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What's the state of after-school transportation at Thunder Hill Elementary?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
459
Elementary
DISTRICT 614 · STATE 481
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·HOWARD COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS·NCES 240042000757
Thunder Hill Elementary
9357 Mellenbrook Rd, Columbia, MD 21045 · (410) 313-6922 · Howard County
GRADES KG–05ELEMENTARY12-CITYREGULAR SCHOOL459 STUDENTS
C+
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 41% of Maryland public elementary schools
- BTest 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
11.7:1
39 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 12.7:1 · STATE 13.8:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
38%
173 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten | 75 | 16% |
| Grade 1 | 72 | 16% |
| Grade 2 | 72 | 16% |
| Grade 3 | 79 | 17% |
| Grade 4 | 75 | 16% |
| Grade 5 | 86 | 19% |
This year's kindergarten class (75) is 13% smaller than its 5th grade class (86).
Student demographics
77%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
55.7%
MD avg 50.6% . +4.6pp since 2023
Math
44.3%
MD avg 34.8% . +3.5pp since 2023
What this means: On the MCAP, Maryland's statewide test, about 56 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 44 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 5 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 4 points.
MCAP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 55.7% | 44.3% |
| 2023-24 | 51.1% | 40.8% |
% 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
48.0%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
51.9%
based on MD schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-3.9pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 48% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 52% 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 Thunder Hill Elementary
Thunder Hill Elementary's state test result (48.0% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thunder Hill Elementary this school | 459 | 37.7% | 48.0% |
| College Gardens Elementary Rockville | 506 | 43.3% | 63.6% |
| Brooke Grove Elementary Olney | 390 | 34.9% | 45.6% |
| Stonegate Elementary Silver Spring | 565 | 34.5% | 56.4% |
| Cloverly Elementary Silver Spring | 429 | 37.5% | 59.3% |
| Clearspring Elementary Damascus | 541 | 42.3% | 57.6% |
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 Thunder Hill Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Maryland | In Howard County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 48.0% | #361 of 853 | #29 of 42 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 44.3% | #373 of 853 ▲ 24 | #30 of 42 ▲ 4 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 55.7% | #346 of 853 ▲ 5 | #27 of 42 ▲ 3 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 459 | #477 of 898 | #33 of 42 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 11.7:1 | #145 of 857 | #12 of 42 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 77.1% | #7 of 857 | #1 of 42 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 37.7% | #642 of 885 | #18 of 42 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -15.6% | #217 of 551 | #8 of 26 |
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
459
-22 (-5%) vs 2020
+11% since 1990-91, when it was 413
Student : Teacher
11.7:1
was 12.7:1
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 | 459 | 39.3 | 11.7:1 | 38% (173) |
| 2023-24 | 454 | 37.1 | 12.2:1 | 34% (155) |
| 2022-23 | 472 | 37.3 | 12.7:1 | 40% (188) |
| 2020-21 | 481 | 38 | 12.7:1 | 25% (118) |
| 2017-18 | 544 | 40 | 13.6:1 | 16% (85) |
| 2015-16 | 559 | 43 | 13.0:1 | 18% (103) |
| 2010-11 | 370 | 27 | 13.7:1 | 6% (23) |
| 2000-01 | 394 | 27 | 14.6:1 | 2% (9) |
| 1990-91 | 413 | 24 | 17.2:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Thunder Hill Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students down 16% (544 to 459); teachers down 2% (40 to 39.3).
About Thunder Hill Elementary
A mid-sized elementary school in Columbia, Maryland, Thunder Hill Elementary is part of Howard County Public Schools. Its grade span covers kindergarten through 5, with 459 students on the rolls.
Howard County Public Schools (77 schools, 57,565 students) runs Thunder Hill Elementary.
The largest racial or ethnic group at Thunder Hill Elementary is Black, with 31% of students. Next come 23% White, 21% Hispanic, 16% Asian, and 8% multiracial. The county population is about 20% Black. On the diversity index, which measures the chance that two random students are from different groups, Thunder Hill Elementary scores 77%.
The student-to-teacher ratio is 11.7:1. The school has 39.3 full-time-equivalent teachers. The gap from the 13.8:1 average for elementary schools in Maryland is 2.2 students per teacher. In all, 38% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Compared with the 27% average for public schools in Howard County, the school's rate is higher.
Among Maryland public elementary schools, Thunder Hill Elementary outscored 41%, which works out to a C+ on the allk12 Grade.
Thunder Hill Elementary's average proficiency rate across its state test results of 48.0% is 3.9 points below the 51.9% the model predicts from its lunch-eligibility share.
In the wider Howard County area, median household income comes to about $149,763, 65% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 4% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Howard County counts 78 public schools with about 57,565 students.
A public school about 1.0 miles away, Phelps Luck Elementary, is the closest to Thunder Hill Elementary. In all, at least 8 other public schools sit within five miles of Thunder Hill Elementary. On proficiency, Thunder Hill Elementary is ahead of the 44.3% nearby average, ranking 4th of 9.
Thunder Hill Elementary is coded as City: Mid-size in federal locale data.
Enrollment figures show a decline of 22 students from 2020-21 to 2024-25.
You can use this page to share news and ask questions about open houses, carpools, and field trips. You can also rate the school on this page.
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
Nearby schools
- Phelps Luck Elementary1.0 mi · 681
- Howard High1.2 mi · 1,493
- Talbott Springs Elementary1.2 mi · 461
- Running Brook Elementary1.2 mi · 407
- Oakland Mills High1.4 mi · 1,413
- Oakland Mills Middle1.6 mi · 415
Frequently asked questions
About Thunder Hill ElementaryHow many students attend Thunder Hill Elementary?
Thunder Hill Elementary enrolls approximately 459 students in grades KG-05.
What grades does Thunder Hill Elementary serve?
Thunder Hill Elementary serves grades KG-05.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Thunder Hill Elementary?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Thunder Hill Elementary is approximately 11.7:1 (39 FTE teachers).
What is the racial breakdown of students at Thunder Hill Elementary?
At Thunder Hill Elementary, the student body is approximately 23% White, 21% Hispanic, 31% Black, 16% Asian, 8% Two or more.
Is Thunder Hill Elementary public or private?
Thunder Hill 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.