Baltimore City Youth Data Scorecard

The Baltimore City Youth Data Scorecard, a resource that is updated and maintained by Baltimore’s Promise, is designed to make data related to the health and well-being of children and young people living in Baltimore City accessible to all.

The interactive Data Scorecard provides community stakeholders the opportunity to track the best available data on how Baltimore’s children and youth are collectively faring, from birth through post-secondary education, and into the early stages of their careers. It also compiles data that currently exists in different sources by bringing it together in an easy-to-view format.  

Presenting key youth well-being data in one single site supports community efforts to hold decision-makers accountable, improve services, and generate better outcomes for Baltimore children and families.

Baltimore’s Promise has five ambitious goals for the city’s youth as they progress from childhood to adulthood:

  • Babies are born healthy

  • Children enter kindergarten ready to succeed in school

  • Children and youth achieve at grade level in school

  • Youth graduate high school prepared for the next step without remediation

  • Youth earn quality post-secondary credentials or receive training and are career ready

Each of the five Data Scorecard sections tracks the above community-level outcomes along the Cradle-to-Career Continuum. In total, across these five sections, there are over 20 indicators we are tracking through our Data Scorecard.

For additional context and narrative around data indicators, please expand the text options below the dashboard. You can also download a PDF version of the scorecard here.

Scorecard Dashboard

 

Scorecard Key Findings by Indicator Group

  • • After a large increase in 2020, Infant Mortality in Baltimore City decreased in 2021 to the lowest level seen since we started collecting data, with a 18.5% decrease for Black (Non-Hispanic) infants from 2020 to 2021.

    • Black (Non-Hispanic) infants are over twice as likely to be born with a Low Birth Weight than White (Non-Hispanic) infants. Low Birth Weight has remained steady over the past several years in Baltimore City.

    • There are positive signs of change with mothers accessing Prenatal Care, with slightly more mothers accessing prenatal care in their first trimester, and fewer mothers accessing prenatal care for the first time in their third trimester or not at all compared to 2019.

    • The Teen Birth Rate in Baltimore City has slightly decreased between 2020 and 2021, mirroring a decrease seen across the state of Maryland during the same time period.

    • While the Maternal Mortality Rate in Maryland has decreased in the past decade, the gap in Maternal Mortality Rate between Black (Non-Hispanic) mothers and White (Non-Hispanic) mothers has increased.

    Click here to learn more about indicators for Babies Born Healthy.

  • • Kindergarten Readiness (KRA) results in Baltimore City saw large increases from 2022 to 2023; however, 2023 results are still significantly lower than pre-pandemic results.

    • In 2023, White students were 68% more likely to score “Demonstrating Readiness” on the KRA compared to Black/African American students. In the same year, White students were three times more likely to score “Demonstrating Readiness” on the KRA compared to Hispanic/Latino students.

    Click here to learn more about the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment.

  • • On the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 4th grade math proficiency in Baltimore City decreased by over 50% in 2022 compared to 2019, while 8th grade math proficiency decreased by 20%. Both figures are the lowest proficiency rates in the past decade, mirroring trends seen across the state.

    • NAEP Reading scores in Grade 8 have remained steady in Baltimore City, while the state of Maryland experienced declines.

    • MCAP Math Grade 3 standardized scores recovered in 2023 after a steep decline in 2022. Proficiency rates are still lower than pre-pandemic levels, and the gap between White students and Black or African American students has grown by over 26% since 2019.

    • Fewer than 5% of Baltimore City students scored proficient on the MCAP Math Grade 8 exam in 2023, compared to 7.5% of students across the entire state.

    • MCAP English Language Arts (ELA) proficiency rates in Baltimore City increased significantly between 2019 and 2023 for both Grades 3 and 8, with the greatest increases seen for Black or African American students.

    Click here to learn more about indicators for Grade Level Achievement.

  • • The proficiency rate in the MCAP Algebra 1 exam increased in Baltimore City in 2023, up to 6.4%, though it is still below rates seen before the pandemic (9.1% in 2019).

    • A smaller percentage of Baltimore City students scored Proficient on the MCAP Grade 10 ELA exam in 2023 compared to 2022 (31.2% and 34.0%, respectively); however, proficiency rates are still nearly double what they were before the pandemic (16.0% in 2019).

    • Both the Four-Year and Five-Year Graduation Rates slightly decreased in the past two years in Baltimore City. The four-year rate has decreased from 70.0% in 2020 to 68.7% in 2022. The five-year rate has decreased from 73.9% in 2019 to 72.6% in 2021.

    • In 2020, 58.3% of Baltimore City high school graduates needed remediation in college, compared to 32.7% of high school graduates across the state.

    Click here to learn more about indicators for High School Graduation.

  • • College Enrollment rates in both Maryland and Baltimore City declined in 2020 to the lowest percentages seen in the past five years.

    • The percentage of young people ages 16-24 who are not in school nor working, known as Opportunity Youth, decreased to 13.4% in Baltimore City in 2022, down from 15.7% in 2021.

    • The youth (16-24) Unemployment Rate decreased between the 2012-2016 time period and the 2017-2021 time period in both Baltimore City and Maryland.

    • The Median Earnings by Education in Baltimore City shows that education levels are highly correlated with higher earnings. The median earnings for those without a high school degree in 2021 was $24,742, compared to $33,252 for those with a high school degree.

    Click here to learn more about indicators for College and Career Readiness.

 

A note on labels for youth subgroups related to race, ethnicity, and gender:

Because different data sources may use unique labels for different racial, ethnic, and gender subgroups, the Baltimore City Youth Data Scorecard does not have consistent labels for subgroups across the 20+ indicators. For example, the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment Report, which informs our Kindergarten Readiness indicator, labels subgroups as “Black/African American,” “Hispanic/Latino,” and “White.” Data from the American Community Survey from the US Census, which informs several of our indicators, labels similar subgroups as “Black or African American,” “Hispanic,” and “White.” In order to not misrepresent or mistranslate data from indicator sources, we always keep the same labels used by each individual data source. For more details about our data sources, see the data source linked in each graph, the additional details provided in links above, or email James Sadler at james@baltimorespromise.org.