Imagine Foundations at Morningside Pcs, Morningside MD

Original Research by School Decision on Imagine Foundations at Morningside Pcs

Imagine Foundations at Morningside PCS is a public charter school serving kindergarten through eighth grade in the small, primarily residential Prince George’s County town of Morningside. The school operates in the building that was formerly Morningside Elementary, which closed and then reopened as a charter campus. Enrollment is relatively small for a school covering this grade span, and the student body is predominantly Black. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals.

The school’s state assessment results present a sharp split by subject. English language arts proficiency shows a clear strength in the early and upper grades. Third graders met the proficiency bar at a rate that stands as a notable bright spot, and eighth graders also posted a strong result. Sixth graders were around the midpoint, and seventh graders were in a similar range. The dips come in the middle: fourth graders and fifth graders both recorded lower proficiency rates in ELA. The math results across the grade levels are a more consistent concern. Every tested grade from four through eight posted a low proficiency rate, with the eighth-grade math rate in particular being very low. The one exception was third-grade math, which was reported as a range that aligns with a much stronger result, but that pattern does not carry into the upper grades. In science, fifth graders recorded a low proficiency rate on the state science assessment, while eighth graders were stronger; eighth-grade social studies proficiency came in around the midpoint.

The overall picture from one year of data is a school where a substantial share of students read well at the entry and exit points of the building, but where math achievement across the middle and upper grades is an area a parent would want to look into further with the school. One year of testing data gives a single snapshot; there is no prior trend to compare against. The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report.

Morningside itself is a compact town of about one square mile that developed around nearby Joint Base Andrews and the federal Census Bureau headquarters. It lacks a traditional downtown commercial corridor; civic life centers on the town municipal center and seasonal events like the Fourth of July parade and National Night Out. The built environment is single-family homes and small civic institutions. Housing values in the zip code are below the state benchmark and roughly in line with national levels, with rents also following that pattern. The town’s population has been declining in recent decades. For families who might look to move into the area, the housing market offers an entry point below the Maryland median, but the town is small and has no public library or rail transit within its limits.

Imagine Foundations at Morningside is a charter school, so it operates with some autonomy from the larger Prince George’s County Public Schools district while still part of that district system. The district has recently implemented several changes that may be relevant to families considering this school: a district-wide literacy initiative adopting a science-of-reading curriculum, a boundary review that could affect school assignments for the coming year, and a growing operating budget directed in part toward teacher salaries and student support services. Because this school is a charter, how directly those district-level changes apply is a question a prospective family would need to ask the school itself. The school is the only entity in the comparison set within Prince George’s County for which a district-level comparison was possible, so no relative positioning across districts is available here.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 48%

School 8% · district not reported

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 57%

School 7% · district not reported

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 68%

School 8% · district not reported

▼ 6 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 720%

School 20% · district not reported

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Grade 83%

School 3% · district not reported

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 358%

School 58% · district not reported

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 25 pts above county median

Grade 419%

School 19% · district not reported

▼ 26 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 514%

School 14% · district not reported

▼ 26 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Grade 638%

School 38% · district not reported

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 864%

School 64% · district not reported

▲ 20 pts above state median · ▲ 27 pts above county median

Science

Grade 57%

School 7% · district not reported

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 828%

School 28% · district not reported

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 846%

School 46% · District 21% · ▲ 25 pts above district

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 26 pts above county median

This schoolPrince George's County Public Schools, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income8%Higher-income18%10 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income24%Higher-income45%21 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income17%Higher-income40%23 pp gap