Are you relocating to the Pentagon, or perhaps Andrews AFB or Fort Meade. and trying to decide where to live  in the D.C - Baltimore - Annapolis area?  Now your choice of where to focus your home search will be much easier because an unbiased source has rated public school systems throughout the country, including Maryland, Virginia, and D.C.

According to Education Week's Annual Quality Counts Report for 2009, Maryland Public Schools top all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Criteria for this ranking by the education publication included:

1. Chance for Success
2. Transitions and alignments
3. School finance
4. K-12 achievement
5. Standards, assessments, and accountability

In fact, Maryland ranked number one in transitions and alignment policies, which measures a State’s ability to connect the K-12 education system with early learning, higher education and the workforce.  The state also achieved a grade of 100 for early-childhood education, 90 for college readiness, and 100 for her economy and workforce.

Maryland moved up from 3rd last year, while schools in neighboring Virginia advanced from #5 to #4 since the 2008 report.  Maryland's score of 84.7 and Virginia's 83.2 are significantly above the national score of 76.2.  Even at Number 1, however, Maryland has room for improvement because no state scored "A" in the ranking.

If you'd like to find out how the public school system ranked in your state compared to Maryland or a neighboring state, you can click on this map with it's list of scores for every state.

Military personnel and others relocating to the D.C.-Baltimore-Annapolis Triangle can be easily overwhelmed at the hugeness of this area.  Deciding between Maryland, Virginia and D.C. is the first step to choosing a community, and perhaps this chart (Education Week) will help you do that:

For information about schools in the Greater Crofton Area, check out these earlier articles.

Photos:  School, Margaret Woda;  Students, istockphoto.com
Source of Data for Chart:  Education Week