The top reported proficiency rate is 21% in English language arts. The lowest is 10% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Rose Valley Elementary
Rose Valley Elementary serves students in prekindergarten through fifth grade in the unincorporated community of Fort Washington, Maryland, a suburban area in Prince George’s County positioned along the Potomac River. The school is a regular public elementary school, not a charter or magnet, and is part of the Prince George’s County Public Schools district. For a family considering this school, the central fact is that state assessment scores across tested grades and subjects are low compared to state benchmarks, a pattern a parent will want to investigate directly with the school or district.
On the 2023-2024 Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program, the share of Rose Valley students scoring proficient or above in mathematics ranged from a very small portion of test takers in third grade to an even smaller share in fourth and fifth grades. English language arts proficiency rates were somewhat higher across all three tested grades, but still reached only about one-fifth of students in third and fifth grades and a slightly smaller share in fourth grade. In science, the portion of fifth graders reaching proficiency was similarly low. These are not a single-year anomaly; the available results show a consistent pattern of low proficiency, and a parent moving into the area should treat this as a baseline that calls for a conversation with the school’s principal about academic supports, intervention programs, and how the school is working to improve outcomes.
The student body is diverse. Hispanic students make up the largest share of the population, followed closely by Black students, with smaller enrollments of White, Asian, and multiracial students. More than two-thirds of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, which places the school in a higher-poverty category. Data on students with disabilities and English learners were not available in this profile, so a parent with a child who has an Individualized Education Program or is an English learner should confirm the school’s support structures directly. The enrollment is of a size typical for an elementary school serving these grade levels.
Fort Washington itself is a primarily residential, car-dependent suburb with a high homeownership rate and median home values and household incomes that indicate an affluent community overall. Housing costs in the area are substantial, and the school sits within a zip code where prices are comparable to the state median. There is no walkable downtown; daily errands require a vehicle. The community is mature and has seen slow population growth, with a largely built-out housing stock. The district, Prince George’s County Public Schools, recently adopted a system-wide literacy initiative aligned with the science of reading, which affects how elementary reading is taught across the district, and conducted a boundary review that may change school assignments for some families in the near future.
Because the school does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report. No data were available on chronic absenteeism, course access, staffing ratios, or disciplinary incidents, so a parent with specific concerns about school climate or class size should request that information from the school office. The comparison set that would normally place Rose Valley relative to other districts in Prince George’s County was too small to produce a reliable metric, so no positioning against local peers is possible from this data. The school’s programs and extracurricular offerings were also not detailed in the available records.
For a family weighing this school, the primary consideration is the academic performance picture. Rose Valley Elementary serves a diverse, lower-income student population in a stable suburban community with high housing costs. The school’s proficiency rates are low across all tested subjects, and there is limited public information about supports, interventions, or programmatic strengths beyond the district’s recent literacy initiative. A parent considering the school should arrange a visit, ask about the school improvement plan, and discuss how the school addresses the academic needs of its students.
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