NCES CCD 2024-25 8 schools MD

Best-Resourced Schools in Potomac, MD

Compiled from official source data by .

8 public K-12 schools in Potomac 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
8
Schools
6,496
Students
52.4/100
Avg Resource Index
16.4:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Middle-of-corpus city profile

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Potomac has more public-school enrollment than 67% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Potomac sits in the broad middle of the national city distribution rather than at a single obvious extreme. Its scale, average Resource Investment Index, and staffing position need to be read together: a middle placement on one measure does not cancel a stronger or weaker result on another. The percentile panel makes those dimensions explicit, and the school table shows where the city aggregate breaks into materially different campus profiles.

A full K–12 ladder sits inside the city boundary

Potomac's list includes 2 elementary, 2 middle, and 1 high-school campus, plus 3 combined-grade records. The city average spans every major grade stage, so the ranked table is more informative when read within level than as one interchangeable queue.

One district, but meaningful resource variation

Potomac's schools share one district authority while their average Resource Investment Index ranks at the 92nd percentile among listed cities. Shared governance removes one source of policy variation, but it does not erase campus differences by grade span or enrollment. The 16-point gap between Cabin John Middle and Potomac Elementary measures the remaining local spread. Use the district-level picture for common budget context, then compare the school components to see whether staffing, counseling, gifted-program reporting, or attendance accounts for each campus's position.

City enrollment
Top 33%
School count
Top 54%
Resource Index average
92nd percentile
Teacher staffing
39th percentile

Winston Churchill High accounts for 33.6% of all Potomac public-school enrollment

That dominant concentration means Potomac-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

Potomac school enrollment varies 6.0× across entities

Potomac school enrollment ranges from 362 students (lowest) to 2,185 students (highest), a spread of 1,823 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

Potomac operates one school district — a single-district system

Potomac'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

Potomac student-teacher ratio is 16.4:1 — near the typical range (US average ~15.7) — citywide staffing is neither unusually lean nor unusually crowded by this measure

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 Variation between sub-units within Potomac is typically wider than the Potomac-aggregate figure suggests.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

# School Score
1. Cabin John Middle 61
2. Herbert Hoover Middle 60
3. Cold Spring Elementary 55
4. Winston Churchill High 54
5. Wayside Elementary 50
6. Bells Mill Elementary 47
7. Beverly Farms Elementary 47
8. Potomac Elementary 45

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Potomac

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 Bells Mill Elementary 72.0/100
  2. 2 Cabin John Middle 71.7/100
  3. 3 Potomac Elementary 70.9/100
  4. 4 Winston Churchill High 70.6/100
  5. 5 Herbert Hoover Middle 70.4/100

What do families ask about schools in Potomac?

Which Potomac school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

Cabin John Middle has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Potomac schools in this federal-data comparison at 61/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Potomac, MD? ▼

Potomac has 8 public schools with a total enrollment of 6,496 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 16.4:1.

Other Cities in Maryland

Baltimore
273 schools
Silver Spring
52 schools
Rockville
35 schools
Frederick
30 schools
Gaithersburg
29 schools
Columbia
23 schools

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.