Whistleblower says Maryland's changes to state test data not about student privacy
Why would the Maryland State Department of Education take down school test results and later repost them with much of the data redacted? The state says it’s all about student privacy. But one employee who worked at the Department of Education says it’s about something else entirely.
“They do not want anyone to talk to media,” said a whistleblower, who worked in a leadership position at MSDE for years and asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation. “When the media does a story, it's very tense in the building,”
That building is the Nancy S. Grasmick State Education Building. It houses the Maryland State Department of Education.
“They do not like to be questioned,” the whistleblower told Project Baltimore.
Project Baltimore has been trying to speak with someone inside this building, specifically State Superintendent Mohammed Choudhury. But he will not agree to an interview.
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“It makes complete sense that he doesn't want to talk to the media, because he doesn't want to answer the hard questions,” said the whistleblower.
Project Baltimore, in February, broke the story that 23 Baltimore City Schools had zero students, among those tested, score proficient on the state math exam. In March, the state uploaded revised state test results, and much of the data was replaced with asterisks. Project Baltimore asked the whistleblower what they thought happened.
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“I think that the data did not put his tenure in a good light. And I think that because of that, they changed the information, the data, hid the data so that it didn't make him look bad,” the whistleblower told Project Baltimore.
While the state superintendent has refused to speak with Project Baltimore, his department, in a statement, said the move was made to protect student privacy. They called it “enhanced deidentification.”
Previously, the state redacted data if the sample size was fewer than ten students. But because of “learning challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic”, MSDE says it is now concealing all testing data where less than 5 percent of students scored proficient and fewer than 30 students took the test.
The whistleblower who spoke with Project Baltimore had never heard of the term “enhanced deidentification.”
Last week, MSDE posted a three-page letter to its website concerning Project Baltimore’s coverage. The letter mentions six times that changes to the data are “federally required.” But the U.S. Department of Education’s website clearly states under “protecting student privacy” that “The Department does not mandate a particular method, nor does it establish a particular threshold for what constitutes sufficient disclosure avoidance. These decisions are left up to the individual State.”
“I do not believe by looking at those numbers that you can identify students based on those numbers,” said the whistleblower.
The pandemic impacted schools nationally, so Project Baltimore looked at surrounding states to see how they reported their 2022 testing data, specifically at the lowest-performing schools. To Maryland’s north, in Pennsylvania, data shows if a school had zero students test proficient. Project Baltimore found multiple examples.
Virginia also makes public a lot of information. Though, if fewer than 10 students are in a sample, the state shows results as greater than or less than 50 percent. But, if there’s more than 10 students, the state does show percentages. At Ginter Park Elementary in Richmond, there are zero students proficient in history and social science.
West Virginia is similar. The data shows how many schools have zero students proficient.
In Delaware, a little less information is provided, but Project Baltimore found schools with as few as two percent of students tested who scored proficient.
All four of the states that surround Maryland provide the public with more information about how schools are performing. They provided more information before MSDE enacted “enhanced deidentification.”
“Had Project Baltimore not done that story on the 23 schools in Baltimore City, do you think that data gets changed?” Project Baltimore’s Chris Papst asked the whistleblower.