Lakeland Elementary/middle, Baltimore MD

Original Research by School Decision on Lakeland Elementary/middle

Lakeland Elementary/Middle serves students from prekindergarten through eighth grade, a single-building PK-8 pathway that lets families stay in one school through the upper grades. It is a regular public school in the Baltimore City Public Schools system, located in the city’s Lakeland neighborhood on the south side near the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River.

The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with the balance of enrollment coming primarily from Black students and a small number of White, Asian, and multiracial students. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, which places the school in a context where many families face economic pressures. The school is large enough for its grade band, with a grade-by-grade enrollment that stays steady through the elementary years and then thins slightly at the middle-school level, a pattern common in urban districts where some families leave for magnet or private options before middle school.

On the 2024-25 state assessments, the academic picture is uneven and strongly split by subject. In English language arts, performance is mixed: third graders reached a proficiency rate that is close to the midpoint among tested grades, sixth and seventh graders showed a higher share meeting the bar, while fifth graders and eighth graders trailed notably. Across all tested grades, the combined ELA proficiency rate sits below half. In math, the numbers are substantially lower. Fourth graders posted the strongest result, but the pattern drops steeply after that. Sixth, seventh, and eighth graders each recorded math proficiency rates in the single digits, and no eighth grader in the building scored proficient or above. In science, tested in fifth and eighth grades, the share of students reaching proficiency is very low. In eighth-grade social studies, the figure is low as well. These are the most challenging numbers in the profile, and a parent will want to ask the school directly what interventions and supports are in place for middle-grades math and science.

The comparison set places Lakeland Elementary/Middle against other districts within Baltimore city. On a combined proficiency index across tested subjects and grades, the school lands above the middle of that narrow group. That is a meaningful point of reference: of the two-county-district cohort, the school does not sit at the bottom. Still, the absolute performance levels, particularly in middle-school math and science, are areas where the school’s own data suggests real difficulty.

Because the school serves only PK-8, it does not have a graduation rate. That is not a missing metric; it simply does not apply. The school does not report data on chronic absenteeism within the available dataset, so that measure is absent.

Baltimore itself is a dense, historic city with a service-oriented economy anchored by Johns Hopkins Hospital and University and the Port of Baltimore. The Lakeland neighborhood is a residential area on the southern edge of the city, near the water and within a short drive of downtown and the Inner Harbor. The city’s population has seen a slight decline since the 2020 census, and a major infrastructure project to replace the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge is underway with a projected completion in the coming years. The district brief turned up no specific recent changes at the district level that would directly affect a family at Lakeland, though district-wide budget and enrollment patterns are in flux.

For a family considering Lakeland Elementary/Middle, the school offers a long, continuous grade span in a neighborhood school setting, which can simplify logistics and build community across years. Early-grade reading performance is stable, but the steep drop in middle-grades math and science, and the fact that no eighth grader tested proficient in math in the most recent year, are patterns that a parent will want to understand in detail before enrolling, especially if their child is approaching those grades.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 332%

School 32% · district not reported

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

Grade 444%

School 44% · district not reported

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 34 pts above county median

Grade 514%

School 14% · district not reported

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 68%

School 8% · district not reported

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

Grade 77%

School 7% · district not reported

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

Grade 80%

School 0% · district not reported

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 348%

School 48% · district not reported

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▲ 24 pts above county median

Grade 437%

School 37% · district not reported

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

Grade 510%

School 10% · district not reported

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

Grade 653%

School 53% · district not reported

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 29 pts above county median

Grade 748%

School 48% · district not reported

even with state median · ▲ 17 pts above county median

Grade 838%

School 38% · district not reported

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

Science

Grade 53%

School 3% · district not reported

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 88%

School 8% · district not reported

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

Social studies

Grade 815%

School 15% · District 17% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▲ 2 pts above 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.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income7%Higher-income11%4 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income7%Higher-income9%3 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income27%Higher-income32%5 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income22%Higher-income15%7 pp gap