Best Public Schools in Owings, MD

The five public schools in Owings, Maryland, part of the highly-ranked Calvert County Public Schools district, serve over 4,100 students across elementary, middle, and high school levels, offering a strong educational environment in a suburban community.

Owings schools are consistently high-performing, with all schools rated 4 or 5 stars. Mount Harmony Elementary stands out as the top performer, earning a 5-star rating and ranking in the top 10% of Maryland elementary schools, particularly excelling in mathematics with a 68% proficiency rate—nearly double the district average. Northern Middle also earns a 5-star rating and ranks in the top 10% of Maryland middle schools, with exceptional advanced math performance (91.3% proficiency in Geometry). Northern High is a strong 4-star school that has shown significant improvement, moving from the 68th to the 85th percentile in state rankings over three years, and leads in English Language Arts with 82.3% proficiency. Windy Hill Middle also performs well above state averages in math. Windy Hill Elementary, while still a 4-star school, is the lowest-performing in the district, with a 78th percentile ranking and some recent decline.

An interesting finding is that higher spending does not guarantee better results: Windy Hill Elementary has the highest per-student spending ($18,122) and the lowest student-teacher ratio (14.4:1), yet it is the lowest-performing school, while Mount Harmony Elementary has the lowest spending ($15,570) and a higher ratio (16.1:1) but achieves the best outcomes. All schools have chronic absenteeism rates at or below the district average of 17.3%, with Northern Middle (10.8%) and Mount Harmony Elementary (11.0%) being particularly low. The data suggests that curriculum, teaching quality, and school culture are the primary drivers of success in Owings, rather than funding alone.