Brookhaven Elementary vs Cashell Elementary

Cashell Elementary holds a 0.7-point overall rating edge over Brookhaven Elementary — 9.6 versus 8.9 out of 10 — but the state rank gap tells a sharper story: Cashell Elementary sits at #7 of 1,363 Maryland elementary schools, while Brookhaven Elementary ranks #80 of 1,363. Both are genuinely strong schools separated by only 3.8 miles in Rockville, but Cashell occupies a tier that fewer than one percent of Maryland schools reach.

Academically, the gap is concrete: Cashell Elementary scores 9.6 out of 10 versus Brookhaven Elementary's 8.2, a 1.4-point difference that places Cashell among the state's highest performers in tested proficiency. The growth scores are closer — Cashell Elementary at 9.5 versus Brookhaven Elementary at 9.0 — meaning Brookhaven students are also making strong year-over-year progress, just from a lower proficiency baseline. Families weighting both absolute achievement and student growth will find Cashell ahead on each measure, but Brookhaven's 9.0 growth score is not a weakness; it trails by half a point.

Brookhaven Elementary enrolls 426 students compared to Cashell Elementary's 342, making it the larger of the two. Brookhaven's student-teacher ratio is actually tighter at 11.2:1 versus Cashell's 12.2:1, which gives Brookhaven a marginal staffing advantage per pupil. The free and reduced lunch rates diverge significantly: 58% at Brookhaven Elementary versus 28% at Cashell Elementary. Brookhaven serves a substantially higher share of economically disadvantaged families, and its 9.0 growth score in that context reflects meaningful instructional performance under more complex demographic conditions.

Both schools serve grades PK through 5, so grade-range and school-entry timing are equivalent decisions for families with young children. No program-level or magnet distinctions appear in the available data — the choice reduces to the rating and academic gaps above, plus the equity and staffing differences. Cashell's #7 statewide ranking makes it an outlier by any measure, while Brookhaven's #80 rank still places it in the top 6% of all Maryland elementary schools.