Northern Garrett High School

Northern Garrett High School in Accident, MD, is a small high school serving 439 students in grades 9-12 within the Garrett County Public Schools district, which ranks 9th out of 25 districts in Maryland.

Northern Garrett stands out for its strong academic performance, particularly in English Language Arts, where 72% of students are proficient—well above the state average of 51.7%. The school has shown a dramatic upward trajectory in state rankings, moving from the 36th percentile in 2019 to the 87th percentile in 2026. This academic success is especially notable when compared to nearby Southern Garrett High School, where only 49.8% of students are proficient in ELA. In math, Northern Garrett also outperforms its peer, with 35.8% proficiency versus 26.6% at Southern Garrett. The school benefits from a low student-teacher ratio of 12.3:1 and high per-student spending of $19,890, which supports individualized attention and helps drive these results.

However, the school faces a significant challenge with student engagement. Despite its academic excellence, over a quarter of students (27.7%) are chronically absent, and the dropout rate has risen to 4.5%—nearly double the rate from the 2021-2022 school year. While this absenteeism rate is lower than Southern Garrett's alarming 32.4%, it still threatens to undermine the school's achievements. The school has shown remarkable resilience since the pandemic, when it ranked in the 6th percentile in 2020-2021, but its current "two-speed" nature—strong academics paired with engagement struggles—suggests that investing in attendance and re-engagement strategies will be key to sustaining its upward momentum.