The top reported proficiency rate is 39% in English language arts. The lowest is 13% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Cedarmere Elementary
Cedarmere Elementary serves students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade in Reisterstown, a primarily residential suburb of Baltimore with a historic district center along Reisterstown Road. The community was founded as a tavern stop along an early road and retains a historic core listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Schools and civic life cluster in the town center rather than on separated campuses; Franklin Middle School sits on Main Street and hosts the farmers market, concerts, and festivals, and the former Franklin Academy building now houses the public library. The broader community is auto-oriented, with an interstate highway connecting to the Baltimore Beltway and residential subdivisions spreading outward. Growth has slowed from earlier postwar suburbanization, and the community is essentially built out within its boundaries.
The school itself is a regular public school within the Baltimore County Public Schools system, which has adopted several district-wide changes in recent years. A new elementary literacy curriculum aligned with the science of reading began in the 2023-2024 school year, emphasizing phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. The district also implemented a cell phone policy restricting phone use during instructional time for elementary students, who must keep phones stored and silenced all day. A multi-year state plan called the Blueprint for Maryland's Future is expanding pre-K toward universal access, increasing teacher salaries, and improving college and career readiness, with additional state education funding coming to the district. Voters also approved a bond issue for school safety and security improvements including secure entrance vestibules and access control systems.
On state assessments, Cedarmere Elementary shows a pattern where English language arts proficiency is higher than math proficiency across the tested grades. In third grade, reading proficiency reaches a level that falls roughly in the middle, while math proficiency in the same grade is notably lower. Fourth grade shows the strongest reading results, with proficiency reaching a moderately higher level, while math in fourth grade is lower. Fifth grade reading proficiency drops back somewhat, and fifth grade math proficiency is the weakest of the three elementary grades tested. Science proficiency, which is assessed only in fifth grade, is also low, with a small share of students meeting the proficiency bar. A single year of data is available for most measures, so there is no trend to evaluate. These are statewide Maryland MCAP and MISA assessments, and a parent should consider that the school serves a substantial share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals, which is often associated with academic performance patterns.
The student body is diverse. The largest racial or ethnic group is Black or African American, followed by Hispanic or Latino. White students, Asian students, and students identifying as two or more races each make up smaller shares. A very small number of American Indian or Alaska Native students attend. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not reported in the available record, so those populations cannot be described here.
The housing market in the area reflects a mix of historic and suburban development. Home values and rents have been rising in the recent period, and the area is more affordable than the national average in terms of the relationship between rent and income, though the mortgage payment estimate is higher than the typical rent. The neighborhood comparison data from the county was not available in a form that allows positioning Cedarmere relative to other district schools, since the cohort of comparable entities was too small to generate a comparison.
Cedarmere Elementary is a school where a parent will find a diverse student body, a district that has made recent changes to curriculum and cell phone policy, and academic results that show stronger reading than math performance, with overall proficiency levels that are below the state average in most tested subjects. The school itself did not report program offerings in the available data, so specialized programs, if any, are not part of this picture. Families who value a school with a historic town center, a local farmers market, and community events integrated with the school grounds may find the Reisterstown setting appealing. Those concerned about academic performance in math and science may want to investigate those subject areas further with the school.
See more original research from School Decision →