Freetown Elementary, Glen Burnie MD

Original Research by School Decision on Freetown Elementary

Freetown Elementary is a regular public school serving Glen Burnie, a sprawling unincorporated suburb between Baltimore and Annapolis, from prekindergarten through fifth grade within the Anne Arundel County Public Schools system. The school sits in a community defined by major commercial corridors heavy with shopping centers and mid-rise office buildings, a car-dependent environment where residential subdivisions spread outward from highways like Ritchie Highway and Crain Highway. Housing values in the immediate area sit very close to the national benchmark, with rents also near the national mark, placing Freetown in a market typical of many outer-ring suburbs around the Washington-Baltimore corridor.

The student body reflects a broad mix of backgrounds. Black students make up the largest share, followed by white and Hispanic students, with smaller shares of students who are two or more races, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals. The school is not a charter or magnet school; it operates as a neighborhood elementary school. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available.

On state assessments, Freetown’s results present a pattern that warrants a close look. In English language arts, third and fourth graders cleared the proficient or above bar at a rate just under half, while fifth graders scored notably lower. In math, the pattern was weaker across the board: third and fourth graders scored roughly in the low thirty percent range, and fifth graders scored in the low double digits. Science results for fifth graders were very low. The school has only single-year assessment data available, so there is no trend to examine yet. A parent may want to discuss these results directly with the school to understand what supports are in place, particularly for the upper elementary grades.

Because Freetown is an elementary school, there is no graduation rate to report. The comparison tool that positions this school relative to other districts in Anne Arundel County could not produce a meaningful comparison because the cohort was too small, so readers will need to evaluate Freetown’s performance against county averages on their own or through the district’s public reports.

The school operates as part of a large county district that recently opened a new comprehensive high school in the growing western county area, an expansion that reflects Anne Arundel County’s ongoing enrollment pressures and changing attendance boundaries. For a family considering Freetown, the school offers a regular public elementary program in a suburban setting with the support of a large district. The primary questions to investigate further center on the academic trajectory visible in the testing data and how the school addresses the dip in performance that appears between the earlier and later elementary grades.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 331%

School 31% · district not reported

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Grade 433%

School 33% · district not reported

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 511%

School 11% · district not reported

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 349%

School 49% · district not reported

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Grade 447%

School 47% · district not reported

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Grade 518%

School 18% · district not reported

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 29 pts below county median

Science

Grade 58%

School 8% · district not reported

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

This schoolAnne Arundel County Public Schools, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income10%Higher-income20%9 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income8%Higher-income18%10 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income7%Higher-income10%2 pp gap