Maryland: 2026 Assessment Results
Fourth year of ELA & math growth, but last year of the MCAP
2026 State Test Score Results Data Series
The 2026 State Test Score Results Data Series is published by the Education Data Center and is designed to provide updates on 2026 state assessment data. (See our last post about our new website home & tools here!)
What to expect: Our goal is to provide high-level insights on ELA and math state summative assessment outcomes for students in grades 3-8. We will publish overviews as State Education Agencies (SEAs) publicly release assessment results and/or as we receive aggregate results via public records requests.
For additional information about each state assessment, please see the end of this post. All available 2026 assessment data used for this data series will be published by the EDC in December.
Questions, comments, or suggestions? Let us know at info@eddatacenter.org!
Trends Over Time
On Tuesday (July 28), Maryland released the 2026 MCAP results for students in grades 3-8. Maryland has administered the MCAP since spring 2022, following the PARCC (2015-2019) and an Early Fall MCAP assessment in (fall) 2021. Next year, however, Maryland will administer a new ELA & math assessment, the MSTAR, creating another break in the state’s ability to track trends over time. The launch of the MSTAR will be Maryland’s 4th assessment since 2014 (2014 was the last year of the Maryland State Assessment).
In Maryland, 2026 proficiency rates for students taking the grade 3-8 MCAP assessment show gains in both math and ELA compared to 2025. Results are reported across four achievement levels - Beginning Learner, Developing Learner, Proficient Learner, and Distinguished Learner - with students scoring Proficient or above (Levels 3 and 4) considered proficient.
ELA: Approximately 50.2% of students in grades 3-8 reached proficiency on the MCAP assessment in 2026, up 1 percentage point from 49.2% in 2025 and reaching its highest point since the MCAP began in 2022. Grade 7 reached the highest level of proficiency of any grade level (54.6%), with grades 5 and 8 each showing growth of about 1.8 percentage points.
Math: Approximately 27.8% of students reached proficiency on the grade 3-8 assessments in 2026, up slightly from 27.5% in 2025. Like ELA, math has risen steadily post-pandemic, with Grade 7 showing the greatest gains from last year (about 1 percentage point).
A press release from the Maryland State Department of Education noted that the state “ranks third for literacy growth and fifth for mathematics growth since 2022, according to the 2025 Education Scorecard.”
Results by Achievement Level
A Closer Look at 2026
State Assessment Background
Assessment Name: Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP)
Additional Information:
General information about the MCAP assessment can be found here: https://www.marylandpublicschools.org/about/pages/daait/assessment/index.aspx
MCAP 2026 results are available from the Maryland State Department of Education here: https://reportcard.msde.maryland.gov/Graphs/#/DataDownloads/datadownload/3/17/6/99/XXXX/2022
The MSDE 2026 press release can be found here: https://news.maryland.gov/msde/2025-26-mcap-scores/
Data presented here are specific to this state’s assessment and are not comparable to assessments administered by other states. For questions, please reach out to info@eddatacenter.org.
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