The top reported proficiency rate is 67% in English language arts. The lowest is 34% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Bellows Spring Elementary
Bellows Spring Elementary is a regular public school serving pre-kindergarten through fifth grade in Ellicott City, part of the Howard County Public Schools system. It is one of the larger elementary schools in the district by enrollment, and it operates as a neighborhood school in a suburban setting rather than a magnet or charter.
Ellicott City itself is an unincorporated community that functions as the county seat of Howard County. It has a historic downtown concentrated along Main Street in a river valley, but the broader area is made up of suburban residential neighborhoods with shopping centers and school campuses spread across the landscape. The community has been shaped by major flood events in recent years and an ongoing flood mitigation project that involves tunneling and building removal in the historic district. The county government campus in Ellicott City is a significant local employer, and the area benefits from the resources and reputation of the Howard County school system district-wide.
Academically, Bellows Spring Elementary posts solid performance on the Maryland state assessments. Reading and math proficiency rates across the tested grades generally sit in a range that many families would view as consistent with a strong suburban elementary school. In the lower elementary grades, a substantial majority of students meet the state’s proficiency benchmark in both reading and mathematics. By fifth grade, reading proficiency remains at a comparable level, while math proficiency pulls back somewhat, a pattern not unusual as the curriculum shifts toward more complex material. Science results in fifth grade are markedly lower than the reading and math scores, which is a soft spot worth noting; a parent may want to ask the school about how science instruction is structured across the grade levels.
The student body is diverse. Asian and Black students each make up roughly a third of the enrollment, White students make up about a fifth, and Hispanic students account for close to a tenth. A modest share of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, indicating a student population that is broadly middle-income but not uniformly affluent. This is a school where a child will encounter classmates from a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds, which many families view as a positive feature of the peer environment.
Housing in the area is expensive. Home values in the zip code are well above national and state benchmarks, and rents are high as well. For families moving to the area, the cost of housing is a meaningful factor. The school itself sits within the Howard County district, which has been investing in teacher salary increases and has opened a new high school in recent years, reshaping some attendance boundaries.
No data was available on chronic absenteeism, staffing ratios, discipline patterns, or special education and English learner enrollment at this school, so those dimensions of the school environment cannot be characterized here. Because Bellows Spring is an elementary school, it does not have a graduation rate or offer high-school-level programs like Advanced Placement or career and technical education pathways.
For a family looking at suburban Howard County elementary schools, Bellows Spring presents as a large, diverse, academically solid option in a high-cost housing market, with the caveat that the fifth-grade science results and the drop in math proficiency warrant a closer look during a school visit or conversation with the principal.
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