Roland Park Elementary/middle, Baltimore MD

Original Research by School Decision on Roland Park Elementary/middle

Roland Park Elementary/Middle sits in a historic north Baltimore neighborhood of the same name, a part of the city known for its early twentieth-century architecture, tree-lined streets, and a commercial strip along Roland Avenue. The school itself occupies a building that has served the community for decades, drawing from an area where home values are above both state and national benchmarks and where the rental market has softened slightly in the most recent period. Baltimore as a whole is a dense, walkable city with a service-oriented economy anchored by Johns Hopkins Hospital and University, and its population has seen a modest decline from the last census count.

The school is a regular public school within Baltimore City Public Schools, serving a long grade span from prekindergarten through eighth grade. That makes it a single-building choice for families who want their child in one school from the early years through middle school. Enrollment is large enough to sustain multiple sections at each grade level, and the middle school grades are bigger than the elementary ones, typical for a feeder pattern. The student body is diverse: the largest group is Black, followed by white, with smaller shares of Asian, Hispanic, and two or more races. About a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, and the school is not a charter or a magnet. No data was provided on students with IEPs or English learners; a parent may want to ask the school directly about those supports.

Academically, the school’s strongest showing is in English language arts. Across grades three through eight, proficiency on the state MCAP assessment runs from roughly half of students to well above three-quarters in seventh grade. That pattern is a real strength and suggests consistent instruction in reading and writing across the elementary and middle years. Math proficiency is more uneven. In grades three through seven, it ranges from about two-fifths to just over half of students meeting the bar, which is a solid middle ground. However, eighth-grade math proficiency is very low, with only a handful of students scoring at the proficient level. That sharp drop is a soft spot a family moving into the middle school years would want to look into further with the school, especially given that algebra I and geometry are tested separately and show stronger results. On those end-of-course exams, proficiency is considerably higher than the general math assessment figures. Science proficiency, tested in grades five and eight on the MISA, falls in the range of about two-fifths, and social studies in eighth grade shows a similar share.

Because the school ends at eighth grade, there is no graduation rate to report, and the school falls outside the usual high school outcome measures. Chronic absenteeism data was also not available. The comparison to other districts in Baltimore city places Roland Park Elementary/Middle in the top quartile for overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades. That cohort is small—just two districts, the city district itself and one other—so the position reflects being above the median of that narrow set. Still, within the city’s public school landscape, the school’s academic profile stands out, particularly in English.

The district brief turned up no recent changes of lasting parent impact, so the school’s programming and leadership appear stable in the near term for the purposes of this profile. For a family considering the Roland Park neighborhood, the school offers a long, contained pathway from pre-K through a full middle school program, with strong literacy outcomes and a math profile that has a notable weak point at the end of the middle grades. The housing market in the area is expensive relative to the rest of the state and nation, and rents have edged down slightly, which may matter for families weighing whether to buy or rent in the attendance zone.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 352%

School 52% · district not reported

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 35 pts above county median

Grade 449%

School 49% · district not reported

▲ 22 pts above state median · ▲ 40 pts above county median

Grade 539%

School 39% · district not reported

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▲ 32 pts above county median

Grade 640%

School 40% · district not reported

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 37 pts above county median

Grade 743%

School 43% · district not reported

▲ 31 pts above state median · ▲ 38 pts above county median

Grade 82%

School 2% · district not reported

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

English language arts

Grade 366%

School 66% · district not reported

▲ 20 pts above state median · ▲ 42 pts above county median

Grade 455%

School 55% · district not reported

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

Grade 548%

School 48% · district not reported

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 31 pts above county median

Grade 670%

School 70% · district not reported

▲ 25 pts above state median · ▲ 46 pts above county median

Grade 778%

School 78% · district not reported

▲ 31 pts above state median · ▲ 48 pts above county median

Grade 858%

School 58% · district not reported

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▲ 33 pts above county median

Science

Grade 536%

School 36% · district not reported

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▲ 32 pts above county median

Grade 843%

School 43% · district not reported

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 36 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 845%

School 45% · District 17% · ▲ 28 pts above district

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 33 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 4Lower-income5%Higher-income37%31 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income19%Higher-income48%30 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income40%Higher-income81%41 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income20%Higher-income58%38 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income23%Higher-income38%15 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income8%Higher-income34%26 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income12%Higher-income50%38 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income18%Higher-income52%34 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income12%Higher-income30%18 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income5%Higher-income9%3 pp gap