The Education Scorecard released Wednesday, May 13, 2026, highlights Baltimore City Public Schools (City Schools) for improving faster in literacy and math in grades 3–8 than their peers nationally and across Maryland. In fact, Baltimore had the largest increases in reading achievement of large urban districts from 2019 to 2025 and from 2022 to 2025. As a result, City Schools also continues to narrow achievement gaps according to the latest Scorecard results.
The Education Scorecard is a collaboration between education research centers at Harvard and Stanford that assess students’ academic outcomes and growth in school districts across the country.
From 2022 to 2025, City Schools students gained the equivalent of 1.35 grade levels of learning annually in combined math and literacy growth, according to the scorecard. That pace exceeds the growth of students in comparable urban school districts nationally (1.10 grade levels) and across Maryland (1.01 grade levels) during the same period.
City Schools’ literacy and math growth rate is consistent across its largest student groups, including Black students, Hispanic students, and economically disadvantaged students. Each group exceeded both its own pre-pandemic learning rate from 2019 and the national average growth rate during the same period, meaning students are learning and acquiring skills faster than before.
Bottom line: City Schools students are gaining in their learning faster than students in the same circumstances, closing the achievement gap with their peers. The scorecard results build on several years of sustained academic progress across City Schools, including:
Since 2017, City Schools’ literacy proficiency has increased by 15.9 percentage points, compared with statewide growth of 9.2 percentage points.
Since 2022, student math proficiency has increased by 5.6 percentage points.
In 2025, 49 percent of City Schools earned 3-, 4-, or 5-star ratings from the state, nearly double the share in 2022.
“Our focus on accelerating student growth following the pandemic is clearly producing results,” said Dr. Sonja Brookins Santelises, chief executive officer of City Schools. “Our students are gaining skills and demonstrating learning at a faster pace than similar students elsewhere, despite the extraordinary challenges they faced during and after the pandemic. While we know there is still more work ahead, these results reinforce that our strategy is working and that our students are continuing to move in the right direction.”
At the same time, chronic absenteeism in City Schools has continued its three-year decline since 2022, meaning more students are attending school consistently and benefiting from daily instruction and support.
For more information about these results, visit educationscorecard.org.
About Baltimore City Public Schools:
Serving approximately 76,000 students, Baltimore City Public Schools is committed to providing a world-class education through its Portrait of a Graduate, which addresses the critical areas of student wholeness, academics, and staff leadership. The goal of City Schools is to create learning communities where our students will learn, grow, and graduate from our high schools college and career ready, and equipped to succeed wherever their life may take them.