Summary:
Zip code 21738 (Glenwood, MD) is served by two top-performing public schools within the highly-regarded Howard County Public Schools district, offering a strong educational pipeline from elementary through middle school.
Bushy Park Elementary stands out as an academic powerhouse, ranking in the 94th-96th percentile statewide. Its math proficiency (65.4%) and English Language Arts proficiency (79.4%) dramatically exceed both district and state averages. The school also benefits from very low economic disadvantage (9.35% free/reduced lunch) and remarkably low chronic absenteeism (7.6%), creating an optimal learning environment. Its feeder school, Glenwood Middle, is equally impressive, ranking in the 95th-96th percentile. Glenwood Middle excels particularly in advanced mathematics, with proficiency rates in Algebra I (79.7%) and Geometry (95.9%) that are astronomically higher than district and state averages, indicating a strong program for accelerating students. While both schools spend well above the state average per student ($19,871 and $20,445 respectively), their success is more closely tied to very low levels of economic disadvantage and high community resources than to spending differences.
A key finding is the stark contrast in chronic absenteeism: Bushy Park Elementary has a rate of just 7.6%, less than half the district average of 17.4%, while Glenwood Middle's rate of 16.3% is much closer to that average. This suggests the transition to middle school introduces new attendance challenges. Additionally, the schools demonstrate well-rounded excellence beyond core subjects, with Bushy Park's 5th-grade science proficiency (62.6%) nearly doubling the state average, and Glenwood Middle's 8th-grade social studies proficiency (85.6%) more than doubling it. This feeder pattern of excellence, where strong foundational skills at Bushy Park enable advanced coursework at Glenwood Middle, creates a highly desirable educational pathway for families in this area.
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