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Does Walt Whitman High have enough mental health and stress support?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
2,056
High
DISTRICT 2,003 · STATE 1,185
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·MONTGOMERY COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS·NCES 240048000941
Walt Whitman High
7100 Whittier Blvd, Bethesda, MD 20817 · (240) 740-4800 · Montgomery County
GRADES 09–12HIGH13-CITYREGULAR SCHOOL2,056 STUDENTS
A-
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 82% of Maryland public high schools
- A+Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- CBeats 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 high schools
Student : Teacher
17.9:1
115 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 15.8:1 · STATE 15.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
7%
144 students
DISTRICT 40% · STATE 54%
Community
5
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other high schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 9 | 494 | 24% |
| Grade 10 | 497 | 24% |
| Grade 11 | 519 | 25% |
| Grade 12 | 546 | 27% |
Student demographics
63%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
88.7%
MD avg 50.6% . +2.7pp since 2023
Math
20.5%
MD avg 34.8% . -11.3pp since 2023
What this means: On the MCAP, Maryland's statewide test, about 89 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 21 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 down about 11 points.
MCAP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 88.7% | 20.5% |
| 2023-24 | 86.0% | 31.8% |
% 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
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of MD schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
56.8%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
70.1%
based on MD schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-13.3pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 57% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 70% 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 Walt Whitman High
Walt Whitman High's state test result (56.8% proficient) is higher than 4 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Walt Whitman High this school | 2,056 | 7.0% | 56.8% |
| Glenelg High Glenelg | 1,363 | 10.2% | 54.2% |
| Urbana High Ijamsville | 1,989 | 16.5% | 66.9% |
| Oakdale High Ijamsville | 1,702 | 17.6% | 55.9% |
| Crofton High School Gambrills | 1,906 | 17.3% | 55.1% |
| Walter Johnson High Bethesda | 3,016 | 19.8% | 47.8% |
Matched among Maryland high 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 Walt Whitman High ranks
Among high schools| Measure | This school | In Maryland | In Montgomery County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 56.8% | #9 of 203 | #1 of 25 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 20.5% | #37 of 206 ▼ 25 | #3 of 25 ▼ 2 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 88.7% | #12 of 206 ▼ 2 | #2 of 25 no change |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 2,056 | #29 of 234 | #12 of 26 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 17.9:1 | #165 of 210 | #21 of 25 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 62.6% | #77 of 211 | #19 of 25 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 7.0% | #211 of 212 | #25 of 25 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -1.4% | #69 of 76 | #7 of 7 |
Ranked against other public high 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
2,056
+65 (+3%) vs 2020
+52% since 1990-91, when it was 1,357
Student : Teacher
17.9:1
was 17.8:1
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 | 2,056 | 115.2 | 17.9:1 | 7% (144) |
| 2023-24 | 2,042 | 117.6 | 17.4:1 | 6% (129) |
| 2022-23 | 2,018 | 116.8 | 17.3:1 | 6% (111) |
| 2020-21 | 1,991 | 112 | 17.8:1 | 2% (49) |
| 2017-18 | 2,085 | 120 | 17.4:1 | 2% (49) |
| 2015-16 | 1,977 | 112 | 17.6:1 | 2% (44) |
| 2010-11 | 1,951 | 113 | 17.3:1 | 2% (38) |
| 2000-01 | 1,768 | 101 | 17.5:1 | 2% (32) |
| 1990-91 | 1,357 | 77 | 17.6:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Walt Whitman High.
Since 2017-18: students down 1% (2,085 to 2,056); teachers down 4% (120 to 115.2).
About Walt Whitman High
The public high school Walt Whitman High is located in Bethesda, Maryland. The school's 2,056 students are in grades 9 through 12. Statewide, high schools in Maryland average about 1,185 students each.
Montgomery County Public Schools (208 schools, 159,181 students) runs Walt Whitman High.
White students are the majority at Walt Whitman High, with 57% of enrollment. Other groups include 16% Asian, 13% Hispanic, 9% multiracial, and 6% Black. The county population is about 42% White. Pick two students at random and there is a 63% chance they belong to different racial or ethnic groups; that figure is the school's diversity index.
Walt Whitman High employs 115.2 full-time-equivalent teachers. That gives a ratio of about 17.9:1. This ratio sits 2.6 above the 15.3:1 average for high schools in Maryland. Free or reduced-price lunch eligibility was 7% in 2024-25. That is lower than the 40% average for public schools in Montgomery County.
Measured against Maryland public high schools, Walt Whitman High receives an A-. The grade weighs proficiency most heavily, then how results compare with what the school's low-income share predicts, then the three-year change.
Walt Whitman High scores 13.3 points below its predicted average proficiency rate on state tests: 56.8% actual versus 70.1% predicted. That puts it in the bottom 10% of Maryland schools on BeatsExpectations.
Within Montgomery County, the median household income is $132,450, 61% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 5% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Besides Walt Whitman High, Montgomery County has 210 other public schools.
The shortest distance from Walt Whitman High to another public school is about 0.5 miles, to Thomas W. Pyle Middle. Other public schools within five miles: at least 8. The school's 56.8% average proficiency ranks 9th among 9 nearby schools.
NCES describes the area around Walt Whitman High as City: Small, meaning inside a principal city with a population under 100,000.
Walt Whitman High's enrollment grew from 1,991 in 2020-21 to 2,056 in 2024-25.
Discussions about Walt Whitman High may include science fairs, picture day, and bus routes. Alumni can share how the school prepared them.
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 Bethesda
- Walter Johnson HighHigh · 3,016 students
- Bethesda-Chevy Chase HighHigh · 2,377 students
- Thomas W. Pyle MiddleMiddle · 1,259 students
- North Bethesda MiddleMiddle · 1,224 students
- Ashburton ElementaryElementary · 871 students
- Westland MiddleMiddle · 839 students
Other Walt Whitman High schools
One other US public school is named Walt Whitman High. Walt Whitman High is the largest of the 2.
- WALT WHITMAN HIGH SCHOOLHUNTINGTON STATION, NY · 1,939 students
Nearby schools
- Thomas W. Pyle Middle0.5 mi · 1,259
- Bannockburn Elementary0.7 mi · 446
- Burning Tree Elementary1.0 mi · 479
- Wood Acres Elementary1.1 mi · 609
- Bradley Hills Elementary1.3 mi · 474
- Bethesda Elementary1.5 mi · 645
Frequently asked questions
About Walt Whitman HighHow many students attend Walt Whitman High?
Walt Whitman High enrolls approximately 2,056 students in grades 09-12.
Is Walt Whitman High an elementary, middle, or high school?
Walt Whitman High is a high school covering grades 09-12.
How many students per teacher at Walt Whitman High?
Approximately 17.9:1 students per teacher at Walt Whitman High.
What is the student diversity at Walt Whitman High?
Student demographics at Walt Whitman High are roughly 57% White, 13% Hispanic, 6% Black, 16% Asian, 9% Two or more.
Is Walt Whitman High public or private?
Walt Whitman High is a public K-12 school, overseen by Montgomery County Public Schools.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.