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What's the biggest difference between Harpers Choice Middle and what you expected?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
471
Middle
DISTRICT 663 · STATE 764
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·HOWARD COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS·NCES 240042000737
Harpers Choice Middle
5450 Beaverkill Rd, Columbia, MD 21044 · (410) 313-6929 · Howard County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE12-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL471 STUDENTS
C
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 32% of Maryland public middle schools
- B-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 middle schools
Student : Teacher
11.6:1
41 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 14.0:1 · STATE 14.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
47%
221 students
DISTRICT 29% · STATE 54%
Community
5
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other middle schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 149 | 32% |
| Grade 7 | 163 | 35% |
| Grade 8 | 159 | 34% |
Student demographics
71%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 77% · 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
42.1%
MD avg 50.6% . +0.8pp since 2023
Math
31.2%
MD avg 34.8% . +4.4pp since 2023
What this means: On the MCAP, Maryland's statewide test, about 42 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 31 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Maryland schools, those numbers are about 51 and 35. Reading and writing scores have held steady since 2023, while math scores are up about 4 points.
MCAP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 42.1% | 31.2% |
| 2023-24 | 41.3% | 26.8% |
% 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
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
35.4%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
46.5%
based on MD schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-11.1pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 35% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 46% typical for Maryland schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Maryland's top nor bottom 10%.
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 Harpers Choice Middle
Harpers Choice Middle's state test result (35.4% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harpers Choice Middle this school | 471 | 46.9% | 35.4% |
| Lake Elkhorn Middle Columbia | 569 | 49.0% | 29.9% |
| Oakland Mills Middle Columbia | 415 | 48.4% | 36.3% |
| Wilde Lake Middle Columbia | 643 | 39.0% | 40.5% |
| Milton M. Somers Middle School La Plata | 671 | 43.2% | 40.3% |
| Gov. Thomas Johnson Middle Frederick | 573 | 45.2% | 41.5% |
Matched among Maryland middle 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 Harpers Choice Middle ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Maryland | In Howard County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 35.4% | #116 of 223 | #17 of 20 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 31.2% | #80 of 223 ▲ 3 | #14 of 20 ▼ 1 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 42.1% | #157 of 223 ▼ 14 | #19 of 20 no change |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 471 | #200 of 230 | #19 of 20 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 11.6:1 | #16 of 225 | #1 of 20 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 71.4% | #46 of 225 | #12 of 20 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 46.9% | #129 of 227 | #4 of 20 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -20.3% | #15 of 123 | #1 of 10 |
Ranked against other public middle 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
471
-19 (-4%) vs 2020
-25% since 1990-91, when it was 624
Student : Teacher
11.6:1
was 11.4:1
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 | 471 | 40.7 | 11.6:1 | 47% (221) |
| 2023-24 | 469 | 41.3 | 11.4:1 | 53% (250) |
| 2022-23 | 497 | 44.5 | 11.2:1 | 50% (250) |
| 2020-21 | 490 | 43 | 11.4:1 | 40% (198) |
| 2017-18 | 591 | 47.6 | 12.4:1 | 38% (225) |
| 2015-16 | 543 | 42 | 12.9:1 | 42% (229) |
| 2010-11 | 492 | 42 | 11.7:1 | 31% (153) |
| 2000-01 | 608 | 43 | 14.1:1 | 21% (130) |
| 1990-91 | 624 | 42 | 14.9:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Harpers Choice Middle.
Since 2017-18: students down 20% (591 to 471); teachers down 14% (47.6 to 40.7).
About Harpers Choice Middle
Harpers Choice Middle is a middle school in Columbia, Maryland, according to federal school records. Its grade span covers grades 6 through 8, with 471 students on the rolls. Middle schools in Maryland average about 764 students, which makes this school 38% below average.
Enrollment across the 77 schools in Howard County Public Schools totals 57,565 students.
Black students account for 43% of enrollment at Harpers Choice Middle, more than any other group. Other students are 23% Hispanic, 18% White, 8% Asian, and 7% multiracial. By comparison, Howard County residents are about 20% Black. On the diversity index, which measures the chance that two random students are from different groups, Harpers Choice Middle scores 71%.
Based on 40.7 full-time-equivalent teachers, Harpers Choice Middle has a ratio of 11.6:1. The average for middle schools in Maryland, 14.3:1, is higher. Income data for the school show 47% of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. Across public schools in Howard County, the average is 27%.
Harpers Choice Middle earns a C on the allk12 Grade, which blends test scores, results against poverty-based expectations, and the three-year trend. It scored higher than 32% of Maryland public middle schools.
Based on student poverty, the model expects 46.5% at Harpers Choice Middle; the school's average proficiency rate across its state test results is 35.4%.
In the wider Howard County area, the median household earns about $149,763 a year, a bachelor's degree or higher is held by about 65% of adults, and the poverty rate is about 4%. Across Howard County, 78 public schools serve about 57,565 students.
A public school about 0.3 miles away, Longfellow Elementary, is the closest to Harpers Choice Middle. Inside a five-mile radius, there are at least 8 other public schools. Nearby schools with test data average 44.4% proficiency; Harpers Choice Middle posts 35.4%.
Harpers Choice Middle is inside a principal city with a population between 100,000 and 250,000, a location NCES labels City: Mid-size.
Since 2020-21, enrollment has fallen 4%, from 490 to 471.
Anyone can start a thread about fundraisers, report cards, and school supplies at Harpers Choice Middle. Parents, students, alumni, and staff are welcome to post.
Howard County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
336,328
Census ACS
Median income
$149,763
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
65%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
4%
Below federal line
Schools in county
78
57,565 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Howard County Public Schools
- Marriotts Ridge HighHigh · 1,741 students
- Reservoir HighHigh · 1,597 students
- Atholton HighHigh · 1,540 students
- Howard HighHigh · 1,493 students
- Mount Hebron HighHigh · 1,455 students
- Oakland Mills HighHigh · 1,413 students
Other schools in Columbia
- Atholton HighHigh · 1,540 students
- Oakland Mills HighHigh · 1,413 students
- Long Reach HighHigh · 1,334 students
- Wilde Lake HighHigh · 1,197 students
- Hammond HighHigh · 1,159 students
- Phelps Luck ElementaryElementary · 681 students
Nearby schools
- Longfellow Elementary0.3 mi · 446
- Swansfield Elementary0.5 mi · 594
- Wilde Lake Middle0.8 mi · 643
- Homewood School0.9 mi · 109
- Wilde Lake High1.0 mi · 1,197
- Bryant Woods Elementary1.1 mi · 366
Frequently asked questions
About Harpers Choice MiddleWhat is the total enrollment at Harpers Choice Middle?
Harpers Choice Middle enrolls approximately 471 students in grades 06-08.
What grades does Harpers Choice Middle serve?
Harpers Choice Middle serves grades 06-08.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Harpers Choice Middle?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Harpers Choice Middle is approximately 11.6:1 (41 FTE teachers).
What is the racial breakdown of students at Harpers Choice Middle?
At Harpers Choice Middle, the student body is approximately 18% White, 23% Hispanic, 43% Black, 8% Asian, 7% Two or more.
What district is Harpers Choice Middle in?
Harpers Choice Middle is part of Howard County Public Schools.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.