Officials at Edgewater Elementary School in Anne Arundel County say the record has been set straight.
In October, data collected for a new state teacher evaluation indicated that the school had the largest number of ineffective teachers in the county — 54.5 percent of Edgewater's teachers were rated "highly effective," 3 percent were rated "effective" and 42.4 percent were rated "ineffective."
School system officials now say those figures were erroneous: The Maryland State Department of Education had received incomplete data for 11 teachers, and that skewed the outcome.
In a recent letter to parents, Principal Kellie Schell-Ramey said 94 percent of the teachers had actually rated "highly effective," with 6 percent "effective." None were found to be ineffective.
The teacher ratings are part of a new state school reform effort. To receive federal Race to the Top funds, the state promised to use standardized test scores in evaluating teachers. Full implementation has been delayed until 2016-2017.
The first set of data, released in October, reviewed teacher performance during the 2013-2014 school year in almost every state school system. Montgomery and Frederick counties will join the evaluation this school year.
Statewide, about 56 percent of teachers were found to be effective and 41 percent were highly effective. Three percent were ineffective. Anne Arundel County had 6 percent of teachers rated ineffective. The figure was 1 percent or less in Baltimore, Carroll, Howard and Harford counties. In Baltimore City, 3 percent were rated ineffective.
State school officials had cautioned that this was a first-time effort. Sandi Jacobs, vice president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, a Washington-based nonprofit, noted at the time that while school systems followed statewide guidelines, each district designed its own evaluations.
Bill Reinhard, a spokesman for the state Department of Education, said the state will update its records regarding Edgewater, but the U.S. Department of Education numbers are already filed. Those records will not be updated until the next submission in 2015.
He said other than Edgewater, there have been no cases of incorrect data.
"We do rely on local systems to provide us with data," he said. "It's not perfect, but it's close."
Baltimore Sun reporter Liz Bowie contributed to this article.