The top reported proficiency rate is 77% in English language arts. The lowest is 76% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Bushy Park Elementary
Bushy Park Elementary serves students from prekindergarten through fifth grade in Glenwood, a rural-residential community in western Howard County. The school is part of the Howard County Public Schools system, a district that has seen notable changes in recent years. A thirteenth high school opened in 2023, and the district has adopted a strategic plan centered on attendance, reading by third grade, middle school math proficiency, college and career readiness, and discipline practices, all aligned with Maryland's Blueprint for the Future. Teacher salaries have risen substantially, contributing to growth in the district's operating budget and per-pupil spending, which in turn affects county funding and property tax obligations.
Glenwood itself is a low-density, high-income community of single-family homes on large lots, with no traditional downtown. Residents commute to Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and the area is car-dependent. Civic anchors include a county library branch, a community center, and Western Regional Park, all along the Maryland Route 97 corridor. The school sits on its own campus, separate from the middle and high schools that serve the same area. Housing values in the Glenwood ZIP code are among the highest in the state, reflecting the area's affluence.
Bushy Park Elementary enrolls more than six hundred students, a size typical for an elementary school serving these grades. The student body is predominantly white, with sizable Asian and Hispanic populations and smaller shares of Black students and students of two or more races. Fewer than one in ten students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, a notably low rate that aligns with the community's economic profile. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available in the source material, so a reader who wants to understand the school's support for those populations would need to ask the school directly.
On state assessments, Bushy Park posts strong results. In English language arts, proficiency rates are high across grades three through five, with the fourth-grade cohort reaching into the low eighties in the share of students scoring proficient or above. Math results are similarly strong, with grades three and four both around three-quarters proficient and grade five in a similar range. Science scores in grade five, measured by a different state test, are lower, with roughly half to three-fifths of students meeting the proficiency bar. This is a common pattern in elementary schools, where science often trails literacy and math, but a family may still want to ask the school about how science instruction is structured.
Because Bushy Park is an elementary school, there is no graduation rate to report, and no data on chronic absenteeism or discipline were included in the available information. The school's academic trends cover only a single year, so it is not possible to say whether performance is improving or declining. The comparison fact-set that would place Bushy Park relative to other district schools in Howard County could not be generated because the cohort was too small. That means a parent evaluating this school against others in the county will need to rely on the raw state results rather than a comparative ranking.
On the whole, Bushy Park Elementary serves a well-resourced, largely homogeneous community and delivers consistently high academic results in reading and mathematics. The school's setting is quiet and suburban-rural, with no walkable downtown and a heavy reliance on cars. It fits a family that values a strong academic record in a low-poverty, low-density environment and is comfortable with the trade-offs of a commuter community where daily errands require driving. The district's ongoing strategic reforms and rising teacher pay suggest that Howard County is investing in its schools, though the resulting property tax pressures are a reality for homebuyers in Glenwood's expensive housing market.
See more original research from School Decision →