Summary:
Park Hall, Maryland, is served by a single elementary school, Park Hall Elementary, which educates students from Pre-Kindergarten through 5th grade as part of the St. Mary's County Public Schools district, a highly-rated 4-star district ranked 7th in the state.
While the district overall performs well, Park Hall Elementary itself has a 2-star rating and consistently ranks in the 45th-47th percentile statewide, indicating it is one of the lower-performing schools within its strong district. The school serves a majority low-income population, with 58.52% of students receiving free or reduced lunch, and faces a significant challenge with a chronic absenteeism rate of 35.4%, which is over 8 percentage points higher than the district average. Despite spending a substantial $19,368 per student, academic outcomes are mixed: in Mathematics, 30.3% of students are proficient (slightly above the state average of 27.1%), but in English Language Arts (ELA), only 42.7% are proficient, which is well below both the district (58.5%) and state (51.7%) averages. A notable concern is a sharp drop in 5th-grade math proficiency to just 22.4%, compared to 36% in 3rd grade.
The most critical takeaway is the large 15.8 percentage point gap in ELA proficiency between the school and its district, suggesting literacy instruction is a key area needing improvement. The high chronic absenteeism rate is likely a primary driver of these academic struggles, as missing instruction, especially in foundational reading and math, creates cumulative learning gaps. While the school's math performance is relatively on par with the state, its ELA scores and the 5th-grade math decline highlight specific challenges that parents should be aware of when considering this school for their children.
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