Skip to main content

Mobile Navigation

  • National
    • Policy
      • High Expectations
      • Quality Choices
      • Personalized Pathways
    • Research
    • Commentary
      • Gadfly Newsletter
      • Gadfly Podcast
      • Flypaper Blog
      • Events
    • Covid-19
    • Scholars Program
  • Ohio
    • Policy
      • Priorities
      • Media & Testimony
    • Research
    • Commentary
      • Ohio Education Gadfly Biweekly
      • Ohio Gadfly Daily
  • Charter Authorizing
    • Application
    • Sponsored Schools
    • Resources
    • Our Work in Dayton
  • About
    • Mission
    • Board
    • Staff
    • Career
Home
Home
Advancing Educational Excellence

Main Navigation

  • National
  • Ohio
  • Charter Authorizing
  • About

National Menu

  • Topics
    • Accountability & Testing
    • Career & Technical Education
    • Charter Schools
    • Curriculum & Instruction
    • ESSA
    • Evidence-Based Learning
    • Facilities
    • Governance
    • High Achievers
    • Personalized Learning
    • Private School Choice
    • School Finance
    • Standards
    • Teachers & School Leaders
  • Research
  • Commentary
    • Gadfly Newsletter
    • Flypaper Blog
    • Gadfly Podcast
    • Events
  • COVID-19
  • Scholars Program
Flypaper

The twenty-five richest elementary schools in the richest region of the country

Michael J. Petrilli
10.17.2014

There are many fascinating pieces of information you can gleam from the Fordham Institute’s new Metro D.C. School Spending Explorer website, most especially estimates of per-pupil expenditures at each inside-the-Beltway public school. But did you know that you can also learn about the relative wealth of each school’s attendance zone? Once you get to the site, plug in the name of a school and click on “Household Income.” (See below for an explanation of our methodology.)

I was curious about the wealthiest attendance zones in the area; they are printed below. I just looked at elementary schools, since their zones are smaller. We were not able to do the analysis for the District of Columbia. (Maybe a handful of west-of-the-park D.C. schools would have made the list, but I doubt it, thanks to the preponderance of apartment buildings in their attendance zones.)

The twenty-five richest elementary schools in the Washington suburbs 

(Click here for more information on each school)

School

City

Average Neighborhood Income

Students

Per Pupil Expenditures

Carderock Springs Elementary

Bethesda

$244,439.81

368

$12,178.64

Potomac Elementary

Potomac

$222,365.92

518

$10,952.52

Seven Locks Elementary

Bethesda

$215,024.58

321

$11,404.86

Forestville Elementary

Great Falls

$204,705.86

694

$10,063.43

Great Falls Elementary

Great Falls

$203,882.98

572

$11,547.19

Churchill Road Elementary

McLean

$203,110.59

819

$9,523.05

Jamestown Elementary

Arlington

$202,443.25

597

$12,016.5

Sangster Elementary

Springfield

$199,042.84

854

$10,247.13

Spring Hill Elementary

McLean

$197,077.91

972

$9,709.62

Travilah Elementary

North Potomac

$194,337.94

430

$11,834.92

Wayside Elementary

Potomac

$193,800.33

576

$11,364.55

Fairview Elementary

Fairfax Station

$192,026.72

728

$10,690.23

Chesterbrook Elementary

McLean

$191,489.33

655

$10,316.02

Colvin Run Elementary

Vienna

$189,581.34

859

$10,068.48

Burning Tree Elementary

Bethesda

$188,569.11

497

$12,956.62

Bradley Hills Elementary

Bethesda

$188,482.98

523

$9,066.93

Bannockburn Elementary

Bethesda

$185,179.95

361

$10,384.37

Flint Hill Elementary

Vienna

$183,802.56

689

$9,956.24

Crossfield Elementary

Herndon

$180,600.84

777

$10,656.65

Navy Elementary

Fairfax

$177,145.58

800

$10,431.82

Bells Mill Elementary

Potomac

$176,878.88

560

$11,091.39

Poplar Tree Elementary

Chantilly

$174,522.58

668

$12,298.63

Wood Acres Elementary

Bethesda

$173,659.09

739

$9,310.52

Silverbrook Elementary

Fairfax Station

$172,933.45

733

$10,328.64

Oak View Elementary

Fairfax

$172,749.05

743

$10,497.73

Nothing on this list should be terribly surprising—save for the eye-popping numbers on average household income. These schools are overwhelming populated by white and Asian middle-class and upper-middle-class students. Still, some of the variation is interesting, particularly when it comes to the percentage of students classified as special-education (from a low of 6 percent to a high of 15 percent). And a handful of the schools—such as Bells Mill in Potomac—at least have some degree of socio-economic diversity.

Several years ago, Janie Scull and I identified several thousand of what we called “private public schools”—public schools that serve virtually no poor students. This is another way at looking at that phenomenon—public schools that are “public” only for families who can buy extremely expensive real estate.

Take Carderock Springs Elementary in Bethesda. The average income of households in its attendance zone is almost $250,000 per year. Is this school really more “public” than an inner-city Catholic school serving poor minority children? The public spends $12,000 per child on the former and $0 per child on the latter. Tell me again why that’s fair?

Methods

Income data were calculated by Fordham’s Matt Richmond using 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data on household income and geographic data on school catchment areas (obtained from each district's central office). To estimate household income for each school, we calculated the overlap between the school's catchment area and each census tract. Household income data were then weighted based on the percentage of the catchment area covered by each tract and then averaged. 

Michael J. Petrilli is president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, executive editor of Education Next, and a Distinguished Senior Fellow for Education Commission of the States. An award-winning writer…

View Full Bio

Sign Up to Receive Fordham Updates

We'll send you quality research, commentary, analysis, and news on the education issues you care about.
Thank you for signing up!
Please check your email to confirm the subscription.
Fordham Logo

© 2020 The Thomas B. Fordham Institute
Privacy Policy
Usage Agreement

National

1016 16th St NW, 8th Floor 
Washington, DC 20036

202.223.5452

[email protected]

  • <
Ohio

P.O. Box 82291
Columbus, OH 43202

614.223.1580

[email protected]

Sponsorship

130 West Second Street, Suite 410
Dayton, Ohio 45402

937.227.3368

[email protected]