Best Public Schools in Reisterstown, MD

Reisterstown, Maryland, is home to 7 public schools within the Baltimore County Public Schools district, serving 4,820 students across five elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school, with the district itself ranking in the 28th percentile statewide.

The standout academic performer is Franklin Elementary, which leads the city with the highest math (53.2%) and English Language Arts (69.6%) proficiency rates, earning a 4-star rating and ranking in the 85th percentile. In contrast, Franklin Middle represents the most significant challenge, ranking in the bottom 20th percentile (1 star) with a critically low 5.6% math proficiency and the highest chronic absenteeism rate at 39.5%. Chatsworth School also stands out as a high performer (73rd percentile, 4 stars) with the lowest chronic absenteeism rate (7.1%) and the smallest student-to-teacher ratio (10.4:1), though it has the highest per-student spending at $32,808. Meanwhile, Franklin High shows a paradox: a strong 90.4% graduation rate but critically low math proficiency (9.6%), including 0% proficiency in Geometry, suggesting students may be graduating without mastering core math skills.

A key takeaway is the dramatic "middle school cliff," where performance plummets from the high-performing elementary schools to Franklin Middle, whose math proficiency is less than half that of the lowest-performing elementary school, Reisterstown Elementary (15.3%). Chronic absenteeism is a strong predictor of performance, with Chatsworth School and Franklin Elementary having the lowest rates and highest scores, while Franklin Middle and Glyndon Elementary (37.8% absenteeism) have the highest rates and lowest scores. Notably, Cedarmere Elementary demonstrates that socioeconomic challenges do not dictate outcomes, achieving above-district-average math proficiency (29.2%) despite a 59.56% FARMS rate.