Best Public Schools in Hagerstown, MD

The Washington County Public Schools district in Hagerstown, Maryland, serves 22 schools, including elementary, middle, and high schools, and is ranked 10th out of 25 districts in the state with a 3-star rating. The standout school is Barbara Ingram School for the Arts, a selective high school ranking in the 92nd percentile with exceptional English Language Arts proficiency of 84.9% and the lowest chronic absenteeism rate among high schools at 14.3%. At the elementary level, Emma K. Doub Elementary and Fountaindale Elementary are top performers, both earning 4-star ratings with strong math and ELA scores, while Old Forge Elementary boasts the lowest chronic absenteeism rate in the district at 12.5%.

Key metrics reveal significant disparities across the district. Average math proficiency is 29.3%, ranging from a low of 13.6% at Bester Elementary to a high of 49.3% at Fountain Rock Elementary. Average ELA proficiency is 55%, with South Hagerstown High struggling at 25.3% and Barbara Ingram leading at 84.9%. Chronic absenteeism averages 29.0% district-wide, but reaches 49.8% at South Hagerstown High and 61.2% at Marshall Street School, an alternative school. Per-student spending varies widely, from $14,213 at Fountain Rock Elementary to $22,906 at Bester Elementary, highlighting that higher spending does not always correlate with better outcomes.

Interesting findings include a clear "middle school math dip," where overall math proficiency at middle schools like Western Heights Middle (16.7%) lags far behind ELA (43.9%), yet advanced coursework in Algebra I and Geometry at Northern Middle shows exceptional results with 96.1% proficiency. South Hagerstown High faces severe challenges with a low graduation rate of 79.3% and a high dropout rate of 18.7%, while Bester Elementary, despite being the lowest-performing, has shown improvement in its state ranking from the 7th to the 16th percentile, suggesting targeted interventions may be working.