Best Public Schools in Zip Code 20879

The five public schools in zip code 20879 (Gaithersburg, MD) are all part of the highly-ranked Montgomery County Public Schools district, serving a diverse community of 3,706 students across four elementary schools and one high school, with no middle schools in the immediate area.

Strawberry Knoll Elementary is the standout school, consistently earning a 3-star rating and leading all elementary schools in academic performance with the highest Math (33.9%) and English Language Arts (50%) proficiency rates. It is the only school in the zip code with chronic absenteeism below the district average (22.0% vs. 22.6%) and has the most favorable student-teacher ratio (10.7:1). In contrast, Watkins Mill High faces significant challenges, including a critically low Math proficiency rate of 5.4% and a severe chronic absenteeism rate of 45.1%. The other three elementary schools—Whetstone Elementary, Judith A. Resnik Elementary, and Flower Hill Elementary—all perform below district averages, with Math proficiency ranging from 25.7% to 32.6% and ELA proficiency from 35.5% to 43%.

A key finding is that higher spending does not guarantee better outcomes: Strawberry Knoll Elementary spends the most per student ($26,558) and performs best, while Flower Hill Elementary spends the second-most ($23,378) but has the lowest Math proficiency. Additionally, Judith A. Resnik Elementary and Strawberry Knoll Elementary have nearly identical free and reduced lunch rates (58.33% vs. 57.81%), yet Strawberry Knoll outperforms Resnik in every academic metric, suggesting that factors like school culture and teaching quality drive the gap. Chronic absenteeism emerges as a powerful indicator, strongly correlating with lower test scores across all schools.