North Bend Elementary, Jarrettsville MD

Original Research by School Decision on North Bend Elementary

North Bend Elementary serves students from prekindergarten through fifth grade in Jarrettsville, a rural-to-suburban unincorporated community in northwestern Harford County. The school is part of Harford County Public Schools and sits in an area described as a quiet village with large lots, farmland, and wooded areas, roughly a 30-mile drive from Baltimore. The community is car-dependent with no downtown core, and housing values in the zip code are well above the national median. The area has seen modest, slow growth and remains primarily residential.

The student body is small, with a white majority and very small shares of Black, Hispanic, Asian, and multiracial students. About one in five students qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a rate on the lower side. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not reported.

State testing results from the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program show a mixed picture. In English language arts, the school posted solid results, with the large majority of third graders, fourth graders, and fifth graders scoring proficient or above. Math results were lower. That gap between reading and math is a pattern a parent may want to explore with the school. Fifth graders also take the Maryland Integrated Science Assessment, and performance on that test fell below the school’s English scores, landing in a range that families may wish to ask about. Because this is an elementary school covering only untested early grades in some years, there is no graduation rate to report, and the single year of assessment data means no trend line is available.

The school’s program offerings were not detailed in the available data. No information about art, music, physical education, enrichment, or special education staffing was provided.

The district, Harford County Public Schools, has a capital project underway: Homestead-Wakefield Elementary in Bel Air is being rebuilt as a single-building campus, consolidating its current two-building setup for different grade bands. A new state law, the Keep Students In Class mandate, took effect with the 2024-2025 school year, changing how absences and discipline are handled across all Maryland districts. Families moving into North Bend Elementary’s attendance zone will find a stable, low-density community where schools are the main civic institutions and daily life revolves around personal vehicles. The school itself presents a generally capable academic profile, with notably stronger reading than math outcomes, set in a small, demographically homogeneous setting.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 363%

School 63% · district not reported

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

Grade 456%

School 56% · district not reported

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

English language arts

Grade 370%

School 70% · district not reported

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 464%

School 64% · district not reported

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

Grade 573%

School 73% · district not reported

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

This schoolHarford County 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.