Collington Square Elementary/middle, Baltimore MD

Original Research by School Decision on Collington Square Elementary/middle

Collington Square Elementary/Middle is a regular public school in Baltimore serving students from prekindergarten through eighth grade. It is part of Baltimore City Public Schools, a district the data notes as the only system serving the independent city. The school sits in a neighborhood within a city that has shifted from heavy industry to a service economy, with Johns Hopkins Hospital and University as top employers. Baltimore retains a dense historic fabric, with many neighborhoods recognized on the National Register and a concentration of civic life around the Inner Harbor and downtown. The city’s population has seen a slight decline in recent years, and a major infrastructure project to replace the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge is underway.

The student body is small for a PK–8 school. Nearly all students are Black, and a very high share qualifies for free or reduced-price meals. The school’s enrollment by grade shows that the upper elementary and middle school grades hold a larger number of students than the early grades, but across all levels the total remains modest.

State assessment results from the most recent year show very low rates of proficiency in math and English language arts across every tested grade. In several grades, no student reached the proficient level in math; in others, only a trace number did. English language arts proficiency is similarly low, though slightly higher in the upper grades, where about one in five tested students in seventh grade and just over one in four in eighth grade met the bar. In science and social studies, tested at fifth and eighth grades, proficiency rates are likewise very low. The school’s overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile when compared with schools across Baltimore city. The data on chronic absenteeism was not reported, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about attendance patterns.

Because the school ends at eighth grade, there is no graduation rate to report. Program offerings such as Advanced Placement or career pathways are not applicable to this grade band, and the data did not include information on course access or staffing. The district brief turned up no specific recent changes of lasting parent impact, so the main dynamics to understand are the school’s academic standing and its urban, high-poverty context.

Housing in the school’s zip code is relatively affordable compared with state and national benchmarks. Home values are well below the Maryland median, and rents also run lower. The broader economic context shows a national unemployment rate near four percent and a median household income that has edged upward in recent years, but these are national figures and may not directly reflect local conditions in this part of Baltimore.

Collington Square Elementary/Middle serves a community with concentrated economic need. The academic results are very low, and parents considering this school would want to learn what supports are in place and what the school’s approach to instruction and family engagement looks like. The school’s small size and its status as a regular public school in a historic but declining city are the fixed characteristics; the fit will depend on what a family is looking for and what additional information they can gather from the school itself.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 30%

School 0% · district not reported

▼ 37 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Grade 49%

School 9% · district not reported

▼ 18 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 55%

School 5% · district not reported

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 60%

School 0% · district not reported

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 70%

School 0% · district not reported

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Grade 83%

School 3% · district not reported

▼ 2 pts below state median · even with county median

English language arts

Grade 312%

School 12% · district not reported

▼ 34 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 45%

School 5% · district not reported

▼ 40 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Grade 520%

School 20% · district not reported

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

Grade 62%

School 2% · district not reported

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

Grade 723%

School 23% · district not reported

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 829%

School 29% · district not reported

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Science

Grade 55%

School 5% · district not reported

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 80%

School 0% · district not reported

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

Social studies

Grade 813%

School 13% · District 17% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median · even with county median

This schoolBaltimore City 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.