Summary:
In zip code 20650, there is one high school, Leonardtown High, serving grades 9 through 12 in Leonardtown, Maryland, as part of the St. Mary's County Public Schools district, with a large enrollment of 2,118 students.
Leonardtown High stands out for its exceptional performance in English Language Arts (ELA), with 83.1% of students proficient in the 2025-2026 school year, dramatically outperforming both the district (58.5%) and state (51.7%) averages. The school has also shown rapid improvement in its state ranking, jumping from the 53rd percentile in 2023-2024 to the 87th percentile in both 2024-2025 and 2025-2026, earning a 4-star rating. Its graduation rate is strong at 94.9% (2021-2022), and chronic absenteeism is lower than the district average at 24.7%. However, the school faces a significant challenge in mathematics, with only 32.2% of all students proficient, which is below the district average of 36.0% but above the state average of 27.1%.
A key takeaway is the extreme gap between ELA and math proficiency—a 50.9 percentage point difference—far larger than the district or state gaps. This suggests that while the school excels in reading and writing, math is a major area for improvement, especially in Algebra I where only 16.9% of students are proficient, compared to 55.0% in Geometry. The school's rapid ranking improvement appears driven by its stellar ELA scores rather than broad-based gains, as math proficiency remained stagnant before a slight recent increase. With a relatively low rate of economic disadvantage (21.95% eligible for free or reduced lunch) and spending of $15,689 per student, Leonardtown High offers a strong overall education with a clear need to bolster math instruction.
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