Best Public Schools in Galena, MD

Galena, Maryland is home to a single public school, Galena Elementary School, which serves students from Pre-Kindergarten through 5th grade as part of the Kent County Public Schools district, a district ranked in the bottom third of Maryland.

Galena Elementary School enrolls 309 students and has a favorable student-teacher ratio of 11.7:1, yet it consistently underperforms compared to state averages. The school has a 1-star rating from SchoolDigger and ranks in the 30th percentile of Maryland elementary schools. Academic proficiency is a major concern: only 15.7% of students are proficient in Math (compared to the state average of 27.1%), and 36.3% are proficient in English Language Arts (ELA), which is below the state's 51.7%. A particularly alarming finding is the "5th Grade Cliff" in Math, where proficiency plummets from 21.7% in 4th grade to just 5.4% in 5th grade. The school spends a very high $22,401 per student, creating a paradox of high resources with low academic results. On a positive note, chronic absenteeism at 23.1% is significantly better than the district average of 33.1%, and the school's state ranking has shown a slight upward trend over the past three years.

For parents, the key takeaway is that Galena Elementary School offers a small, close-knit environment with relatively good attendance, but it faces serious academic challenges, especially in math as students approach middle school. The high per-student spending and low test scores suggest that while resources are available, they are not currently translating into strong academic outcomes. The school's relative strength in ELA compared to Math may be a point of focus for families, but the overall performance indicates that parents should be proactive in understanding the curriculum and supporting their child's learning, particularly in mathematics.