Summary:
Zip code 20817 in Bethesda, MD, is home to a single high school, Walt Whitman High, which serves grades 9-12 and is part of the highly-rated Montgomery County Public Schools district.
Walt Whitman High is a standout institution, consistently earning a 5-star rating and ranking in the top 7% of all Maryland high schools for the past three years. The school's greatest strength is its English Language Arts (ELA) proficiency, with 83.7% of students scoring proficient in the 2025-2026 school year—a remarkable 32-point lead over the state average. It also boasts a strong 94.9% graduation rate and a low 7% rate of students receiving free or reduced lunch, indicating a highly affluent community. However, a critical concern is a significant "math gap": only 23.8% of students are proficient in mathematics, which is below both the district (36.9%) and state (27.1%) averages. This is particularly striking given the school's high spending of $17,926 per student, raising questions about how resources are allocated to address this deficiency.
While the school's overall performance is excellent, there are areas for attention. ELA proficiency saw a year-over-year decline from 88.7% to 83.7%, a drop worth monitoring. Additionally, the chronic absenteeism rate of 18.5%, though better than the district average, means nearly one in five students is chronically absent—a surprisingly high figure for a high-performing school in an affluent area. For parents, Walt Whitman High offers top-tier literacy education and a supportive socioeconomic environment, but the math performance and attendance rates are key factors to consider when evaluating the school's overall academic health.
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