Center for Educational Opportunity

The Center for Educational Opportunity in Aberdeen, MD, is a small alternative school serving 122 students in grades 6-12 within the Harford County Public Schools district, where 66.4% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch.

This school is fundamentally different from traditional high schools in the area, functioning as a specialized setting for students who have struggled in a standard academic environment. The most striking difference is the graduation rate, which stands at 42.3%—less than half the district average of 91.9% and dramatically lower than nearby schools like Fallston High (94.9%) and even its neighbor Aberdeen High (91.1%). The dropout rate is a staggering 51.2%, nearly 10 times the district average, and chronic absenteeism affects 72.5% of students, compared to just 18.5% district-wide. Despite these challenges, the school invests heavily in its students with an exceptionally low student-teacher ratio of 6.5:1 and per-student spending that is roughly 2 to 3.5 times higher than traditional high schools like Harford Technical High or Bel Air High.

There are signs of recent improvement, with the state ranking rising from the 0th percentile in 2016-2017 to the 33rd percentile in 2025-2026, and the graduation rate nearly doubling from 22.2% in 2021-2022. Test scores present a mixed picture: overall math proficiency is very low at 2%, but English Language Arts proficiency is higher at 37.4%, with 10th-grade ELA reaching 51.3%—close to the state average. This suggests the school may have a relative strength in literacy, or that students who persist to 10th grade are a more capable group. The comparison to Aberdeen High, located just 0.14 miles away with a similar demographic but vastly different outcomes, highlights that this is a specialized program for the most at-risk students who have likely already disengaged from a traditional school setting.