More Maryland students are showing up prepared for the 12 years of schooling ahead, according to a story we ran today. After a decade of state initiatives aimed of better preparing children to be successful in school, a state survey which showed that 81 percent of the state's kindergartners have the academic and social skills they will need to be successful in school.

According to the story, done by my colleague Liz Bowie, the state's Ready to Learn report shows a 32 percentage-point jump in the past decade in the number of children ready when they enter kindergarten.

Suburban school districts in the Baltimore area have exceeded the state average, but in Baltimore, only 67 percent of students--an 18 percentage-point increase over last year--were deemed prepared. The school system released its own findings, which can be viewed here.  

While Baltimore city still has a ways to go to catch up to its neighboring districts, it seems the school system is on the right path. The state attributed the improvement, in part, to local districts opening pre-kindergarten programs, and the city has noted a 50 percent increase in the number of pre-k seats it has offered in the last three years.