Is Poverty to Blame for MSA Score Gaps in Prince George's?

Mapping the performance of Prince George's County's public elementary schools on the latest round of Maryland State Assessments reveals a geography of academic success and struggles, which tie an area's economics with a school's success. 

Namely, areas of high unemployment and child poverty continue to be associated with lower state-wide standardized test scores among elementary schools, while more affluent areas of the county perform at or above average, according to school officials.

In the above map—produced by combining MSA test data from the Maryland State Department of Education with school attendance area data provided by PGCPS—the school attendance areas depicted on the map are color coded from red to green based on a school's combined average proficiency rates on the 2012 MSA reading and math tests for grades three through five. The more red the area is, the lower the proficiency rates.

Elementary students' MSA proficiency rates dropped slightly in 2013, mirroring declines seen across Maryland, which state school officials blamed on a transition away from the MSA curriculum in preparation for the adoption of a new assessment testing regime called Common Core. 

Only 79 percent of Prince George’s elementary students passed the MSA reading test with proficient scores and only 75 percent of them passed the math test with proficient scores—a decline of three points on the reading test and four points on the math tests.

Duane Arbogast, Acting Deputy Superintendent of Academics for the Prince George's County Public Schools, said he was not surprised by what he saw when the county's test data was broken up and laid into a map: low performing schools clustered around areas afflicted by persistently high urban and suburban poverty rates.

Many of the schools with the weakest MSA proficiency numbers are grouped inside the Beltway along the county's borders with Washington, DC and stretching into southwestern Prince George's County. It's an area home to some of the highest child poverty rates in the county, according to Census data. It also includes areas of Mount Rainier where the child poverty rate is as high as 51 percent in one census tract and includes Hillcrest Heights area neighborhoods where the child poverty rate reaches 43 percent or parts of Oxon Hill which have a child poverty rates hovering around 47 percent.

See child poverty rates by Census Tract

So, if socioeconomic factors (or the things outside of the school house doors) seem to play such a large role in academic achievement, is it hopeless to expect in-school solutions to low performing schools? Aborgast said no.

"When you invest heavily in community engagement, when you bring opportunity to the school which the community doesn't otherwise offer, and when you have multiple partners working to change a school, you see turnaround," said Aborgast. "It has to be very comprehensive. it involves inside the school and outside the school elements working together."

Additional Context

The schools with the lowest MSA proficiency scores on the map, however—like Clinton Grove Elementary in Clinton (combined average reading and math proficiency levels of 47 percent) and Thomas Claggett Elementary in District Heights (combined average reading and math proficiency levels of 46 percent)—can reasonably be attributed to the school's focus on serving students with sensory, mental or behavioral disabilities, said Arbogast. More than 20 percent of both schools student populations areenrolled in special education programs and nearly 90 percent of the students at Claggett qualify for free and reduced school meal plans.

This map does not show the test results of all public elementary schools in Prince George's County, only those with a defined attendance area set by the Prince George's County Board of Education. In total, about 35 Prince George's public or public charter elementary schools whose student populations are not geographically restricted are not represented on this map (they will get their own map soon, though).

According to Johndel Jones-Brown, Director of the Prince George's County Public Schools Department of Pupil Accounting and School Boundaries office, the test scores in the map are for the school as a whole and include the test performance of non-resident students in attendance and exclude resident students attending other schools.

Jones-Brown also stressed that the school district boundaries depicted on this map be used as a reference tool only. Parents, students and residents curious to know within which school attendance area they live can verify that through the Pupil Accounting and School Boundaries office's online school finder or by calling the office directly at (301) 952-6300.