Summary:
Zip code 20905 in Silver Spring, Maryland, is home to a single high school, James Hubert Blake High, which serves grades 9-12 and is part of the Montgomery County Public Schools district.
James Hubert Blake High is a large school with 1,960 students and a student-teacher ratio of 17.1:1. The school presents a stark contrast in academic performance: it excels in English Language Arts, with 47.9% of students proficient, which is close to the state average of 51.7%. However, it faces a severe crisis in mathematics, where only 4% of students are proficient—a rate nine times lower than the state average of 27.1%. This math proficiency crisis is the primary driver of the school's declining state rank, which has dropped from the 56th percentile in 2021-2022 to the 37th percentile in 2025-2026. The school spends $18,053 per student, a significant amount that does not appear to be translating into math success.
Chronic absenteeism is a major concern, with a rate of 38.7% that is 71% higher than the district average of 22.6%. This likely contributes to the low math scores, as students miss foundational instruction. Despite these challenges, the graduation rate is 88.6%, nearly identical to the district's 88.7%, and the dropout rate of 7.9% is slightly lower than the district's 8.2%. The school's leadership must prioritize tackling chronic absenteeism and rethinking its approach to math education to reverse the declining state rank and improve student outcomes.
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