The top reported proficiency rate is 12% in English language arts. The lowest is 3% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Bradbury Heights Elementary
Bradbury Heights Elementary is a regular public school in Capitol Heights, Maryland, serving prekindergarten through fifth grade as part of the Prince George’s County Public Schools system. It is not a charter or magnet school. The school sits in a small, predominantly residential town on the border of Washington, D.C., a place that was originally developed as a low-cost suburban subdivision for D.C. workers and remains majority African American. The town’s commercial core has been in decline since the 1970s, and the area around the nearby Metro station has been designated an Enterprise Zone to attract investment. The built environment consists of modest single-family homes on small lots, with limited commercial activity and an everyday texture that feels suburban.
State testing results for the 2024-25 school year paint a clear picture of the academic challenges at Bradbury Heights. On the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP) for math, the share of students scoring proficient or above was very low in every tested grade. In third grade it was below a tenth of students; in fourth grade it was even lower; and in fifth grade no student tested reached that threshold. On the English language arts MCAP, the proficiency rates were somewhat higher but still low across all three grades, with fourth grade showing the strongest result. Fifth-grade science results on the Maryland Integrated Science Assessment were also very low. The multi-year trend for ELA, which only has a single year of data available, shows an overall proficiency rate that is low, but there is no prior year to compare against. A parent considering this school should look into what academic supports and interventions are in place, and how the school addresses the needs of students who are scoring well below grade-level benchmarks.
The student body is small for an elementary school at this grade span. Nearly all students come from low-income households, as reflected in the share qualifying for free or reduced-price meals. The student population is predominantly Black, with a substantial Hispanic minority and very small numbers of White and multiracial students. Information on the share of students with disabilities or those learning English as a new language was not available; a parent may want to ask the school directly about the supports available for these groups. No data on chronic absenteeism, discipline, or staffing was provided, so it is not possible to assess those aspects of the school environment from this profile.
Bradbury Heights is part of Prince George’s County Public Schools, a large district that in recent years has adopted a district-wide literacy initiative based on the science of reading, approved a budget increase with additional funding for teacher salaries and student support services, and conducted a boundary review to address overcrowding—changes that may affect which school a child attends in future years. For this particular school, no comparison data against other schools in the county was available because the county’s district-level comparison set was too small to produce meaningful benchmarks.
The housing market in the area surrounding the school reflects the broader context of the zip code. Home values have seen a slight year-over-year decline, while rents have risen. National benchmarks suggest home values locally are lower than the national median, and the rent-to-income ratio is elevated, indicating that housing costs represent a significant share of household budgets for many families. The town itself has seen stable population numbers over the decades, and the town is pursuing annexation of adjacent areas, though major new housing development was not evident in available information.
For a family weighing this school, the central takeaway is that Bradbury Heights serves a high-poverty community and its state test results show very low proficiency rates across all subjects and grades tested. The school is a regular neighborhood elementary serving a limited grade span, with no high school programs to consider. The surrounding community offers a suburban feel with limited commercial activity, a Metro connection to Washington, D.C., and a town government that is actively seeking economic revitalization. A parent would want to visit the school, talk to staff about curriculum and intervention strategies, and consider what additional support their child might need to succeed academically in this setting.
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