Science was being neglected in some Baltimore County elementary schools, a district official told the school board Wednesday.
“What we found … is that unfortunately, in some areas, science was not being taught. It was not being taught to some of our most vulnerable populations,” Racquel Jones, chief of schools, said to the board in a report on the district’s test scores on the state’s standardized science test.
The district found that subject matter gap when visiting top performing schools and teachers after the 2023-2024 science MCAP scores were released. The district has seen improved science scores with reforms made after that discovery, Jones and Kevin Connelly, executive director of research, accountability and assessment for the district, presented to the board.
The Maryland Integrated Science Assessment (MISA) is a component of the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program, or MCAP. The MISA is administered to fifth and eighth grade students and to high school life sciences students.
In 2025, 23.5% of Baltimore County fifth graders tested proficient on their science assessments; 26.6% of eighth graders and 31.8% of high schoolers met the same benchmark. “Proficient” means the student met the scoring standard set by the state education department.
Statewide, fifth graders scored better in 2023 than they did in the two subsequent years. Now, just over a quarter of those students met the benchmark, down from 34.5% in 2023. Eighth graders’ science scores dipped in 2024, but now are 31.4% proficient, about five percentage points higher than where they were in 2023. At the high school level, nearly 50% of students were proficient, which is 10% higher than last year.
“I was a little disturbed by your comment that science was not being taught. How does that happen? How do we not have science being taught in schools?” Board member Christina Pumphrey asked.
“I do think there are competing demands,” Jones said. “And there are so many things that we are trying to … capture within the instructional day.”
In some schools, she said, English language arts instruction might have been prioritized over science. Now, Jones said, the district is making sure science returns to the forefront from where it might have been in the “backseat.”
“I don’t think it was done intentionally,” she said.
This article will be updated.
Have a news tip? Contact Racquel Bazos at rbazos@baltsun.com, 443-813-0770 or on X as @rzbworks.