Baltimore County Public Schools’ report card is one a parent would be proud of. With the most five-star schools in the state and the top-performing school in Maryland, those grades might be on the refrigerator for the rest of the school year.

The Maryland State Department of Education released its star ratings for all Maryland public schools on Tuesday. The ratings are based on how a school performed during the 2023-2024 school year by measuring factors such as academic achievement, progress toward English-language proficiency and graduation rates. Officials said scores went up slightly across the state. Baltimore County seems to be a reason why.

Here are four takeaways from Baltimore County’s performance last school year:

Baltimore County has the most 5-star schools in Maryland.

With 20 schools earning five stars, Baltimore County has the most five-star schools in the state. It’s home to 163 schools that received an evaluation, so more schools than most districts, but it beats out Maryland’s two largest districts: Montgomery and Prince George’s counties.

The star-rating average is 3.3.

In a message to the community on Tuesday, Superintendent Myriam Rogers said this year’s ratings “show significant improvement.” Only one school earned one star, 32 earned two stars, 66 earned three, 44 earned four and 20 earned five. She said the star rating average is 3.3, up from 3.1 last school year.

Of the elementary schools, 27 went up a star, 75 remained the same and six lost one. Last time, 23 schools lost stars, Rogers wrote.

In middle school, six schools gained a star and 20 stayed the same. And in high school, four gained a star while the rest stayed the same. No high schools lost stars this time, a big improvement from the eight high schools that lost a star in the last round of ratings.

McCormick Elementary gained two stars.

Only five schools in all of Maryland went up by two stars, state officials said at Tuesday’s state school board meeting. One of those schools is McCormick Elementary on the east side of the county. It went from two stars to four. A clear improvement was a drop in chronic absenteeism — kids who miss more than 10% of school days in a year. The report card from last school year showed nearly half of students were chronically absent. This year, it dropped to 10%.

Eastern Tech is the top-rated school in the state.

Eastern Technical High School earned the most points on the report card out of all the elementary, middle and high schools in Maryland. It had the most points last school year as well, but it tied with Prince George’s County’s Academy of Health Sciences at 90 points. This year, the Prince George’s school earned the same score while Eastern Tech went up another point.

The two top elementary schools in the state also belong to Baltimore County: Rodgers Forge and Sparks. Hereford Middle School is the seventh-highest performing middle school in Maryland.

Baltimore Banner reporter Greg Morton contributed to this story.

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.