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Honest take: what's the hardest part about being a student at Odessa Shannon Middle?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
784
Middle
DISTRICT 888 · STATE 764
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·MONTGOMERY COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS·NCES 240048000806
Odessa Shannon Middle
11800 Monticello Ave, Silver Spring, MD 20902 · (240) 740-4150 · Montgomery County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL784 STUDENTS
D
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 6% of Maryland public middle schools
- C-Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- FBeats 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
12.8:1
61 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 14.5:1 · STATE 14.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
56%
436 students
DISTRICT 40% · 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 | 252 | 32% |
| Grade 7 | 252 | 32% |
| Grade 8 | 280 | 36% |
Student demographics
53%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 75% · 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
34.7%
MD avg 50.6% . +3.4pp since 2023
Math
14.9%
MD avg 34.8% . +1.6pp 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 15 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Maryland schools, those numbers are about 51 and 35. Reading and writing scores are up about 3 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 2 points.
MCAP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 34.7% | 14.9% |
| 2023-24 | 31.3% | 13.3% |
% 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
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of MD schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
23.6%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
41.3%
based on MD schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-17.8pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 24% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 41% typical for Maryland schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations compares each school with others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school lands here when its results trail those comparable schools, which is not the same as having low scores. A higher-scoring school can still fall in this tier if similar schools score higher still.
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 Odessa Shannon Middle
Odessa Shannon Middle's state test result (23.6% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Odessa Shannon Middle this school | 784 | 55.6% | 23.6% |
| Forest Oak Middle Gaithersburg | 828 | 58.3% | 25.2% |
| Montgomery Village Middle Montgomery Village | 780 | 59.2% | 17.5% |
| White Oak Middle Silver Spring | 808 | 57.3% | 29.5% |
| Gaithersburg Middle Gaithersburg | 869 | 63.2% | 23.8% |
| Argyle Middle Silver Spring | 868 | 61.4% | 30.6% |
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 Odessa Shannon Middle ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Maryland | In Montgomery County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 23.6% | #182 of 223 | #39 of 40 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 14.9% | #165 of 223 ▼ 1 | #38 of 40 no change |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 34.7% | #187 of 223 ▲ 3 | #38 of 40 no change |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 784 | #111 of 230 | #29 of 40 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 12.8:1 | #46 of 225 | #7 of 40 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 53.5% | #142 of 225 | #39 of 40 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 55.6% | #95 of 227 | #10 of 40 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +3.6% | #66 of 95 | #13 of 19 |
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
784
-11 (-1%) vs 2020
-18% since 1990-91, when it was 955
Student : Teacher
12.8:1
was 13.0:1
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 | 784 | 61.4 | 12.8:1 | 56% (436) |
| 2023-24 | 771 | 59.4 | 13.0:1 | 61% (472) |
| 2022-23 | 823 | 58.4 | 14.1:1 | 80% (661) |
| 2020-21 | 795 | 61 | 13.0:1 | 70% (554) |
| 2017-18 | 757 | 55 | 13.8:1 | 69% (519) |
| 2015-16 | 691 | 54 | 12.8:1 | 67% (461) |
| 2010-11 | 559 | 33 | 16.9:1 | 61% (339) |
| 2000-01 | 660 | 50 | 13.2:1 | 36% (239) |
| 1990-91 | 955 | 59 | 16.2:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Odessa Shannon Middle.
Since 2017-18: students up 4% (757 to 784); teachers up 12% (55 to 61.4).
About Odessa Shannon Middle
Odessa Shannon Middle is one of the public schools in Silver Spring, Maryland. It is a medium-sized middle school. Enrolled students number 784 students, in grades 6 through 8.
Odessa Shannon Middle is one school in Montgomery County Public Schools, a system of 208 schools with 159,181 students.
A majority of students at Odessa Shannon Middle, 63%, are Hispanic. Next come 24% Black, 6% Asian, 4% White, and 2% multiracial. The county population is about 21% Hispanic. Odessa Shannon Middle has a diversity index of 53%, compared with 70% for all US public school students.
The school's student-to-teacher ratio is about 12.8:1, with 61.4 full-time-equivalent teachers. Among middle schools in Maryland, the typical ratio is 14.3:1. Lunch subsidy eligibility at Odessa Shannon Middle is 56%. On average, public schools in Montgomery County report 40%.
The allk12 Grade for Odessa Shannon Middle is D. Compared with Maryland public middle schools, the school scored higher than 6% on a mix of test scores, poverty-adjusted results, and recent trend.
BeatsExpectations compares each school's average proficiency rate on state tests with a prediction based on free or reduced-price lunch eligibility. Odessa Shannon Middle posts 23.6% against a 41.3% prediction, a bottom-10% result in Maryland.
Montgomery County has about 1,065,949 residents, and median household income is about $132,450, about 61% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and roughly 5% of residents are in poverty. Federal data list 211 public schools in Montgomery County, with a combined enrollment of about 159,181.
Nearest public school: Arcola Elementary, about 0.6 miles away. Other public schools within five miles: at least 8. Odessa Shannon Middle is 8th of 8 nearby schools by average proficiency rate.
Federal data place Odessa Shannon Middle in the Suburb: Large locale, which means it is in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
The school's size has been steady, with 795 students in 2020-21 and 784 in 2024-25.
The allk12 site hosts a discussion page for Odessa Shannon Middle covering things like enrollment questions, class placement, and PTA news. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.
Montgomery County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
1,065,949
Census ACS
Median income
$132,450
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
61%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
5%
Below federal line
Schools in county
211
159,181 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Montgomery County Public Schools
- Montgomery Blair HighHigh · 3,266 students
- Walter Johnson HighHigh · 3,016 students
- Wheaton HighHigh · 2,794 students
- Gaithersburg HighHigh · 2,441 students
- Seneca Valley HighHigh · 2,409 students
- Bethesda-Chevy Chase HighHigh · 2,377 students
Other schools in Silver Spring
- Montgomery Blair HighHigh · 3,266 students
- Wheaton HighHigh · 2,794 students
- James Hubert Blake HighHigh · 1,960 students
- John F. Kennedy HighHigh · 1,880 students
- Springbrook HighHigh · 1,838 students
- Takoma Park MiddleMiddle · 1,177 students
Nearby schools
- Arcola Elementary0.6 mi · 747
- Kemp Mill Elementary0.8 mi · 412
- Glenallan Elementary1.0 mi · 679
- Glen Haven Elementary1.1 mi · 540
- John F. Kennedy High1.2 mi · 1,880
- Forest Knolls Elementary1.2 mi · 472
Frequently asked questions
About Odessa Shannon MiddleHow many students attend Odessa Shannon Middle?
Odessa Shannon Middle enrolls approximately 784 students in grades 06-08.
What age range does Odessa Shannon Middle serve?
Odessa Shannon Middle serves students from grade 06 through grade 08.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Odessa Shannon Middle?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Odessa Shannon Middle is approximately 12.8:1 (61 FTE teachers).
What is the racial breakdown of students at Odessa Shannon Middle?
At Odessa Shannon Middle, the student body is approximately 4% White, 63% Hispanic, 24% Black, 6% Asian, 2% Two or more.
Who oversees Odessa Shannon Middle?
Odessa Shannon Middle is overseen by Montgomery County Public Schools in Montgomery County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.