Running Brook Elementary

Running Brook Elementary is an elementary campus of cozy scale in Columbia, Maryland, operated by Howard County Public Schools, instructing 407 students in grades pre-K through 5.

Howard County Public Schools runs 77 schools in total, collectively educating 57,565 students. Running Brook Elementary is one of those campuses.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Running Brook Elementary logs that 51% of students identify as Black, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups. The remainder comes out to 16% White, 15% Hispanic, 9% Asian, 7% multiracial. By comparison, Howard County as a whole is about 20% Black, so the school skews meaningfully more Black than its surroundings.

On the resource side, The school reports having 43 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 9.5:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 13.8:1, putting Running Brook Elementary tighter than the state norm the norm. About 53% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. That share is noticeably above Howard County's rate of about 27%.

With demographic context factored in, Running Brook Elementary tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 43.0% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 39.7%.

In the surrounding community, Howard County reports that median household earnings sit near $149,763, 65% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 4%. In all, Howard County runs 78 public schools (combined enrollment of about 57,565 students), of which Running Brook Elementary is one.

Bryant Woods Elementary is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.7 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Running Brook Elementary. On composite proficiency, Running Brook Elementary comes 6th of 9 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 41.9%.

Running Brook Elementary operates from an inner-city location.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Running Brook Elementary has decreased 18%, going from 497 students in 2018 to 407 in 2025. Black enrollment moved from 58% to 51% across the same window.

In the discussion threads here, the feed for Running Brook Elementary typically covers fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.