Summary:
Lanham, Maryland, is home to 8 schools within the Prince George's County Public Schools district, serving elementary through high school students in a community where 83.5% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, a key indicator of economic need.
The standout school in Lanham is Glenarden Woods Elementary, which is ranked 2nd out of 864 elementary schools in Maryland and achieves exceptional academic results despite nearly half its students qualifying for free lunch. Its math proficiency rate of 83% and English Language Arts rate of 91.1% far exceed state averages, while its chronic absenteeism rate of just 8.2% is the lowest in the city. In stark contrast, James McHenry Elementary and Magnolia Elementary rank in the bottom 10% of Maryland elementary schools, with math proficiency rates of 7.4% and 7.9%, respectively. Duval High shows a bright spot in English Language Arts, with 40.3% proficiency above the district average, while Thomas Johnson Middle has a hidden strength in Algebra I, where 57.9% of tested students are proficient—over five times the district average.
A key takeaway is that higher spending does not guarantee better outcomes. The three highest-spending schools—Catherine T. Reed Elementary ($23,937 per student), Legends Public Charter School ($22,465), and Gaywood Elementary ($22,154)—all have below-average proficiency rates, while the lowest-spending schools, Duval High ($16,478) and Glenarden Woods ($16,503), show the best results. Additionally, chronic absenteeism varies widely, from 38.5% at Duval High to just 8.2% at Glenarden Woods, suggesting that school-level strategies can effectively address this challenge. For parents, this data highlights that school quality in Lanham is not uniform, and individual school performance can differ dramatically even within the same district.
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