President Donald Trump on Thursday used low academic achievement in some Baltimore high schools to help justify plans to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education.

“In Baltimore, 40% of the high schools have zero students who can do basic mathematics,” Trump said before he signed an executive order at an event with school children and the U.S. Secretary of Education on Thursday.

Baltimore was the only school system singled out.

“Not even the very simplest of mathematics. I said, give me your definition of basic, and they are talking about adding a few numbers together,” Trump said.

That characterization is inaccurate.

A fact sheet distributed by the White House earlier in the day is more precise: It says 13 city high schools had no students who were proficient on a state math test in 2023. That statistic refers their performance on Maryland’s Algebra I test, which covers far more than basic math. It test students’ knowledge of functions and systems of equations, among other material.

While it is correct that no students in 13 high schools were proficient on the Algebra I test in 2023, a spokesperson for the city schools said it doesn’t provide a complete picture of achievement among city students.

Where did that number come from?

The Trump administration likely pulled the figure from a 2023 Fox45 story based on state test data the news organization obtained through a source. The table included the names of 13 Baltimore high schools where no students passed the Algebra I test, according to the story.

Two of the schools shamed — Achievement Academy at Harbor City High and Excel Academy at Francis M. Wood High — are alternative schools designed to help struggling students catch up. And Joseph C. Briscoe Academy serves students with special needs.

What about the district’s other high schools?

High school students across the city struggled with the Algebra I test administered in the spring of 2023. Around 5,000 of them took the test, and fewer than 3% of them passed, according to data shared by the district. Baltimore Polytechnic Institute had the city’s best results that year. Roughly a quarter of the school’s students passed.

That figure might sound low, but it’s higher than the 17% of students across the state who passed the Algebra I test.

It’s also important to remember that hundreds of high-achieving Baltimore middle school students take this test each year, too. Around 1,100 Baltimore students in 6th through 8th grades also took the Algebra I test in 2023, and roughly a quarter of them passed. Proficiency rates among five Baltimore middle schools exceeded 50%.

In 2024, the share of Baltimore high school students who passed the Algebra I test grew to nearly 6 percent, according to data shared by the district.

What does the school system have to say?

André Riley, a spokesperson for the school district, said the 2023 Fox45 story distorted what he called the “real story” — that Baltimore students’ performance in math improved even while many students across the country struggled following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Scores increased in seven of the eight tested grade levels between the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school years, he said. Riley also touted double-digit growth in literacy proficiency among city school students since schools CEO Sonja Santelises joined the district in 2015.

Baltimore Banner reporter Liz Bowie contributed to this story.