Harpers Choice Middle

Located at 5450 Beaverkill Rd, in Columbia, Maryland, Harpers Choice Middle is a small middle-grades school that enrolls 471 students (grades 6 through 8), operated by Howard County Public Schools. That puts it 38% smaller than the typical public school in Maryland, which averages around 764 students.

Across the 77 schools in Howard County Public Schools (57,565 students total), Harpers Choice Middle accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

Demographically, Harpers Choice Middle lists that 43% of students identify as Black, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups. The remainder is composed of 23% Hispanic, 18% White, 8% Asian, 7% multiracial. That is visibly more Black than the county at large, where the share is closer to 20%.

On the income-and-resources front, The school employs 41 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 11.6:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 14.3:1 average. Roughly 47% of students at Harpers Choice Middle qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. Set against Howard County (around 27%), the school's rate is meaningfully above typical.

With demographic context factored in, Harpers Choice Middle sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 46.5%; this one delivers 35.4%.

Around the school, ACS estimates for Howard County put the typical household earns roughly $149,763 per year, 65% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 4%. In all, Howard County runs 78 public schools (combined enrollment of about 57,565 students), of which Harpers Choice Middle is one.

Nearest neighbor: Longfellow Elementary, around 0.3 miles off. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Harpers Choice Middle comes 7th of 8 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 44.4%.

Harpers Choice Middle operates from a city-core location.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Harpers Choice Middle has declined 20%, going from 591 students in 2018 to 471 in 2025. Over the same period, the Hispanic share ticked up from 15% to 23%.

In the discussion threads here, members of the Harpers Choice Middle community share and discuss pickup logistics, teacher feedback, and after-school programs. Members of the school community can share what they know.