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Race and gender complexity in the 2024 Maryland School Report Card

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The 2024 Maryland School Report Card includes school-by-school and district-by-district data, including demographics. As examples, we'll look at the two westernmost districts, Garrett and Allegany counties. Here's Garrett's page. Here's Allegany's page. Both default to the At a Glance tab, which shows Garrett's total enrollment of 3,455, Allegany's of 8,205. Click on the Demographics tab, then scroll down beneath the bar graph to click on Show Table. Throughout the site, the tables are easier to read and have more exact numbers than the default bar graphs, so keep Showing Tables as you go. (Why relatively crude bar graphs, not the more informative tables, are the default display would be a good question for the designers at the Maryland Department of Education. The math deficiencies chronicled in the Report Card may have something to do with it. Many of my undergraduate students, all voting and taxpaying adults, claim discomfort even at the sight of numbers...
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The Christmas lights of Hampden

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  Note Mr. Boh overlooking the car hood. Photo credit: Miracle on 34th Street in Hampden Facebook page. Among its "16 Most Dazzling Streets To See Christmas Lights in the U.S.," travel site Thrillist includes one in Maryland: 34th Street in the Hampden neighborhood of Baltimore. That's 150 miles from Frostburg, but worth a visit! The Hampden section of Baltimore boasts some of the city's most impressive row houses, and directly after Thanksgiving (specifically, beginning December First) it becomes the city’s very own Miracle on 34th Street. Residents have been stringing lights across these homes for nearly seven decades, along with putting up other creative decorations like giant lit-up crabs, an overhead train, and snowmen made from bicycle rims. The Facebook page for Miracle on 34th Street in Hampden Hon has an impressive FAQ: *The Miracle on 34th Street block is the 700 block of West 34th Street between Chestnut & Keswick. If you want to enter a place fo...
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A quick look at the 2024 Maryland School Report Card

The 2024 Maryland School Report Card was released yesterday, Dec. 3, by the Maryland State Department of Education. Unless otherwise specified, all numbers below are from this latest Report Card--which, remember, counts only public schools, which most kids attend and all taxpayers support. One useful data point in the report is district-by-district enrollment. As one drives west toward West Virginia, Maryland's westernmost four counties steadily decrease in enrollment as they do in population, according to 2023 U.S. Census Bureau estimates. Frederick : population 293,391; enrollment 47,681. Washington : population 155,813; enrollment 22,549. Allegany : population 67,273; enrollment 8,205. Garrett : population 28,423; enrollment 3,455. According to the announcement that accompanied the Report Card, "41 percent of schools earned the top two ratings of four or five stars, and 83 percent received three or more stars." Therefore, though the announcement doesn't quite say...
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