Maryland released 2025–26 MCAP results on July 28. On the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program, proficient means a student met or exceeded the grade-level standard. Talbot County Public Schools posted 46.8 percent proficiency in English language arts and 20.7 percent in math. Four in five students still do not meet the state math standard.

The four-year gain is 3.7 points in ELA, from 43.1 percent in 2022, and 5.3 points in math, from 15.4 percent. Statewide math this year is 27.1 percent, so Talbot remains about 6.4 points below the state line in that subject.

Do not skip 2025. That year Talbot's ELA proficiency fell 1.9 points to 45.4 percent — the largest year-to-year drop of any Maryland district — while math sat at 18.9 percent, 18th in the state. The 2026 rebound in ELA to 46.8 percent recovers most of that loss; it does not erase it.

The board of Emily Jackson, Amy Dodson, Dyshekia Strawberry, Deborah Bridges, Ann O'Connor, Karla Wieland-Cherry, and Cynthia Jurrius has spent the recovery years watching scores move in small steps while enrollment slipped to 4,485 in FY2025. Communications director Debbie Gardner said last year the district was "analyzing MCAP data." The July 28 release shows the analysis has not produced a breakthrough.