Hillcrest Elementary

Hillcrest Elementary is a K-5 school of moderately sized scale in Frederick, Maryland, one of the schools within Frederick County Public Schools, teacheing 581 students in grades pre-K through 5. That puts it 21% bigger than the typical public school in Maryland, which averages around 481 students.

Frederick County Public Schools runs 67 schools in total, collectively educating 48,054 students. Hillcrest Elementary is one of those campuses.

Looking at the student body, Hillcrest Elementary logs that the student body is overwhelmingly Hispanic (81%). Beyond that, the school records 8% Black, 6% White, 3% multiracial, 2% Asian. The wider county runs roughly 13% Hispanic, putting the school's mix visibly more Hispanic than the area baseline.

On the resource side, On paper, Hillcrest Elementary has 57 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 10.3:1. The state averages around 13.8:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. Around 91% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. That share is higher than Frederick County's rate of about 37%.

After controlling for student poverty, Hillcrest Elementary sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 20.4%; this one delivers 28.7%.

In the surrounding community, the surrounding county (Frederick County) shows that median household earnings sit near $122,002, about 46% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and roughly 4% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Frederick County's 69 public schools (combined enrollment of about 48,054 students), Hillcrest Elementary is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: Butterfly Ridge Elementary, around 0.3 miles off. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Hillcrest Elementary at 9th of 9; the average score across the group is 40.6%.

Geographically, the school is in a high-density area.

Five-year trend. Hillcrest Elementary's enrollment has fell 40% since 2018, when it stood at 964 (now 581). Over the same period, the Hispanic share grew from 69% to 81%. The student-to-teacher ratio narrowed from 12.4:1 in 2018 to 10.3:1 today.

In the discussion threads here, posts here usually surface around science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.