Summary:
The three public schools in Princess Anne, Maryland, part of the Somerset County Public Schools district, serve 1,517 students from Pre-K through 12th grade, but face significant challenges tied to high poverty and chronic absenteeism.
Among the schools, Greenwood Elementary School stands out as the relative academic leader, achieving a 15.6% math proficiency rate—the only school in the city to exceed the district average of 12.1%. In contrast, Washington Academy and High School struggles with a 6.4% math proficiency rate and a 16.9% dropout rate, both well below state averages. Princess Anne Elementary School serves only Pre-K through 1st grade, so it has no standardized test scores to compare, but its 33.9% chronic absenteeism rate is the highest in the city. All three schools report free/reduced lunch rates above 76%, indicating widespread economic disadvantage.
A key takeaway is the disconnect between high spending and low outcomes: Washington Academy spends over $23,000 per student yet posts the lowest math scores. Chronic absenteeism above 30% across all schools is a systemic crisis, directly impacting learning. The "elementary advantage" seen at Greenwood suggests academic gaps widen as students age, while the lack of data from Princess Anne Elementary creates a blind spot in understanding early education effectiveness. For parents, this data highlights that while Greenwood offers the strongest elementary performance, the entire district faces deep-rooted challenges that require more than just financial investment to solve.
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