Summary:
In zip code 21783, there is one high school, Smithsburg High, which serves 733 students in grades 9-12 and is part of the Washington County Public Schools district.
Smithsburg High presents a fascinating academic profile with a stark contrast between its subjects. The school is a standout performer in English Language Arts (ELA), with 75.3% of students proficient, dramatically outperforming both the district (55%) and state (51.7%) averages. However, it struggles significantly in mathematics, where only 20.8% of students are proficient, which is below the district (29.3%) and state (27.1%) averages. This 54.5 percentage point gap between ELA and math proficiency is the school's most defining characteristic. Interestingly, math performance is not uniformly low; while Algebra I proficiency is just 15.6%, Geometry proficiency reaches 46.2%, exceeding the state average of 44.5%.
The school has shown a strong positive trend in its overall state ranking, recovering from a 2-star rating in 2023-2024 (43rd percentile) to a 4-star rating in both 2024-2025 (80th percentile) and 2025-2026 (73rd percentile). It also boasts an excellent graduation rate of 94.7%, well above the district's 89.5%, and a chronic absenteeism rate of 25.0% that is better than the district average of 29.0%. With a per-student spending of $17,963 and a 44.07% free/reduced lunch rate, the school operates with moderate economic diversity. The combination of a high graduation rate and low math proficiency suggests strong support systems are in place to help students meet graduation requirements, even as the school focuses on improving its numeracy instruction.
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