Research · High schools - Maryland · October 2026

How Many High Schools Are in Maryland? 274 Public and 189 Private

Name: How Many High Schools Are in Maryland? 274 Public and 189 Private
Creator: Test Prep Gurus (High School Reach)
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

As of October 2026: Maryland has 463 high schools: 274 public and 189 private. The largest is Montgomery Blair High in Silver Spring, with 3,266 students in grades 9 through 12.

The table lists the 15 largest public high schools in Maryland by the number of students in grades 9 through 12.

Analysis: Test Prep Gurus (High School Reach, highschoolreach.com), October 2026. Figures and the table may be quoted with attribution to Test Prep Gurus.

The findings, in plain English

Maryland has 463 high schools. 274 are public and 189 are private. The 251 public high schools that report enrollment hold 277,275 students in grades 9 through 12 between them. The private count is a floor, because the federal private school survey is voluntary and a school can skip it.

Montgomery Blair High is the largest public high school in Maryland. It enrolls 3,266 students in grades 9 through 12 in Silver Spring. The 15th largest school on the table, Northwest High in Germantown, enrolls 2,300. None of the 15 largest are charter schools.

The largest private high school in Maryland is Archbishop Spalding High School. It enrolls 1,304 students in Severn. That is smaller than every public school on the table above. Private schools report total enrollment to the federal survey, so a school that also teaches younger grades counts those students too. Only schools whose lowest grade is 9 are listed here, so each one is a high school.

The 15 largest public high schools in Maryland

Ranked by the number of students in grades 9 through 12.

High school	City	Students in grades 9-12	Charter
Montgomery Blair High	Silver Spring	3,266	No
Walter Johnson High	Bethesda	3,016	No
High Point High	Beltsville	3,012	No
Wheaton High	Silver Spring	2,794	No
Charles Herbert Flowers High	Springdale	2,712	No
Parkdale High	Riverdale	2,587	No
Bowie High	Bowie	2,580	No
Eleanor Roosevelt High	Greenbelt	2,544	No
Duval High	Lanham	2,522	No
Gaithersburg High	Gaithersburg	2,441	No
Seneca Valley High	Germantown	2,409	No
Northwestern High	Hyattsville	2,396	No
Bethesda-Chevy Chase High	Bethesda	2,377	No
Richard Montgomery High	Rockville	2,366	No
Northwest High	Germantown	2,300	No

NCES Common Core of Data, grade 9-12 enrollment. Virtual schools are excluded. Absence from this list means a school is not among the largest, nothing more.

The largest private high schools in Maryland

Private schools whose lowest grade is 9, by total enrollment.

High school	City	Students
Archbishop Spalding High School	Severn	1,304
Archbishop Spalding High School	Severn	1,292
Our Lady of Good Counsel High School	Olney	1,256
Calvert Hall College High School	Baltimore	1,172
Bishop Mcnamara High School	Forestville	872

NCES Private School Universe Survey 2021-22, respondents only. Total enrollment, not a grades 9-12 count.

What these counts cover

A high school here is a school that serves grade 12. Virtual schools are left out, because a school with no building is not comparable to one with a campus. Public counts come from the federal Common Core of Data, which every public district reports to. Private counts come from the federal Private School Universe Survey.

Enrollment for public schools is the number of students in grades 9 through 12, so a school that also teaches middle school grades is not inflated by them. A school that reports no enrollment figure is counted in the state total but cannot be ranked, which is why the number of schools with an enrollment figure is smaller than the public count.

Private high schools in Maryland

The private table below shows the largest private high schools whose lowest grade is 9. The survey is voluntary, so treat these as the largest among the schools that answered, not a complete ranking. A private school that declines the survey does not appear at all.

Private enrollment is a total, not a grades 9 through 12 count, because the survey does not break it out the same way. Limiting the list to schools that start at grade 9 keeps the figures comparable to each other.

What a family should do with this

Size is a starting point, not a verdict. A large school usually offers more courses, more sports and more clubs, and a small school usually gives a student more contact with the adults who write recommendation letters. Both shapes send students to good colleges.

The more useful question is where a school's own graduates actually go. Our page for each Maryland high school carries that school's figures and, where the school publishes one, its own numbered list of the colleges its graduates chose. Start from the school page rather than from the size of the building.

Questions parents ask

How many high schools are in Maryland?

Maryland has 463 high schools: 274 public and 189 private. The largest is Montgomery Blair High in Silver Spring, with 3,266 students in grades 9 through 12.

What is the largest high school in Maryland?

It enrolls 3,266 students in grades 9 through 12 in Silver Spring.

Are private high schools included in the Maryland count?

274 are public and 189 are private. The private count is a floor, because the federal private school survey is voluntary and a school can skip it.

Method & sources: Public school counts and grade 9-12 enrollment come from the NCES Common Core of Data; private counts and enrollment come from the NCES Private School Universe Survey, whose respondents are a floor. A high school is a school serving grade 12; virtual schools are excluded. The public table is ranked by grade 9-12 enrollment, and schools without an enrollment figure are counted in the state total but not ranked.

This brief as data: /research/high-schools-in-maryland.json. Free for editorial use with attribution to Test Prep Gurus (High School Reach).