A new report on child well-being in Maryland shows gains in economic and community health but the state mirrored a national trend of declining test scores.

The Kids Count Data Book from the Annie E. Casey Foundation showed math scores among eighth graders declined more than 10%, and literacy scores for fourth graders also fell. Groups are encouraging Maryland to continue implementing the major education reform law known as the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future to reverse the declines.

Nonso Umanna, Kids Count director at the Maryland Center for Economic Policy, said more education funding and the reforms could begin turning the state’s declining literacy and math scores around.

“We believe that it is important that the state continue to implement the blueprint — and continue to provide funding — in order to ensure that the blueprint is implemented fully,” Umanna asserted. “If that is done, then we can be able to start seeing changes in Maryland’s education score and performance.”

The blueprint requires major increases in teacher pay, an expansion of free preschool and large investments in public school funding in high-poverty and special-needs schools. Opponents argued the budget is unsustainable and will create large funding shortfalls.

Maryland ranked 19th for overall child well-being, according to the report. The declines in literacy and math mirror national trends in the post-pandemic years but literacy scores for fourth graders held steadier than in many other states, with just a 1% decline.

Leslie Boissiere, vice president of external affairs for the Annie E. Casey Foundation, said each data point represents a child with or without the resources needed to thrive.

“It’s a child who either has enough to eat or doesn’t have enough to eat,” Boissiere explained. “It’s a child who is either in a stable home and has access to quality education to put themselves on the pathway to thrive, or it’s a child who doesn’t have those necessities.”

For the first time, the report offers a comprehensive score, rather than just a ranking, to better track whether investments in children yield positive improvements. Maryland received a score of more than 600 on a 1,000-point scale.

Source: Public News Service