Win Wall · 2025–2026
This is student achievement.
Student achievement is bigger than a single test score.
I have never suggested that our MCAP scores do not matter. They do. We should study them honestly, celebrate meaningful growth, identify weaknesses, and hold ourselves accountable for improvement.
But no single assessment can capture everything our students know, everything they can do, or everything they accomplish over the course of a school year.
Just look at SOME of what the smart, talented, and hardworking students of Talbot County Public Schools accomplished during the 2025–2026 school year alone:
Academic achievement and growth
- Our eighth-grade students achieved a 24% increase in proficiency in Social Studies Skills & Processes on the MCAP assessment, the largest gain in Maryland.
- TCPS fifth graders posted an 11.8-percentage-point increase in English language arts proficiency on MCAP, the largest fifth-grade ELA gain in Maryland.
- Eighth-grade ELA proficiency increased 6.4 percentage points on MCAP, English 10 reached 63.7% proficiency.
- 344 students took 563 Advanced Placement exams. Seventy percent of AP science exams and 50% of AP math exams earned qualifying scores of 3 or higher. TCPS ranked 7th in the state for AP achievement.
- The Class of 2026 secured more than $23 million in scholarship offers.
- Our graduates headed to colleges and universities across the country, including Ivy League institutions. Our two outgoing student Board members alone went on to Harvard and Duke.
- Nine TCPS students were named Carson Scholars, including four new scholars who each received a $1,000 college scholarship.
- An Easton High School senior received National Merit Commended Student recognition.
- Thirty-six members of the Class of 2026 earned the Maryland Seal of Biliteracy, demonstrating a high level of proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, and writing in at least one language other than English.
- Easton High School’s Latin Club earned first place in a competition hosted by Calvert Hall.
Civic knowledge and national recognition
- Easton High School won the inaugural MidShore Constitution Bowl, and St. Michaels Middle High won the small-school division.
- TCPS students observed the Maryland Supreme Court hear oral arguments at Easton High School, asked questions of the justices, and participated in conversations about law and public service.
- An Easton High School graduate was selected as a national first-place winner in the America’s Field Trip competition. More than 10,000 students submitted essays and artwork answering the question, “What does America mean to you?” His award included an immersive educational experience at Yellowstone National Park.
- Three TCPS students were selected for Junior Achievement of the Eastern Shore’s “18 Under 18” cohort in recognition of their leadership, service, entrepreneurship, and community impact.
Career readiness, engineering, and hands-on learning
- Twenty-eight students on three ACE Mentor teams designed and presented major architecture, construction, and engineering projects. Four students earned scholarships, and another received an opportunity to attend an engineering summer camp in Colorado.
- TCPS celebrated its Class of 2026 Career and Technical Education completers. These students completed the full course sequence in at least one CTE pathway, many completed two programs, and one student completed three.
- Students gained real-world experience through internships and paid apprenticeships with local employers.
- Five Easton High School NJROTC students competed in an aerial drone competition at Georgia Tech, applying technical skills connected to the FAA drone-pilot credential.
- A St. Michaels Elementary student became one of only five national finalists in Sodexo’s Future Chefs competition.
Music, theater, and visual arts
- Easton Middle’s band and chorus both received the festival’s highest rating of Superior for their performances.
- Fifteen TCPS musicians were selected to perform in the 62nd Annual Eastern Shore Band Directors’ Association Junior and Senior All-Shore Band Festival alongside students from seven other districts and 37 schools.
- Easton High School’s marching band placed second in Class 3A at the Maryland Marching Band Association’s Eastern Regional competition and placed second in its class at another regional competition.
- Four EHS musicians performed at the Solo and Ensemble Festival at Towson.
- Easton Middle, Easton High, and St. Michaels Middle High musicians performed in school concerts, community celebrations, holiday parades, and Festival of Trees.
- More than 65 students in grades 2–12 participated in Easton High School’s production of The Wizard of Oz, while St. Michaels students staged a successful production of Descendants.
- Sixteen St. Michaels Middle High student artists had work featured in the St. Michaels Art League’s Excellence in Art Exhibition.
- Thirteen students representing schools across the district had artwork selected for the Superintendent’s Art Gallery.
- TCPS student artists from elementary through high school had their work professionally displayed in the Mid-Shore Student Art Exhibition.
Athletic achievement
- St. Michaels boys’ tennis completed an undefeated season and sent students to state competition in boys’ singles, boys’ doubles, girls’ singles, and mixed doubles, and then went on to win the Maryland Class 1A boys’ doubles tennis state championship.
- The TCPS clay target team won the 2026 state championship, as well as both the fall 2025 and spring 2026 conference titles. Seven of its 17 shooters finished in the conference’s top 10, and all 17 placed in the top 30.
- EHS softball reached the state final four.
- St. Michaels baseball finished as regional runner-up, boys’ soccer reached a regional final, and field hockey reached a regional semifinal.
- TCPS students qualified for state competition in wrestling and track, and an Easton High School student earned regional track MVP honors.
- An EHS student earned USA Lacrosse All-American honors, one of the highest recognitions available to a high school lacrosse player.
Service and character
- Through the Talbot Mentors-led READ Alliance partnership, trained teen tutors provided six weeks of one-to-one reading support to 28 first- and second-graders at Easton Elementary. The younger students improved their literacy skills, while the teen tutors developed leadership, mentoring, and workplace skills through meaningful paid employment.
- The district’s two Senior Service Stars completed a combined 1,212 hours of community service, far exceeding Maryland’s 75-hour graduation requirement.
- One graduating senior earned congressional nominations to three United States service academies, received appointments to both the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy, and chose to attend the Naval Academy.
- Easton Middle eighth graders planted more than 200 flags to honor fallen American service members and wrote notes of gratitude to local veterans as part of a Memorial Day service-learning project.
Exceptional educators and staff supporting our students
- Easton Middle’s Lindsay Matthews was honored by the Maryland General Assembly after being named Maryland History Day’s Statewide Middle School Teacher of the Year.
- Easton Middle’s Ed Keeler received Maryland’s 2026 Financial Education and Capability Award for middle-school educators.
- St. Michaels Middle High’s Jordan Miller received the 2026 Maryland History Day District Teacher of the Year award for Talbot County.
- St. Michaels Middle High teacher Bridget Whited was named the 2026 Maryland Association of Soil Conservation Districts Conservation Education Teacher of the Year.
- Twelve TCPS educators completed the rigorous process to become National Board Certified.
- Chapel District kindergarten teacher Holly Sump and Easton Elementary special education instructional assistant Chanae Neal were selected as TCPS Teacher and Support Staff of the Year.
- White Marsh Elementary School Resource Officer Lillian Lone was selected from more than 50 nominees as the Maryland Center for School Safety’s 2026 School Resource Officer of the Year.
That is academic growth, college-level coursework, $23 million in scholarship offers, multilingual proficiency, civic knowledge, engineering, apprenticeships, career credentials, mentoring, music, theater, visual art, community service, state championships, national recognition, and admission to some of the most selective colleges and service academies in the country.
All in ONE SCHOOL YEAR.
Our scores tell us something important about our schools. They show us where students are succeeding, where progress is being made, and where we must do better. We should study them, discuss them publicly, and act on what they tell us.
But they do not tell the whole story.
This is also student achievement. These are also our schools. These are our smart, talented, hardworking kids, and the educators, coaches, staff members, families, and community partners who help them succeed.
Good leadership requires us to do both: hold our schools accountable for the places where we must improve, and champion the people in them who are doing extraordinary things every day.
There is more work ahead. There always is.
There is also so much here to be proud of.