The top reported proficiency rate is 52% in Science. The lowest is 26% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Annapolis High
Annapolis High sits in the state capital, a large comprehensive public high school serving grades nine through twelve in Anne Arundel County. The school is part of a district that recently opened a new high school in the growing western part of the county, a change that redrew some attendance boundaries but Annapolis High itself remains a central fixture.
The student body is large and notably diverse. Hispanic students make up the largest group, followed by White students and then Black students, with smaller shares of Asian students and students of two or more races. More than half of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a measure that places the school in a higher-needs category relative to some of its county peers. The school is not a charter or magnet, and information about special programs such as Advanced Placement or career and technical pathways was not available in the data reviewed.
On state assessments, the picture is mixed. For the most recent year on record, about half of students met the state standard in English language arts. That single-year figure offers a snapshot but no trend. What is more puzzling is that the only other state testing data found comes from a grade eight administration in an earlier year, covering math and science, even though Annapolis High does not serve eighth grade. That data is not directly applicable to the high school’s own performance, and no proficiency information for high-school-level math tests was available. A parent looking into academic outcomes would want to ask the school directly for its current results in Algebra, English 10, and other tested high school courses, as well as for graduation rates, which were also absent from the data.
The school is located in Annapolis, a city that is simultaneously a state capital, a college town, and a waterfront destination. The downtown historic district is compact and walkable, with brick sidewalks, shops, and restaurants leading to City Dock on the Chesapeake Bay. The Maryland State House, city and county government offices, St. John’s College, and the U.S. Naval Academy all anchor the civic and institutional life. Outside the historic core, development becomes more suburban and auto-oriented. The housing market in the area is expensive by national standards, reflecting the desirability of the waterfront location and proximity to Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Rents are high, and the cost of buying a home is well above the national median.
Major employers include state government, the Naval Academy, St. John’s College, and the tourism and maritime sectors. The city is land-constrained and experienced modest population growth in the last decade. Families living in Annapolis and its surrounding neighborhoods feed into this high school, and the broader county district serves a mix of suburban, waterfront, and rural communities.
Given the available data, Annapolis High presents as a large, diverse urban high school in a historically rich and expensive city, but with significant gaps in the publicly reported outcome measures that many families rely on to assess academic strength. No graduation rate, no chronic absenteeism data, no course access or discipline figures were available. The ELA proficiency rate sits around the midpoint, but without math results or trend lines that is a narrow base for judgment. A family considering this school would be wise to visit, talk to current families and staff, and ask for the school’s own data on postsecondary readiness, college enrollment, and the specific programs it offers its large student body. The setting itself offers a distinctive blend of capital-city institutions and Chesapeake waterfront that few other high schools in the state can match.
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