1
Teachers: what resource would make the biggest difference at Longfellow Elementary this year?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
446
Elementary
DISTRICT 614 · STATE 481
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·HOWARD COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS·NCES 240042000742
Longfellow Elementary
5470 Hesperus Dr, Columbia, MD 21044 · (410) 313-6879 · Howard County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY12-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL446 STUDENTS
C+
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 36% 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.
- 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 elementary schools
Student : Teacher
11.4:1
39 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 12.7:1 · STATE 13.8:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
43%
193 students
DISTRICT 29% · 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 | 33 | 7% |
| Kindergarten | 62 | 14% |
| Grade 1 | 63 | 14% |
| Grade 2 | 60 | 13% |
| Grade 3 | 76 | 17% |
| Grade 4 | 74 | 17% |
| Grade 5 | 78 | 17% |
This year's kindergarten class (62) is 21% smaller than its 5th grade class (78).
Student demographics
74%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
34.5%
MD avg 50.6% . -24.8pp since 2023
Math
36.6%
MD avg 34.8% . -10.1pp since 2023
What this means: On the MCAP, Maryland's statewide test, about 35 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 37 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 25 points since 2023, while math scores are down about 10 points.
MCAP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 34.5% | 36.6% |
| 2023-24 | 59.3% | 46.7% |
% 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
48.6%
based on MD schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-4.3pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 44% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 49% 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 Longfellow Elementary
Longfellow Elementary's state test result (44.3% proficient) is higher than 2 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Longfellow Elementary this school | 446 | 43.3% | 44.3% |
| Talbott Springs Elementary Columbia | 461 | 45.3% | 52.6% |
| Jeffers Hill Elementary Columbia | 406 | 44.1% | 41.6% |
| Severn Elementary Severn | 458 | 40.8% | 48.9% |
| Kenilworth Elementary Bowie | 364 | 48.6% | 34.8% |
| Franklin Elementary Reisterstown | 392 | 40.1% | 61.8% |
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 Longfellow Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Maryland | In Howard County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 44.3% | #425 of 853 | #34 of 42 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 36.6% | #481 of 853 ▼ 152 | #37 of 42 ▼ 6 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 34.5% | #647 of 853 ▼ 390 | #42 of 42 ▼ 18 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 446 | #512 of 898 | #35 of 42 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 11.4:1 | #111 of 857 | #8 of 42 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 74.5% | #44 of 857 | #6 of 42 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 43.3% | #584 of 885 | #14 of 42 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +1.1% | #278 of 294 | #15 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
446
-39 (-8%) vs 2020
+13% since 1990-91, when it was 394
Student : Teacher
11.4:1
was 11.8:1
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 | 446 | 39.1 | 11.4:1 | 43% (193) |
| 2023-24 | 423 | 38.1 | 11.1:1 | 44% (187) |
| 2022-23 | 478 | 38.1 | 12.6:1 | 47% (224) |
| 2020-21 | 485 | 41 | 11.8:1 | 40% (192) |
| 2017-18 | 441 | 38.7 | 11.4:1 | 43% (189) |
| 2015-16 | 471 | 40 | 11.8:1 | 42% (200) |
| 2010-11 | 445 | 34 | 13.1:1 | 36% (158) |
| 2000-01 | 384 | 26 | 14.8:1 | 20% (77) |
| 1990-91 | 394 | 23 | 17.1:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Longfellow Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students up 1% (441 to 446); teachers up 1% (38.7 to 39.1).
About Longfellow Elementary
Longfellow Elementary is a mid-sized elementary school in Columbia, Maryland, one of the schools in Howard County Public Schools. The school covers pre-K through 5 and reported 446 students in 2024-25.
District-wide, Howard County Public Schools has 77 schools and 57,565 students.
The biggest share of students at Longfellow Elementary, 36%, is Black. The remaining shares are 25% Hispanic, 22% White, 11% multiracial, and 6% Asian. Census estimates put the Black share of Howard County's population at about 20%. On the diversity index, which measures the chance that two random students are from different groups, Longfellow Elementary scores 74%.
Teacher count: 39.1 full-time equivalents. Student-to-teacher ratio: 11.4:1. The gap from the 13.8:1 average for elementary schools in Maryland is 2.4 students per teacher. Eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch, often used to gauge student poverty, is 43%. Among public schools in Howard County, the average eligibility rate is 27%.
On the allk12 Grade, Longfellow Elementary lands at C+, ahead of 36% of Maryland public elementary schools.
Schools in Maryland with a similar free or reduced-price lunch share are predicted to score about 48.6%. Longfellow Elementary scores 44.3%.
In Howard County, home to about 336,328 people, 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%. Longfellow Elementary shares Howard County with 77 other public schools.
Measured in a straight line, Harpers Choice Middle is about 0.3 miles from Longfellow Elementary. Other public schools within five miles: at least 8. The nearest schools with test data average 43.1%, lower than Longfellow Elementary's 44.3%.
On the NCES locale scale, the school is City: Mid-size.
The school's enrollment fell 8% from 2020-21 to 2024-25.
The discussion board for Longfellow Elementary is open to topics like pickup and drop-off, after-school programs, and teacher feedback. 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
Other Longfellow Elementary schools
36 other US public schools in 18 states are named Longfellow Elementary. Longfellow Elementary is the 13th largest of the 37.
- Longfellow ElementaryLong Beach, CA · 904 students
- Longfellow ElementaryBakersfield, CA · 780 students
- Longfellow ElementaryMilwaukee, WI · 773 students
- Longfellow ElementaryRiverside, CA · 701 students
- LONGFELLOW ELEMENTARY SCHOOLIDAHO FALLS, ID · 577 students
Nearby schools
- Harpers Choice Middle0.3 mi · 471
- Wilde Lake Middle0.7 mi · 643
- Swansfield Elementary0.8 mi · 594
- Wilde Lake High0.8 mi · 1,197
- Bryant Woods Elementary0.9 mi · 366
- Homewood School0.9 mi · 109
Frequently asked questions
About Longfellow ElementaryHow many students attend Longfellow Elementary?
Longfellow Elementary enrolls approximately 446 students in grades PK-05.
What grades does Longfellow Elementary serve?
Longfellow Elementary serves grades PK-05.
How many students per teacher at Longfellow Elementary?
Approximately 11.4:1 students per teacher at Longfellow Elementary.
How diverse is Longfellow Elementary?
Longfellow Elementary reports a student body of 22% White, 25% Hispanic, 36% Black, 6% Asian, 11% Two or more.
Is Longfellow Elementary public or private?
Longfellow Elementary is a public K-12 school, overseen by Howard County Public Schools.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.