Original Research by School Decision on Frederick Douglass High
Frederick Douglass High sits within the Baltimore City Public Schools system, serving students in ninth through twelfth grade. The school is a regular public high school, not a charter or magnet institution. Enrollment is moderate for a city high school, with a notable drop-off across the grades; the freshman class is the largest, and the senior class is substantially smaller, a pattern parents may wish to explore further with the school.
The student body is overwhelmingly composed of students who identify as Black, with a smaller share of Hispanic students and very small numbers from other racial and ethnic groups. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a marker of the economic circumstances of the families the school serves.
State testing data from the most recent available year shows that in both math and science, student proficiency rates fell within the lowest reported range. The state reported the results as a band rather than a precise figure, which typically occurs when the number of students tested or the number scoring proficient is too small to release publicly without risking student identification. For English language arts, a single year of data shows about a quarter of students scored at the proficient level or above. That figure comes from a single data point, so there is no trend to examine. Parents looking for a fuller picture of academic performance should note that the assessment landscape in Maryland shifted in recent years, making direct comparisons to earlier years unreliable. The school’s graduation rate was not available in the data provided.
The school operates in Baltimore, an independent city whose economy has moved from an industrial base toward a service orientation. Johns Hopkins Hospital and University are the largest employers, and the Port of Baltimore remains a significant economic presence. The city’s population has experienced a slight decline in recent years. Housing in the area around the school is priced well below both the state and national medians, and rents are moderate relative to incomes, making the neighborhood more affordable than many parts of the Baltimore region. A major infrastructure project to replace the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge is underway, with completion expected in the late 2020s.
The district itself, Baltimore City Public Schools, does not appear to have undergone any major changes of lasting parent-facing impact in the last several years, based on publicly reported information reviewed for this profile.
This school sits within a district-level comparison set that includes only two entities within Baltimore city, so positioning relative to neighbors is based on a very small cohort, and the key metrics used for comparison—overall proficiency, graduation rate, and chronic absenteeism—were all not available for Frederick Douglass High. That makes it difficult to draw meaningful comparisons to other high schools in the city from the data on hand. Families considering this school may want to speak directly with the administration about academic programming, student retention through the grades, and post-graduation outcomes.
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