Between 2018 and 2025, 3rd-grade ELA proficiency on the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program rose from 49.5% to 65%, 14.2 points above the state average.
From 2018 to 2023, ELA proficiency rates among historically underrepresented groups also climbed—scores for Black 3rd graders grew from 38% to nearly 44% proficient, and low-income Title I students rose from 32% to about 38%.
In May 2023, FCPS was honored by the Center for Model Schools as an Innovative District—1 of only 7 in the U.S.
A focus on the science of learning has helped this district shrink achievement and opportunity gaps—by making sure every student is engaged in effortful thinking.
By rooting their professional development in learning science, this district helped teachers figure out which strategies to use more frequently,and which to retire.
In Maryland, a district's decade of effort to train more than 4,000 educators on how the brain learns best—so they can apply cognitive science in their own classrooms—begins to pay off.
