Colin L Powell Academy, Fort Washington MD

Original Research by School Decision on Colin L Powell Academy

Colin L Powell Academy is a regular public school in Fort Washington, Maryland, serving students from prekindergarten through eighth grade. It sits within the Prince George’s County Public Schools system, the district that covers this primarily residential, unincorporated community along the Potomac River south of Washington, D.C.

The school’s enrollment is large for a PK-8 campus, and it draws from a community where a substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is diverse. Black and Hispanic students together make up the large majority of the population, with smaller shares of white, Asian, and multiracial students.

On the most recent state assessments, administered through Maryland’s MCAP and MISA programs, proficiency rates across subjects and grade levels are well below the state average. In English language arts, the highest proficiency rate was seen in seventh grade, where a little over two out of five students scored proficient or above. Rates in third, fourth, sixth, and eighth grade were lower, each below the state benchmark. Fifth grade literacy was lower still. In mathematics, the numbers are especially low overall. The highest math proficiency across tested grades was in third grade, at about one in every five students; by eighth grade, the rate dropped to a very small share of students. Science and social studies results for fifth and eighth graders also showed low proficiency. This pattern of below-average performance is consistent across almost every tested grade and subject, and a parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand the specific instructional supports and interventions in place.

Because Colin L Powell Academy does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report. The school’s grade span ends at eighth grade, so families will need to plan for a high school transition after their child finishes here.

Fort Washington, where the school is located, is an affluent, car-dependent suburb. The median home value and household income are well above national medians, and the owner-occupied housing rate is high. The community is largely built out, with slow population growth and limited new development. There is no traditional downtown or walkable commercial center. Residents commute primarily to jobs in Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia, or other Maryland suburbs. The school is situated in this mature residential landscape, and the district has recently pursued several initiatives that reach this campus. Prince George’s County Public Schools approved a growing operating budget, implemented a district-wide literacy initiative rooted in the science of reading, and conducted a boundary review that could reassign some students for the coming school year.

The school is a regular public school, not a charter, and it does not have a magnet designation. Title I status was not reported in the available data. Student-teacher ratio, discipline statistics, and course access were also not provided. That kind of information would give a fuller picture of daily conditions and academic support. The comparison fact-set did not produce a usable peer benchmark because the cohort of comparable schools in Prince George’s County was too small for that analysis, so the academic results are best understood against the state’s overall expectations rather than against local neighbors.

Colin L Powell Academy is a large PK-8 school in a stable, affluent suburb, serving a diverse population where economic need is common. Its state assessment results are low across the board, a pattern that families considering this school will want to explore directly with the administration. The district is actively making changes in literacy instruction, budgeting, and attendance boundaries, all of which could affect the experience at this school. No graduation data applies here, and several dimensions of school climate were not available in the current information.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 320%

School 20% · district not reported

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 48%

School 8% · district not reported

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

Grade 54%

School 4% · district not reported

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 65%

School 5% · district not reported

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

Grade 710%

School 10% · district not reported

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 82%

School 2% · district not reported

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

English language arts

Grade 336%

School 36% · district not reported

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Grade 432%

School 32% · district not reported

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 525%

School 25% · district not reported

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

Grade 633%

School 33% · district not reported

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Grade 742%

School 42% · district not reported

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Grade 834%

School 34% · district not reported

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

Science

Grade 56%

School 6% · district not reported

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Grade 812%

School 12% · district not reported

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

Social studies

Grade 816%

School 16% · District 21% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below 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.