Summary
Friendly High is a public high school located in Fort Washington, Maryland, serving grades 9-12 with a total enrollment of 943 students. The school is part of the Prince George's County Public Schools district, which is ranked 22 out of 25 in the state and has a 1-star rating from SchoolDigger. Friendly High has consistently ranked in the bottom half of Maryland high schools over the past decade, with its highest ranking being 133 out of 197 schools in the 2017-2018 school year.
Friendly High consistently underperforms the state and district averages on MCAP (Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program) tests across all subject areas and grade levels. For example, in the 2024-2025 school year, only 0% of Friendly High students were proficient or better in MCAP Mathematics, compared to 13.1% for the district and 26.5% for the state. The school's performance on MCAP English Language Arts is slightly better, with 38.3% of students proficient or better in 10th grade, but still lags behind the district (46.7%) and state (59.5%) averages. Friendly High's four-year graduation rate has been around 80% in recent years, which is on par with the nearby schools but lower than the state average. The school's dropout rate has been relatively high, ranging from 3.1% to 14.5% in the past few years, which is significantly higher than the state and district averages.
Friendly High has a very high chronic absenteeism rate, ranging from 31.5% to 49.1% in recent years, much higher than the state and district averages. The school also has a high percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, ranging from 48.86% to 65.54% in recent years, suggesting a relatively low-income student population. Despite the higher per-student spending at Friendly High, the school's academic performance remains poor, indicating that simply increasing funding may not be the sole solution. The nearby schools, such as Central High, Frederick Douglass High, and Suitland High, also perform below the state averages on academic measures, but generally outperform Friendly High, suggesting that the challenges faced by Friendly High may be systemic issues within the Prince George's County Public Schools district.
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