Walter P. Carter Elementary/middle, Baltimore MD

Original Research by School Decision on Walter P. Carter Elementary/middle

Walter P. Carter Elementary/Middle serves students from prekindergarten through eighth grade as a regular public school in the Baltimore City Public Schools system. It sits in a city with a mix of historic residential neighborhoods, a large service-oriented economy, and Johns Hopkins Hospital and University as top employers. The school is not a charter school.

The student body is predominantly Black, with a very small share of students from other racial and ethnic backgrounds. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, which is typical of the school’s setting. The school is large for a combined elementary and middle school, serving children from early childhood through the middle grades.

Maryland’s state test results from the most recent school year show that overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades, when viewed as a single index, is below the midpoint compared with its peers within Baltimore city. A closer look at the individual subjects and grade levels reveals a consistent pattern. In English language arts, proficiency rates vary by grade, with the highest share of students meeting standards in third grade and the lowest in fourth grade; across the school, the share is higher in the lower and upper grades than in the middle years. In mathematics, proficiency rates are very low in every grade, with the highest share found in eighth grade and the lowest in fifth and sixth grades. Science results, available for fifth and eighth grades, show a very small share of students scoring proficient on the state science assessment, and social studies results for eighth grade show that roughly a quarter of students met the standard. A parent looking for a school with strong academic performance on state tests will find that this school’s results are a significant soft spot. You may want to ask the school directly what academic supports and interventions are in place, particularly in math and science.

The school does not serve high school grades, so no graduation rate is available. Because the grade band stops at eighth grade, measures like AP course participation or college-going metrics do not apply here.

Housing in the surrounding area is priced well below the state and national benchmarks. Rents have been rising steadily over the past year, though they remain affordable relative to the national median household income. The broader city has seen a modest population decline since the 2020 census, and a major infrastructure project to replace a collapsed bridge is underway, with completion expected in the next few years. These trends are for the city overall, not the school’s immediate neighborhood.

The district brief turned up no specific recent changes of lasting parent impact, so there is no concrete report of program shifts or boundary adjustments to factor in. That absence is itself a data point: there are no widely reported disruptions or new initiatives to weigh.

For a family considering this school, the picture is straightforward. It is a large, predominantly Black, high-poverty elementary and middle school in a major city with a service-oriented economy. Its state test results show very low proficiency, especially in math, and the overall index is below the midpoint for its Baltimore city peers. It does not offer high school programming, so a family must plan for where the student will go after eighth grade. The housing market is relatively affordable compared with the rest of the state. A parent who is weighing options should visit the school, ask about instructional supports and curriculum, and talk to current families about their experience.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 37%

School 7% · district not reported

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

Grade 46%

School 6% · district not reported

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

Grade 52%

School 2% · district not reported

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

Grade 61%

School 1% · district not reported

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

Grade 73%

School 3% · district not reported

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

Grade 89%

School 9% · district not reported

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

English language arts

Grade 331%

School 31% · district not reported

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

Grade 49%

School 9% · district not reported

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

Grade 59%

School 9% · district not reported

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

Grade 613%

School 13% · district not reported

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

Grade 725%

School 25% · district not reported

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 826%

School 26% · district not reported

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

Science

Grade 52%

School 2% · district not reported

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

Grade 89%

School 9% · district not reported

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

Social studies

Grade 824%

School 24% · District 17% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▲ 12 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.