The top reported proficiency rate is 57% in English language arts. The lowest is 28% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Woodlin Elementary
Woodlin Elementary sits in Bethesda, a community that functions as a major business and government center in the Washington metropolitan region and a national hub for medical research. The school itself is a regular public elementary school serving kindergarten through fifth grade, part of Montgomery County Public Schools, one of the largest and most prominent districts in Maryland.
Bethesda is affluent and highly educated, and Woodlin reflects a diverse student body within that context. The school enrolls a student population that is roughly a third white, a quarter Black, and about a quarter Hispanic, with smaller shares of Asian students and students of two or more races. About a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, a meaningful share that indicates economic diversity within a generally high-cost area. The housing market in the surrounding community is expensive, with home values well above the national typical range; the area has recently seen a mild decline in values alongside a very strong long-term context.
State test results for Woodlin show a varied pattern across subjects and grades. In English language arts, third and fourth graders posted proficiency rates that were solid, around two-thirds and a bit over three-fifths respectively. Fifth grade reading proficiency dropped notably, settling under half. In math, the picture was similar but with an even wider grade-level spread: fourth graders performed strongest at about three-fifths proficient, third graders at just over half, and fifth graders at roughly a third proficient. Science, tested only in fifth grade, showed about a quarter of students reaching proficiency. A parent looking at these results sees a school where younger students perform well in literacy and math, but where performance dips in fifth grade across all tested subjects. There is only a single year of data available, so it is not possible to tell whether this is a persistent pattern or a one-year anomaly. A family may want to discuss this trend with the school to understand what supports are in place for older elementary students.
The school has no high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. Because the entity is a regular elementary school, not an alternative or special-purpose school, its state test scores are a standard measure of academic performance for its grade band.
The district level provides important context for families. Montgomery County Public Schools adopted a new elementary literacy curriculum in the 2023-24 school year, which means the reading instruction Woodlin students receive has been recently overhauled. The district's operating budget consumes a large portion of the county's overall spending, a reflection of the community's sustained financial commitment to its schools. The district is also in the midst of a systemwide boundary analysis, a long-term planning process that could eventually affect which school a child attends, though no immediate changes are indicated from the available information.
Bethesda itself is a walkable, transit-connected place. The downtown core, centered on the Bethesda Metro station, features dense mid- and high-rise commercial and residential towers. A free circulator bus covers most of downtown, and the Purple Line light rail, still under construction, will eventually connect Bethesda to Silver Spring and the University of Maryland. The Capital Crescent Trail, a converted rail corridor, runs through the area and is heavily used. Major employers are large federal and medical institutions, notably the National Institutes of Health and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, located on a campus a short distance north of downtown. Many residents commute into Washington, D.C., for work.
For a family considering Woodlin, this is a school with clear academic strengths in the early elementary grades, a notable dip in fifth grade performance that bears asking about, and a solid but not uniformly high proficiency profile compared to what one might expect in this affluent part of the county. The student body is economically and racially diverse, and the school sits within a district that has made recent curriculum changes and is planning for the long term.
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