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If you could change one rule at Bel Air High, what would it be?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
1,341
High
DISTRICT 1,030 · STATE 1,185
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·HARFORD COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS·NCES 240039000683
Bel Air High
100 Heighe St, Bel Air, MD 21014 · (410) 638-4600 · Harford County
GRADES 09–12HIGH22-SUBURBREGULAR SCHOOL1,341 STUDENTS
B
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 57% of Maryland public high schools
- A-Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- C-Beats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- ·Three-year trend Not available for this school, so the grade uses the other parts.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Maryland public high schools
Student : Teacher
15.5:1
87 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 15.2:1 · STATE 15.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
23%
305 students
DISTRICT 41% · STATE 54%
Community
5
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other high schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 9 | 289 | 22% |
| Grade 10 | 345 | 26% |
| Grade 11 | 358 | 27% |
| Grade 12 | 349 | 26% |
Student demographics
52%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 61% · STATE 73% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
Test scores
MCAP 2024-25 . % Proficient (Levels 3-4)English Language Arts
74.4%
MD avg 50.6% . +5.7pp since 2023
Math
24.8%
MD avg 34.8% . +10.4pp since 2023
What this means: On the MCAP, Maryland's statewide test, about 74 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 25 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Maryland schools, those numbers are about 51 and 35. Reading and writing scores are up about 6 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 10 points.
MCAP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 74.4% | 24.8% |
| 2023-24 | 68.7% | 14.4% |
% Proficient (Levels 3-4), all students and all tested grades.
Source: MCAP. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of MD schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
45.6%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
60.8%
based on MD schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-15.2pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 46% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 61% typical for Maryland schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations compares each school with others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school lands here when its results trail those comparable schools, which is not the same as having low scores. A higher-scoring school can still fall in this tier if similar schools score higher still.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Bel Air High
Bel Air High's state test result (45.6% proficient) is higher than 2 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bel Air High this school | 1,341 | 22.7% | 45.6% |
| C. Milton Wright High Bel Air | 1,291 | 25.3% | 39.3% |
| Century High Sykesville | 1,101 | 20.1% | 47.1% |
| Westminster High Westminster | 1,477 | 25.0% | 45.3% |
| Northern High Owings | 1,478 | 20.6% | 48.9% |
| South River High Edgewater | 1,680 | 20.2% | 51.8% |
Matched among Maryland high schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Bel Air High ranks
Among high schools| Measure | This school | In Maryland | In Harford County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 45.6% | #42 of 203 | #2 of 10 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 24.8% | #24 of 206 ▲ 52 | #2 of 10 ▲ 4 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 74.4% | #49 of 206 ▲ 1 | #3 of 10 ▼ 1 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 1,341 | #97 of 234 | #3 of 10 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 15.5:1 | #69 of 210 | #3 of 10 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 52.1% | #114 of 211 | #5 of 10 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 22.7% | #181 of 212 | #8 of 10 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -13.8% | #14 of 76 | #1 of 6 |
Ranked against other public high schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
1,341
-216 (-14%) vs 2020
+18% since 1990-91, when it was 1,133
Student : Teacher
15.5:1
was 17.1:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 1,341 | 86.5 | 15.5:1 | 23% (305) |
| 2023-24 | 1,419 | 88.8 | 16.0:1 | 21% (300) |
| 2022-23 | 1,489 | 91.3 | 16.3:1 | 22% (323) |
| 2020-21 | 1,557 | 91 | 17.1:1 | 14% (218) |
| 2017-18 | 1,555 | 95.3 | 16.3:1 | 12% (182) |
| 2015-16 | 1,581 | 98 | 16.1:1 | 12% (195) |
| 2010-11 | 1,574 | 92 | 17.1:1 | 10% (162) |
| 2000-01 | 1,587 | 90 | 17.6:1 | 3% (41) |
| 1990-91 | 1,133 | 63 | 18.0:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Bel Air High.
Since 2017-18: students down 14% (1,555 to 1,341); teachers down 9% (95.3 to 86.5).
About Bel Air High
Bel Air High is a medium-sized high school serving families in Bel Air, Maryland. It enrolled 1,341 students in grades 9 through 12 for the 2024-25 school year.
Harford County Public Schools enrolls 37,771 students, and its 55 schools include Bel Air High.
Bel Air High's enrollment is 67% White. Other groups include 11% Black, 10% Hispanic, 8% Asian, and 4% multiracial. The chance that two students picked at random at Bel Air High belong to different racial or ethnic groups, known as the diversity index, is 52%.
The school's student-to-teacher ratio is about 15.5:1, with 86.5 full-time-equivalent teachers. Across high schools in Maryland, the average ratio is about 15.3:1. Lunch subsidy eligibility at Bel Air High is 23%. On average, public schools in Harford County report 39%.
The allk12 Grade for Bel Air High is B. Compared with Maryland public high schools, the school scored higher than 57% on a mix of test scores, poverty-adjusted results, and recent trend.
In Maryland, Bel Air High is one of the bottom 10% of schools on BeatsExpectations, with an average proficiency rate on state tests of 45.6% compared with a predicted 60.8%.
Harford County has about 263,757 residents, and median household income is about $112,265, about 40% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and roughly 5% of residents are in poverty. Federal data list 55 public schools in Harford County, with a combined enrollment of about 37,771.
The next-closest public school is Bel Air Middle, about 0.3 miles away. There are at least 8 more public schools inside five miles. Ranking the closest schools with test data puts Bel Air High at 8th of 9.
Federal data place Bel Air High in the Suburb: Mid-size locale, which means it is in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population between 100,000 and 250,000.
Federal counts put enrollment at 1,557 in 2020-21 and 1,341 in 2024-25, a 14% decrease. There were fewer students per teacher in 2024-25 (15.5:1) than in 2020-21 (17.1:1).
Topics for discussion here include school safety, transportation, and start times. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.
Harford County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
263,757
Census ACS
Median income
$112,265
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
40%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
5%
Below federal line
Schools in county
55
37,771 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Harford County Public Schools
- Edgewood HighHigh · 1,440 students
- Aberdeen HighHigh · 1,396 students
- C. Milton Wright HighHigh · 1,291 students
- North Harford HighHigh · 1,204 students
- Southampton MiddleMiddle · 1,192 students
- Youths Benefit ElementaryElementary · 1,151 students
Other schools in Bel Air
- C. Milton Wright HighHigh · 1,291 students
- Southampton MiddleMiddle · 1,192 students
- Bel Air MiddleMiddle · 1,080 students
- Homestead/Wakefield ElementaryElementary · 1,071 students
- Harford Technical HighHigh · 954 students
- Patterson Mill High SchoolHigh · 839 students
Other Bel Air High schools
One other US public school is named Bel Air High. Bel Air High is the 2nd largest of the 2.
- Bel Air High SchoolEL PASO, TX · 1,866 students
Nearby schools
- Bel Air Middle0.3 mi · 1,080
- Bel Air Elementary0.6 mi · 521
- Homestead/Wakefield Elementary0.6 mi · 1,071
- Southampton Middle1.3 mi · 1,192
- Ring Factory Elementary1.5 mi · 541
- Patterson Mill Middle School2.1 mi · 716
Frequently asked questions
About Bel Air HighHow many students attend Bel Air High?
Bel Air High enrolls approximately 1,341 students in grades 09-12.
What grades does Bel Air High serve?
Bel Air High serves grades 09-12.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Bel Air High?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Bel Air High is approximately 15.5:1 (87 FTE teachers).
How diverse is Bel Air High?
Bel Air High reports a student body of 67% White, 10% Hispanic, 11% Black, 8% Asian, 4% Two or more.
Is Bel Air High public or private?
Bel Air High is a public K-12 school, overseen by Harford County Public Schools.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.