4.4 Student Performance Criteria, Testing, and Remediation

The Completion Standard (COMAR 11.23.02.36A)

To successfully complete the program, a student shall:

1. Attend and participate in all required classroom and behind-the-wheel instruction;
2. Achieve a minimum passing score of 80 percent on the final knowledge examination; and
3. Achieve a minimum passing score of 80 percent on the final behind-the-wheel evaluation.

All three are conjunctive. The most common misstatement of Maryland's standard is that the program requires "80 percent on the final exam." It requires two separate 80 percent scores — one written, one in the car. A student who scores 92 percent on the 50-question final and fails the final in-car evaluation has not completed the program, and the school may not certify completion.

The knowledge examination is the MVA curriculum's standardized final: three versions, 50 questions each. Eighty percent is therefore 40 of 50. Under COMAR 11.23.02.08C(4) only tests included in the approved curriculum may be administered, and under §C(6)-(7) only authorized school employees correct and grade tests and only instructors review the results with a student.

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Absences and Make-Up (COMAR 11.23.02.36B-C)

Missed 12 hours or less  ->  student MAY continue the course
                         ->  student SHALL make up any instruction missed
                             BEFORE the school submits a completion certification
                         ->  school SHALL provide make-up instruction
                             within a reasonable time frame
Missed MORE than 12 hours ->  student may NOT continue (36D(2))
                          ->  curriculum guide: retake ALL classroom instruction from Unit 1

Unit 1 is the exception to make-up entirely. The curriculum guide provides that each student must begin the classroom instruction with Unit 1, "which cannot be missed and made up later."

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Grounds for Removal (COMAR 11.23.02.36D)

Students may not continue to participate in the program if they:

1. Consistently arrive late for the course instruction or consistently leave course instruction early;
2. Miss more than 12 hours of classroom instruction; or
3. Act in a disruptive manner.

If a school does not allow a student to continue, §G requires the school to:

• (1) notify the student and the parent or guardian of a student under 18 years of age; and
• (2) fully document the reasons and details of problems in the student's records.

Those records are retained for at least three years under COMAR 11.23.02.09A and are exactly what an MVA auditor examines if the family complains under the rights and responsibilities form.

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The Continuous Evaluation and Remediation Duty (§E-F)

§E — "An instructor shall continuously evaluate the students' performance and provide remedial or additional instruction as required."

§F — "A certified school may charge a student an additional fee for remedial and additional instruction."

The fee is lawful but must be disclosed twice: prominently displayed in the business office as "fees for courses and remedial or additional training" (COMAR 11.23.01.20D(3)), and stated in the signed rights and responsibilities form as "fees for remedial and additional instruction" (COMAR 11.23.02.08E(2)(c)). An undisclosed remediation charge is a compliance problem, not just a customer-service one.

COMAR 11.23.02.34G(5) builds the same duty into every in-car lesson plan: behind-the-wheel instruction shall "include time for remedial and additional instruction as needed."

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Formative Assessment Between the Two Finals

Because the regulation requires continuous evaluation, the working instructor relies far more on low-stakes formative checks than on the two summative gates.

Commentary driving is the highest-yield in-car diagnostic. A student who executes a maneuver correctly but cannot narrate what they searched for, what they evaluated, and why they executed as they did is pattern-matching rather than driving deliberately — and that gap will not survive an unfamiliar intersection.

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Diagnosing Why a Student Is Failing

Remediation works only if it targets the actual deficit. Four patterns account for most of them.

1. Visual search deficit. The student fixates on the bumper ahead, misses perimeter signs, and brakes late. Intervention: structured eye-movement drills, commentary driving, and hazard-spotting video work drawn from the curriculum's own embedded videos and video worksheets.

2. Rule knowledge without spatial application. The student recites the right-of-way statute flawlessly but hesitates at an uncontrolled intersection. Intervention: tabletop diagramming and scenario walk-throughs before returning to the road, so the rule is rehearsed as a spatial decision rather than a sentence.

3. Cognitive overload. The student freezes at multilane merges or complex left turns. Intervention: decompose the maneuver into sub-skills, rehearse each in a low-density environment, then reassemble. Graduated exposure, not repetition of the failure.

4. Distance and gap estimation error. The student cannot hold a consistent following interval or misjudges gaps. Intervention: reference-point coaching using fixed roadside objects and a counted interval, which converts an abstract number into a repeatable observation.

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Accommodations

COMAR 11.23.02.35B requires the certified school to make accommodations for a student with special needs in compliance with all local, State, and federal nondiscrimination laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act. Supporting provisions include the MVA's authority to certify organizations that serve students with special needs (COMAR 11.23.02.04C(5)), the requirement that training vehicles have pedal extensions and seat cushions available (COMAR 11.23.02.33H), the allowance for an interpreter in the classroom (COMAR 11.23.02.32H(10)) and in the training vehicle (COMAR 11.23.02.34L(8)), and the ADA classroom standard in COMAR 11.23.01.21C(3).

What accommodations never do is move the standard. COMAR 11.23.02.36A's two 80 percent thresholds are fixed. An accommodation changes how a student demonstrates competence; it does not change the level of competence required.

Worked scenario

Case. A student scores 46/50 on the final knowledge examination but scores 72 percent on the final behind-the-wheel evaluation. The school wants to certify completion, reasoning that the combined average exceeds 80 percent.

Analysis. Not permitted. COMAR 11.23.02.36A(2) and (3) state two independent minimums of 80 percent — one on the final knowledge examination and one on the final behind-the-wheel evaluation. There is no averaging provision. The instructor must provide remedial or additional instruction under §E, which the school may charge for under §F, and the student must reach 80 percent on the in-car evaluation before a completion certification may be submitted.