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What's the most underrated thing about Lettie Marshall Dent Elem that outsiders don't know?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
479
Elementary
DISTRICT 419 · STATE 481
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·ST. MARY'S COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS·NCES 240060001399
Lettie Marshall Dent Elem
37840 New Market Turner Rd, Mechanicsville, MD 20659 · (301) 472-4500 · St. Mary's County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY42-RURALREGULAR SCHOOL479 STUDENTS
C
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 31% of Maryland public elementary schools
- B-Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- DBeats 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 elementary schools
Student : Teacher
17.7:1
27 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 14.7:1 · STATE 13.8:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
38%
184 students
DISTRICT 43% · STATE 54%
Community
5
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 37 | 8% |
| Kindergarten | 70 | 15% |
| Grade 1 | 72 | 15% |
| Grade 2 | 65 | 14% |
| Grade 3 | 73 | 15% |
| Grade 4 | 81 | 17% |
| Grade 5 | 81 | 17% |
This year's kindergarten class (70) is 14% smaller than its 5th grade class (81).
Student demographics
34%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 60% · 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
45.3%
MD avg 50.6% . -7.2pp since 2023
Math
35.6%
MD avg 34.8% . -8.2pp since 2023
What this means: On the MCAP, Maryland's statewide test, about 45 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 36 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Maryland schools, those numbers are about 51 and 35. Reading and writing scores are down about 7 points since 2023, while math scores are down about 8 points.
MCAP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 45.3% | 35.6% |
| 2023-24 | 52.5% | 43.8% |
% 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
44.3%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
51.5%
based on MD schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-7.2pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 44% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 51% 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 Lettie Marshall Dent Elem
Lettie Marshall Dent Elem's state test result (44.3% proficient) is higher than 0 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lettie Marshall Dent Elem this school | 479 | 38.4% | 44.3% |
| Kennard Elementary School Centreville | 477 | 35.6% | 46.3% |
| Dynard Elementary Chaptico | 422 | 39.6% | 50.3% |
| Jacobsville Elementary Pasadena | 474 | 38.0% | 50.4% |
| Piney Point Elementary Tall Timbers | 435 | 35.9% | 47.4% |
| Benjamin Banneker Elementary Loveville | 543 | 36.6% | 47.1% |
Matched among Maryland elementary 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 Lettie Marshall Dent Elem ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Maryland | In St. Mary's County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 44.3% | #423 of 853 | #15 of 19 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 35.6% | #503 of 853 ▼ 141 | #17 of 19 ▼ 4 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 45.3% | #489 of 853 ▼ 156 | #16 of 19 ▼ 8 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 479 | #427 of 898 | #7 of 19 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 17.7:1 | #829 of 857 | #19 of 19 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 34.2% | #683 of 857 | #18 of 19 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 38.4% | #632 of 885 | #10 of 19 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -21.6% | #132 of 551 | #4 of 15 |
Ranked against other public elementary 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
479
-62 (-11%) vs 2020
+22% since 1990-91, when it was 392
Student : Teacher
17.7:1
was 16.9:1
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 | 479 | 27.1 | 17.7:1 | 38% (184) |
| 2023-24 | 477 | 28.4 | 16.8:1 | 36% (174) |
| 2022-23 | 499 | 31.4 | 15.9:1 | 35% (174) |
| 2020-21 | 541 | 32 | 16.9:1 | 25% (137) |
| 2017-18 | 611 | 31.5 | 19.4:1 | 22% (137) |
| 2015-16 | 638 | 33 | 19.3:1 | 22% (141) |
| 2010-11 | 614 | 34 | 18.1:1 | 24% (150) |
| 2000-01 | 592 | 32 | 18.5:1 | 9% (54) |
| 1990-91 | 392 | 20 | 19.6:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Lettie Marshall Dent Elem.
Since 2017-18: students down 22% (611 to 479); teachers down 14% (31.5 to 27.1).
About Lettie Marshall Dent Elem
Students in Mechanicsville, Maryland, attend Lettie Marshall Dent Elem, a medium-sized elementary school. It serves 479 students in pre-K through 5.
Across its 26 schools, St. Mary's County Public Schools enrolls 16,905 students. Lettie Marshall Dent Elem is one of those schools.
Lettie Marshall Dent Elem enrolls a student body that is 80% White. Beyond that, enrollment is 7% multiracial, 6% Black, and 6% Hispanic. In St. Mary's County overall, about 71% of residents are White. The chance that two students picked at random at Lettie Marshall Dent Elem belong to different racial or ethnic groups, known as the diversity index, is 34%.
Federal records show a student-to-teacher ratio of 17.7:1 at Lettie Marshall Dent Elem, with 27.1 full-time-equivalent teachers. The 13.8:1 average for elementary schools in Maryland is lower than this school's figure. Free and reduced-price lunch eligibility, a common measure of family income, is 38%. That is close to the 41% average for public schools in St. Mary's County.
allk12 grades Lettie Marshall Dent Elem a C. The grade compares the school only with Maryland public elementary schools, because each state gives its own test.
Based on student poverty, the model expects 51.5% at Lettie Marshall Dent Elem; the school's average proficiency rate on state tests is 44.3%.
County data help place the school in context: in St. Mary's County, median household income is about $119,446, a bachelor's degree or higher is held by about 37% of adults, and the poverty rate is about 6%. The public schools of St. Mary's County number 28 and enroll about 16,905.
The nearest other public school, White Marsh Elementary, is about 0.7 miles away. In all, 2 other public schools sit within five miles of Lettie Marshall Dent Elem. Of the 9 nearby schools with scores, including this one, Lettie Marshall Dent Elem is 7th on average proficiency.
Lettie Marshall Dent Elem has an NCES locale of Rural: Distant.
Lettie Marshall Dent Elem saw enrollment fall 11% between 2020-21 and 2024-25.
Discussion on this page can cover school safety, transportation, and start times. Reviews and ratings from people who know the school are welcome.
St. Mary's County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
115,126
Census ACS
Median income
$119,446
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
37%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
6%
Below federal line
Schools in county
28
16,905 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in St. Mary's County Public Schools
- Leonardtown HighHigh · 2,118 students
- Great Mills HighHigh · 1,697 students
- Chopticon HighHigh · 1,526 students
- Leonardtown MiddleMiddle · 969 students
- Spring Ridge MiddleMiddle · 913 students
- Margaret Brent MiddleMiddle · 878 students
Other schools in Mechanicsville
- Margaret Brent MiddleMiddle · 878 students
- Oakville ElementaryElementary · 291 students
- Mechanicsville ElementaryElementary · 273 students
- White Marsh ElementaryElementary · 220 students
Nearby schools
- White Marsh Elementary0.7 mi · 220
- Mechanicsville Elementary1.6 mi · 273
- T. C. Martin Elementary School6.0 mi · 538
- Margaret Brent Middle7.1 mi · 878
- Oakville Elementary8.6 mi · 291
- Chopticon High8.6 mi · 1,526
Frequently asked questions
About Lettie Marshall Dent ElemHow many students attend Lettie Marshall Dent Elem?
Lettie Marshall Dent Elem enrolls approximately 479 students in grades PK-05.
What grades does Lettie Marshall Dent Elem serve?
Lettie Marshall Dent Elem serves grades PK-05.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Lettie Marshall Dent Elem?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Lettie Marshall Dent Elem is approximately 17.7:1 (27 FTE teachers).
How diverse is Lettie Marshall Dent Elem?
Lettie Marshall Dent Elem reports a student body of 80% White, 6% Hispanic, 6% Black, 0% Asian, 7% Two or more.
Is Lettie Marshall Dent Elem public or private?
Lettie Marshall Dent Elem is a public K-12 school, overseen by St. Mary's County Public Schools.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.