP performance (20 points for elementary/middle, 30 for high school). Katzenberger and Hall said those rooms map to AACPS strategic-plan priorities and that each school received an…