NCES CCD 2024-25 5 schools MD

Best-Resourced Schools in Damascus, MD

Compiled from official source data by .

5 public K-12 schools in Damascus from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.

PlainSchools home → About this data
5
Schools
3,621
Students
44.4/100
Avg Resource Index
13.6:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

One campus shapes the city average

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Damascus has more public-school enrollment than 38% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Damascus High enrolls 38.4% of Damascus's public-school students. That is enough concentration for one institution to pull the citywide enrollment, staffing, and Resource Index averages toward its own profile. The smaller campuses below should therefore be compared directly rather than inferred from the headline mean; their grade configurations and program footprints can be materially different even inside the same district.

Combined-grade campuses shape the local portfolio

2 of Damascus's 5 listed schools use NCES's combined or “other” grade-level classification. Citywide averages therefore blend campuses serving unusually broad or nonstandard grade spans with conventional elementary, middle, and high schools. Grade configuration is a first-order comparison here, not a minor label.

Campus spread matters more than the city mean

The 9-point gap between John T. Baker Middle School and Clearspring Elementary shows the range hidden by Damascus's average Resource Investment Index. The city figure is useful for national placement, but families ultimately choose among campuses with different grade spans, enrollment, district affiliations, and reported support fields. Start with schools serving the relevant grade level, then compare the index components rather than assuming the city average describes any one classroom.

City enrollment
Top 62%
School count
Top 99%
Resource Index average
68th percentile
Teacher staffing
72nd percentile

Damascus High accounts for 38.4% of all Damascus public-school enrollment

That dominant concentration means Damascus-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade level: High. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how districts allocate programs, capital, or staff. Enrollment-weighted aggregates give this entity more weight than any smaller peer, while an unweighted entity average treats every record equally.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Damascus school enrollment varies 4.2× across entities

Damascus school enrollment ranges from 331 students (lowest) to 1,390 students (highest), a spread of 1,059 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous school portfolio for a city this size. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Damascus operates one school district — a single-district system

Damascus's listed schools share one district boundary, budget authority, and reporting chain. That makes citywide and districtwide governance easier to compare, but it does not make individual campuses uniform: grade configuration, staffing, programs, and student need can still vary materially within the same school district.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Damascus student-teacher ratio is 13.6:1 — low (typically associated with smaller schools or per-school staffing investment that often correlates with stronger per-student supports)

student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

# School Score
1. John T. Baker Middle School 49
2. Damascus High 48
3. Lois P. Rockwell Elementary 44
4. Damascus Elementary 41
5. Clearspring Elementary 40

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Damascus

Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.

  1. 1 Clearspring Elementary 77.2/100
  2. 2 Lois P. Rockwell Elementary 73.7/100
  3. 3 Damascus High 72.7/100
  4. 4 John T. Baker Middle School 70.9/100
  5. 5 Damascus Elementary 66.6/100

What do families ask about schools in Damascus?

Which Damascus school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

John T. Baker Middle School has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Damascus schools in this federal-data comparison at 49/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Damascus, MD? ▼

Damascus has 5 public schools with a total enrollment of 3,621 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 13.6:1.

Other Cities in Maryland

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273 schools
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52 schools
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Gaithersburg
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Side-by-side: Compare any two schools or districts in Maryland →

Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio, counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes: verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.