Summary:
The three public schools in Catonsville, Maryland—Catonsville Elementary, Westowne Elementary, and Catonsville Middle—serve 2,106 students within the Baltimore County Public Schools district, which ranks in the bottom third of Maryland. While the district overall earns a 2-star rating, Catonsville’s schools show notable variation in performance, with Catonsville Elementary standing out as a clear academic leader. It is the only school in the area that beats both the district and state averages in math (43.4% proficient) and English Language Arts (59.4% proficient), and it also boasts the smallest class sizes with a student-teacher ratio of 14.8.
Catonsville Middle excels in English Language Arts, with 55.3% of students proficient, and its 7th-grade ELA rate of 65.7% is 20 points above the district average. However, the school faces a significant "math cliff": proficiency drops from 25.6% in 6th grade to just 6% in 7th grade and 1% in 8th grade, though advanced math students perform well in Algebra I. Westowne Elementary shows the most improvement, jumping from the 47th to the 61st percentile in state rankings over two years, yet it still trails state averages in most subjects. Its higher poverty rate (56.54% free/reduced lunch) and chronic absenteeism (17.5%) present ongoing challenges, despite receiving the highest per-student spending at $18,945.
A consistent strength across all three schools is their English Language Arts performance, which exceeds the district average. Chronic absenteeism rates are also well below the district’s 25.6% average, indicating strong attendance. A key gap in the data is the absence of a high school, meaning students from Catonsville Middle will feed into a school outside this set, making it impossible to assess the full K-12 pipeline. For parents, Catonsville Elementary offers the strongest overall academics, while Catonsville Middle provides excellent ELA instruction but requires attention for on-level math students.
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