Summary:
Zip code 20650 (Leonardtown, MD) is home to two elementary schools, Captain Walter Francis Duke Elementary and Leonardtown Elementary, both serving grades PK-5 within the highly-rated St. Mary's County Public Schools district.
Captain Walter Francis Duke Elementary is the standout school in the area, consistently outperforming its counterpart. Duke Elementary ranks in the 86th percentile statewide (118th out of 864 schools), while Leonardtown Elementary ranks in the 73rd percentile (233rd). This performance gap is evident across all subjects: Duke Elementary achieves 58.3% proficiency in math and 68.6% in English Language Arts, compared to Leonardtown Elementary's 44.4% and 62.5%, respectively. The largest difference is in 5th-grade science, where Duke scores 57% proficient versus Leonardtown's 43.2%. Duke also benefits from a slightly lower student-teacher ratio (14.9 vs. 16.5) and a lower percentage of students receiving free/reduced lunch (19.77% vs. 32.42%).
Despite the differences between the two schools, both are strong educational assets for the community, outperforming district and state averages in every subject. Both schools also share a challenge with chronic absenteeism, affecting roughly one in five students (18.8% at Duke and 19.8% at Leonardtown), though this is better than the district average of 27.3%. Leonardtown Elementary has shown positive momentum, with notable year-over-year improvements in both math and English Language Arts proficiency, suggesting it is on an upward trajectory.
Thank you for your feedback!