Best Public Schools in Zip Code 20903

The four public schools in zip code 20903 (Silver Spring, MD) are all part of the highly-rated Montgomery County Public Schools district, but they serve a high-poverty community and face significant academic challenges, with no high school located within the zip code itself.

The standout school for academic performance is Francis Scott Key Middle, which shows a positive upward ranking trend and has the highest English Language Arts proficiency rate (38.5%) in the area. In contrast, Cresthaven Elementary presents a concerning value proposition: despite having the highest per-student spending ($23,811) among schools with test scores, it posts the lowest math (24.2%) and ELA (27.1%) proficiency rates. The two PK-2 schools, New Hampshire Estates Elementary and Roscoe R. Nix Elementary, have no standardized test data, making it difficult to measure their academic output despite high per-pupil spending ($26,142 and $26,632 respectively).

A critical issue across the zip code is chronic absenteeism, which is highest at Roscoe R. Nix Elementary (27.3%) and also elevated at Cresthaven Elementary (22.8%), both at or above the district average. The data reveals a "feeder pattern" performance gap: students from the PK-2 schools arrive at Cresthaven already behind, as evidenced by low 3rd-grade scores. This suggests that high spending and low student-teacher ratios (ranging from 10:1 to 13.9:1) are not overcoming the barriers of poverty and absenteeism. The middle school paradox is also notable—Francis Scott Key Middle shows the best results despite the lowest spending, though its 8th-grade math proficiency (1.3%) is alarmingly low, indicating that non-academic support is as critical as instruction in this community.