This database is a supplement to the Maryland College and Career Readiness Empirical Study final report that American Institutes for Research® produced for the Maryland State Department of Education.
The database provides detailed results from the study’s classification analysis that tested how well different specifications of the Maryland college and career readiness (CCR) standard predict measures of postsecondary progress.
Our analysis used the following metrics of classification accuracy and error:
In addition to the predictive validity metrics (i.e., accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity rates), the percentages of students who met the Standards and the postsecondary benchmarks, respectively, are also included for context. Note that predictive validity metrics may be influenced by how common (or rare) it is for a student to meet a given benchmark, which may distort comparisons across postsecondary benchmarks or across student groups. For additional information on how the Standards and measures of postsecondary progress are defined, as well as details on the classification analysis methodology, see Appendix I.
The database consists of four tables that present results broken down by several key factors including: students’ initial postsecondary pathway (Table 1); cohort year (Table 2); geographic region of high school (Table 3); and sociodemographic characteristics (Table 4).
Each table is interactive by using the global “Search” bar and by filtering each column either by selecting category values or by limiting numeric values within a set range. Also note that only the first 50 results are presented per page; use the “Next” and “Previous” selections at the bottom of each table to advance or return results.
Select “Table Details” below to reveal additional text specific to each table.
Table Details
Initial postsecondary pathways were defined based on enrollment in each type of postsecondary institution in the fall term immediately following students’ expected on-time high school graduation. Our primary analysis focuses on students who enrolled in a Maryland postsecondary pathway:
Table Details
Cohorts were defined by students’ expected on-time high school graduation year from the time they were a first-time ninth grader. For example, a ninth grader in school year 2013–14 has an expected on-time high school graduation of spring 2017 and is included in the 2017 cohort. The analysis includes five cohorts, classes of 2017 through 2021. For the 2021 cohort, data were not available to examine postsecondary progress benchmarks that included credit or GPA information from a student’s second semester of college, or persistence/retention information for a student’s second year of college.
Table Details
Maryland regions were defined in the MLDS Center data based on the location of the high school a student attended at the end of their second year of high school, where larger Local Education Agencies (LEAs) constitute their own region (e.g., Baltimore County) and smaller LEAs were grouped into the following regions:
Table Details
Student characteristics were defined at the end of a student’s second year of high school (i.e., Grade 10). Less than 1% of students were classified as American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander and are not included in this table. Students were considered a current English learner if they were classified as an English learner at the end of Grade 10. English learners were considered a recent exit if they were reclassified within 2 years prior to the end of Grade 10.