Ducketts Lane Elementary

Ducketts Lane Elementary operates as a medium-sized K-5 school in Elkridge, Maryland, run under Howard County Public Schools. Current enrollment sits at 573 students spanning grades pre-K through 5.

Howard County Public Schools runs 77 schools in total, collectively educating 57,565 students. Ducketts Lane Elementary is one of those campuses.

Looking at the student body, Ducketts Lane Elementary shows that 34% of students identify as Black, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups. Beyond that, the school records 33% Hispanic, 13% Asian, 11% White, 8% multiracial. By comparison, Howard County as a whole is about 20% Black, so the school skews meaningfully more Black than its surroundings.

On the resource side, The school lists 54 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 10.6:1. The state averages around 13.8:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. About 61% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. By comparison, Howard County runs at roughly 27%, so the school's eligibility rate is meaningfully above the surrounding baseline.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Ducketts Lane Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 38.4%, the actual is 44.6%, a residual of +6.3 points.

Zooming out to the county, census data for Howard County shows median household earnings sit near $149,763, roughly 65% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 4% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Ducketts Lane Elementary is one of 78 public schools in Howard County (combined enrollment of about 57,565 students).

The closest other public school is Elkridge Landing Middle, roughly 1.2 miles away. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Ducketts Lane Elementary. Among the 9 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Ducketts Lane Elementary ranks 6th on composite proficiency, behind the local average of 50.4%.

The school occupies an outer-ring site.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count ticked down 36%: 891 students in 2018 compared to 573 in 2025. The Hispanic share of enrollment rose from 17% to 33% over that span. Class-load math has tightened: from 11.8:1 in 2018 to 10.6:1 in 2025.

In the discussion threads here, recent activity here tends to focus on open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.