Summary:
Zip code 20906 in Silver Spring, Maryland, is home to a single high school, Wheaton High, which serves grades 9-12 as part of the Montgomery County Public Schools district, a top-ranked district in the state.
Wheaton High is a large school with 2,794 students, and it presents a striking contrast in academic performance. The school's standout strength is in English Language Arts (ELA), where 59.5% of students are proficient, surpassing both the state average of 51.7% and the district average of 58.5%. However, mathematics is a significant challenge, with only 13.1% of students proficient, compared to the district's 36.9% and the state's 27.1%. This extreme disparity between ELA and math outcomes suggests an uneven instructional focus. The school also faces serious non-academic hurdles: a chronic absenteeism rate of 35.0% and a dropout rate of 13.2%, both well above district averages of 22.6% and 8.2%, respectively. The graduation rate is 83.2%, which is 5.5 percentage points below the district average of 88.7%.
Despite spending $17,330 per student, a relatively high figure, the low math proficiency and high dropout rates indicate that funding alone is not solving the school's core challenges. The school's state ranking has been volatile, currently sitting at the 48th percentile. For parents, the key takeaway is that Wheaton High excels in literacy but struggles profoundly in mathematics and student engagement. The high absenteeism and dropout rates are critical concerns that likely impact overall student success, making it a school of stark contrasts where targeted interventions in math and support for at-risk students are urgently needed.
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