But some improvements are needed.
Frederick, Md (KM) The Maryland School Report Cars for local public school systems have come out for 2022–2023, and Frederick County Public Schools can be very proud. “About a third of schools in Maryland achieved a four- or five-star status. The report card is a five-star system. And in Frederick County, approximately two-thirds of our schools have actually achieved four or five-star status,” says Dr. Frank Vetter, Director of Assessment, Data Reporting and Strategic Improvement.
“It’s certainly shows that Frederick County continues to be a leader among school districts in the state of Maryland,”: he states.
Dr. Vetter says these four- and five-star schools had to meet some rigorous criteria before achieving this status. “The elementary and middle school level, they use factors such as academic achievement, academic progress, progress in achieving English-language proficiency and school quality and student success measures. At the high school level, there’s also graduation rate and readiness for post-secondary success,” he says.
“We’re certainly providing a solid education to our students,” Dr Vetter continues. “We’re fortunate to work in a situation in which school quality is an important factor for families and we’re certainly striving for that all the time.”
But there’s also room for improvement. “I would say some of the challenges that we’re still working toward is improving learning for all of our multi-lingual learners, and address chronic absenteeism,”: says Dr. Vetter.
He says chronic absenteeism is defined as a student is missing more than ten percent of the days of a school year. The typical school year has 180 days, and that would be missing 18 days during a school year.
FCPS says parents can help stop chronic absenteeism by making sure their children attend school each day. “We know that when students come to school on a regular basis they’re more likely to achieve success,:” says Dr. Vetter.
Even with this good news, Dr. Vetter says the work will continue to make sure all students continue to learn. “We want to celebrate success, but we’re always looking forward to educating more students. So that’s always our goal,” he says.
By Kevin McManus