Lake Elkhorn Middle

Set in Columbia, Maryland, Lake Elkhorn Middle is a tight-knit intermediate school, operated by Howard County Public Schools. It serves 569 students across grades 6 through 8. Enrollment runs roughly 26% below the state mean of about 764.

Howard County Public Schools runs 77 schools in total, collectively educating 57,565 students. Lake Elkhorn Middle is one of those campuses.

On the student-mix side, Lake Elkhorn Middle reports that the largest single group is Black at 48%, but no single group is in the majority. Other groups include 23% Hispanic, 16% White, 8% multiracial, 6% Asian. That is noticeably more Black than the county at large, where the share is closer to 20%.

In terms of school funding signals, The school lists 47 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 12.2:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 14.3:1 average. Around 49% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. Set against Howard County (around 27%), the school's rate is north of typical.

With demographic context factored in, Lake Elkhorn Middle is in the bottom 10% of Maryland public schools. The BeatsExpectations model predicts schools with this FRL share to land around 45.2%; Lake Elkhorn Middle posts 29.9%, -15.3 points below that line.

Zooming out to the county, Howard County reports that 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%. Lake Elkhorn Middle is one of 78 public schools in Howard County (combined enrollment of about 57,565 students).

Nearest neighbor: Cradlerock Elementary, around 0.1 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Lake Elkhorn Middle. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Lake Elkhorn Middle at 9th of 9; the average score across the group is 47.6%.

The school occupies a metropolitan site.

Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Lake Elkhorn Middle has ticked up 4%, going from 547 students in 2018 to 569 in 2025. The Hispanic share of enrollment rose from 17% to 23% over that span.

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