Maryland's 2026 School Report Card is out, and Baltimore is touting record scores

Maryland has released its 2026 School Report Card, which measures performance across districts and individual schools. 

This year, Baltimore is touting record success, with its highest ever percent of schools earning 3 to 5 stars.

Baltimore's 2026 School Report Card

For the first time, Baltimore City Public Schools report that more than half -- 53 percent -- of the district's schools earned at least 3 stars.

That's compared to a low of just 25 percent in 2022, more than doubling in the past four years. 

Compared to last year, 23 schools had their overall ratings increase, and five more schools earned 3 to 5 stars. Fifteen schools earned 4 or 5 stars. 

Two of the largest areas of improvement were reducing middle school absenteeism across all student groups and improving middle school math scores for students with disabilities. 

"Strong school ratings are only possible when every student, each family, and all of our staff commit to academic excellence," Baltimore City Public Schools CEO Dr. Jermaine Dawson said in a statement. "It will take all of us to build on this strong foundation toward our goal of career ready, future ready, and world ready students. It starts and ends with the teaching and learning that take place day in and day out across the city."

"By achieving the district's highest proportion of 3-, 4-, and 5-star schools, City Schools is already striding toward the Board's recently announced focus areas, which include more high-performing schools," Board Chair Robert Salley added. "We thank all facets of the community for your feedback to inform these focus areas, and your support to raise achievement no matter where students live."

Understanding the Maryland School Report Card

Maryland has more than 1,400 public schools that serve 880,231 students across 23 counties and Baltimore City. 

The annual report card is a robust collection of data that encompasses several performance indicators.

"The individual School Report Cards are designed so parents, educators, stakeholders, and others can easily understand how their schools are performing, just as traditional report cards help parents understand how their students are performing academically in their classes and in other important ways," the website reads. 

Those six indicators are: 

• Academic Achievement: Student performance on state standardized tests in English Language Arts and Math
• Academic Progress: How student performance has grown compared to previous years on state standardized tests, as well as performance on the state science test and the percent of students earning credit in core coursework
• Progress in Achieving English Language Proficiency: The percent of a school's English learner students who are on track toward achieving proficiency in the English language
• School Quality and Student Success: The percent of students who are not chronically absent, the results of a survey of students and educators, and the percent of students who are enrolled in a well-rounded curriculum
• Graduation Rate (high schools only): The percent of students who earn a Maryland High School Diploma in four years and in five years
• Readiness for Postsecondary Success (high schools only): The percent of ninth graders who earn at least four credits in core academic coursework, and the percent of students who complete high school meeting a variety of standards beyond their required coursework

Based on those indicators, schools can then calculate three scores:

• Total Earned Points Percent: Total number of points earned by the school, divided by the total possible points 
• Star Rating: Concise way of showing a school's total earned points percent
• Percentile Rank: Comparison of how a school performed relative to other schools

Those scores can be used to compare year-over-year progress for a particular school and to compare schools with one another. 

Click here for a closer look at the 2026 report card and to look up a specific district or school.