HCPSS MPIA Request #2023-111

Requestor
Kyla Liggett-Creel
Requested Information
Aggregate information from all middle schools in Howard county to include all data listed below for the past 3 years:

number of students
demographics
FARM rates
Behavioral referrals (write ups)
In school suspension
out of school suspension
MAPP scores (Fall and Spring for the past 3 years)
Number of counselors
Number of Administrators
Teacher/student ratio
Referrals to police for intervention
Chronic absentee data

All data is requested at the aggregate level therefore no personally identifiable data is being requested.
Outcomes:
Date Received
Status
Complete
Response Notes

Responsive to this request, no single report contains all the data sought. A consistent source containing enrollment, demographics, FARMS, academic performance and absentee data will be state-wide reporting as found on the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) Data Downloads pages (by year): https://reportcard.msde.maryland.gov/Graphs/#/DataDownloads/datadownload/3/17/6/6/99. This information is presented under the Maryland Report Card as well, which can be sorted by school, grades, student groups, and year, or trends over three years: https://reportcard.msde.maryland.gov/Graphs/#/Demographics/Enrollment/3/M/6/13/XXXX.

Additional statewide reports containing HCPSS student data include enrollment, attendance, habitual truancy, and in- and out-of-school suspensions can be found on the MSDE Student Publications page: https://www.marylandpublicschools.org/about/Pages/DCAA/SSP/Student/20212022.aspx. Historical data can also be found for these same reports:  https://www.marylandpublicschools.org/about/Pages/DCAA/SSP/index.aspx

Statewide reporting on student arrests – which includes arrest of a student for any activity conducted on school grounds, during off‐campus school activities (including while taking school transportation), or due to a referral by any school official – is also compiled by MSDE with Howard specific charts which show totals by level and grade: https://marylandpublicschools.org/about/Pages/DSFSS/SSSP/StudentArrest/index.aspx.

In addition to the data reported to the State found under the links above, and the file attached below, the following reports posted on the HCPSS website and/or reported annually to the Board of Education contain information on many of the requested topics including:

Responsive to the request for MAPP scores (Fall and Spring for the past 3 years), no existing report has aggregate data for HCPSS middle school student scores. Please note, under the MPIA process, and as advised in the Sixteenth Edition of the Maryland Public Information Act Manual created by Maryland’s Office of the Attorney General, an agency is only obligated to produce existing records and is not required to generate new data or summarize data. Additionally, aside from referral data related to suspensions which inform the MSDE reports included above on in-and out-of-school suspensions, no existing report contains data on all behavioral/office referrals used by middle schools.

 

Responsive Documents
The attached data contains the number of counselors and administrators per middle school for the past three years. These have been pulled as a snapshot per year on October 15th, which is used for state and other annual reporting on staff. HCPSS has made substantial efforts to ensure the accuracy of this information; however, data collection and reporting is consistently subject to change. Please be mindful when comparing data as many variances can occur between reports based on date pulled, parameters used, categories included, etc.

*Some request language is summarized to include the requester's specific document requests and legally protected information (such as personally identifiable information of a student) or personal, defamatory and malicious content removed at the discretion of the school system.

**Responses containing legally protected information available only to the person of interest are omitted from the above report.

***Howard County Public Schools reserves the right to remove erroneous or outdated documents from this site.