Frederick Douglass High School

8000 Croom Road

Upper Marlboro, MD 20772

School District

Prince George's County Public Schools
Grade

9-12
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:15
Type

public

School Map for Prince George's County Public Schools

GreatSchools Rating

The school rating calculation is based on four ratings: the Student Progress Rating or Academic Progress Rating, College Readiness Rating, Equity Rating, and Test Score Rating each designed to show different facets of school success. Learn more about GreatSchools Ratings

Reviews

Submitted by parent on December 09, 2024

From the moment I entered the school, the staff, kids and administrators treated us kindly and welcomed all our questions.
Submitted by parent on January 23, 2024

I love Douglass. I have had 2 children graduate from Douglass, 1 child and 1 niece are still attending. For the most part staff are responsive to emails and for the very few who aren’t administration will support with getting a response. Douglass has a family feel environment. Most of the students are friendly. There are plenty of extra curricular activities afterschool. My children have participated in art/anime club, photography club, yearbook, wrestling, football, and the positive outlook club. Two of them learned to play instruments, piano and guitar. Compared to other schools in the county there are minimum altercations or violence. Safety is not a concern nor has ever been a concern for any of my children. There are a variety of courses available to meet students’ needs. My 3 children are very different and found various activities, course, sports and staff members to connect with. One of my children graduated with 25 college credits with dual enrollment. My favorite sports team at Douglass is the wrestling team. The coaches are great and really treat the students with love, respect and care. They focus on building character while simultaneously improving wrestling skills at a fast rate.
Submitted by parent on October 06, 2023

This school does not care about your child's safety at all. My child comes to school everyday to learn and doesn't create a problem for anyone. Unfortunately we live in a world where some people do not believe in teaching their children to respect others and act like civil normal human beings. My child was the victim of an unprovoked attack by several animals (normal humans don't act like this) and I was never notified from the school at all. I only found out from a friend of my child's that was present at the time. We had to call the school to find out everything ourselves. There was an ignorant, rude woman who answered the phone and asked, "Who told you to call" as if she was being bothered. That's the problem i should not have to call, I should be receiving one. The lack of care, respect and professionalism is disgusting from this school. The only people who actually seemed to care and show compassion about my child's safety were the security team present.
Submitted by parent on March 17, 2023

We are a hispanic family with a year and a half living in this area, my daughter is in 11 grade and has suffered acts of racism, bulling........... just because is hispanic, this is from others students, January 26 this students have beaten her in the hallway of the school, before that date she already reported other incidents and nothing had been done, to date I am still waiting for the transfer for safety reasons, no one give me answers, the principal said this out of her hands and Dr Ryan have to make a choice for the new school.. the person on district 9 she said she will contact the school...,,, she has been taking her classes at ISS ROOM for WEEKS for her safety, for fear of being attacked again and nobody does anything.We see in the news that a lot of students have been hospitalized or even died because the school district does not take these acts of violence seriously.
Submitted by other on January 09, 2020

The school is absolutely dreadful. I am sorrowed that I can't rate it negative stars. discourages the idea of racial diversity. The whole school is falling apart creating a toxic work environment. I could rant more about this, but I'll end my review here.
Submitted by parent on August 25, 2019

As a parent, I watch my child grow from being insecure to a confident young lady. All this came with the help of her teachers/advisors that really took the time to assist where necessary and push when she needed it. She became more active in organization as will as other after school activities. I believe each person (students, parents, staff, & security) play a part in making sure the school is successful & have successful scholars.
Submitted by parent on June 12, 2018

I love that this school has a family and welcoming atmosphere. The administration and teachers are very engaged. The PTSO is AWESOME and the backbone of the school. The community outreach with organizations and companies helps support the service projects. They offer most sports and extracurricular activities. Would like to see more STEAM/IT classes. The IB program is growing and students can see themselves globally with credits that translate to colleges.
Submitted by parent on September 28, 2017

Frederick Douglass High School has a family atmosphere. Many of the students have parents who attended the school. The teaching staff and administration are accessible and engaged. The parents positive and dedicated. FDHS has a large social media presence and uses streaming and video to inform parents who cannot attend parent meetings. The parent organization is energetic, innovative and helpful. FDHS is an important part of the Upper Marlboro community.
Submitted by teacher on August 15, 2017

I have worked at this school for over 14 years. In the past 6 years we have really seen an increase in academic programs which offer college credit. Our IB Programme is competitive with IB around the globe. Our focus on character building and community service is very evident in our numerous community service projects throughout the year. Our leadership team is working hard to improve college and career readiness. The size of the school is ideal because it is big enough to offer a variety of extra curricular activities but not so big that students feel overwhelmed. The staff works very hard to provide lessons with a global focus. There are plenty of opportunities for success for our students with the support of our staff and parent involvement.
Submitted by parent on May 18, 2017

My daughter is an upcoming Junior. She's doing well and the curriculum is good. She is in the IB and pre diploma program. I feel students and parents will get out of the school what they put into it. Effort is important to success! If I've had concerns administration and counselors were quick to address the concerns. My only issue was there were a couple teacher that did not respond when I reached out to them requesting a conference. They only did after I contacted administration and one not at all. Overall, my daughters experience has been a good one
Submitted by other on September 07, 2016

I graduated from this school in 1995 & I'm excited that they now offer the IB program. This is the reason why my daughters now attend & my son plans on going next year. Mr. Scott is an awesome principal who reacjes out to the students all the time. Many of the teachers have been great & go above & beyond for the students. I can't wait to witness all of the successes my children will achieve at Douglass. What I would love to see is much more participation from parents. This is one of the areas that us greatly lacking. As a freshman parent last year, I joined the PTSA & was disappointed with the small number of parents that came out to meetings or girl involved with volunteer opportunities. I hope that we do better as this is the place where our kids, administrators & teachers to see our
Submitted by parent on May 26, 2016

My son just graduated from Douglas C/O 2016 and he did go here all 4 years. I must say that the teachers, administrative staff, counselors, and even the security is by far the best. Douglas is a great school academically and they will help your child as long as your child wants to be helped. Principal Scott and Dr. Dixon are very great influences for the school. KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK AND LET US PARENTS SUPPORT THEM BETTER
Submitted by parent on June 01, 2015

First year at FDHS and we enjoy it, great teachers, and the new Principal is hands on, and very involved! No drama, no fights, child feels very safe and secured too, looking forward to three more years here!
Submitted by parent on May 31, 2015

Amazing PTSA a very involved and committed Principal, small class sizes and great kids! The IB program is amazing and really helped students become college ready and competitive.
Submitted by student on April 03, 2015

This school is very unsanitary; It almost ruined my livelihood and made me not want to learn anything. I am so glad I left. There is no reason why there should roaches and rats in a place where students are supposed to learn. It's just repulsive and irresponsible. If there isn't any funding or any other logical reason why this school is so deplorable, then they need to just tear down the entire building. The teachers and staff aren't that great either. 0/10.
Submitted by parent on November 22, 2013

A lot of good things are happening at Douglass high school. The administration, teachers and PTA are working together to highlight this to the community. Douglass high school's sports programs are top notch, students also have opportunities to achieve academically with rigorous AP courses. Douglass is in the process of becoming an IB diploma school. Also, students have multiple opportunities to travel abroad with the Japanese exchange program and spring break travel abroad trip. Many dedicated teachers provide tutoring after school, and many have open door policies so that all students can attend. My daughter has been actively engaged in the school since the ninth grade. We have had some challenges, as is the case with any school, but I find the students to be well behaved and the teachers are hard working and caring.
Submitted by parent on November 22, 2013

Frederick Douglass High School is one of 4 high schools in the 9th District of Prince Georges County School System. There are approximately 1100 students with 100 or so teachers, administrators and staff. The majority of the students live in the community so many of the students and families have known each other for years. The educators have advanced degrees and several years of experience. There are award winning sports programs, child development program, culinary arts, a very active student government, national honors society, Art clubs and so much more. The parents are engaged and organized and support their students goals of becoming career or college ready. The PGCPS is a large school system with some financial challenges and Frederick Douglass High School is looking for ways to work around those issues.
Submitted by other on November 09, 2013

As of now I attend Frederick Douglass High School,C/O 2014. I started going to Douglass in 11th grade and within a year I felt like I made a mistake by choosing this school . If It wasn't for school zones i could've left the terrible learning environment , unsanitary bathrooms , and flying roaches behind . As a whole the school has one amazing teacher , Lauri Lyles . She Is extremely intelligent & she gets the job done . She teaches 12 grade english ; you would think it's a college level class . Her classroom and work is always organized with each student attentive and ready to learn something new . However, i can not say the same about my other classes . some classrooms are completely destroyed by students from previous years & the blinds in one of my classes look like they came out of the garbage . In addition , a lot of schools have cosmetology classes but Douglass doesn't. Seeing as though we don't have these opportunities the school system is STILL trying to take out computer graphics , business , & even child development ! I wouldn't be surprised if Art was taken too . Overall Douglass has ALOT of problems that need to be fixed & i would not recommend attending this school .
Submitted by other on October 30, 2013

Douglass is a great school because of their leader Mr. Saunders and the great work and vision that he has. The school has an IB Middle years program as well as several academies. They have a program called the Lunch Bunch which is a group of students that strive for excellence in community service. They also have a preschool child development program where students work in day cares and elementary school so they can provide guidance as well as enhance their leadership skills. Douglass is a place where I visit on my personal time to exercise on the track and it is a school that is welcoming as well as a staple in the Upper Marlboro community.
Submitted by other on May 10, 2013

I am a former student of Frederick Douglass C/O 00..... I am very disappointed in some of the comments I am reading from the current students at Douglass. Unfortunately you cant even understand what they are trying to say because of misspellings and using the wrong context of the word, or simply leaving words out! I hope they stay in school longer, because its obvious that THEY NEED IT!!!! Its so sad. When I went to Douglass, we had trouble makers, as a matter of fact, I was one! Everyone always wants to blame everybody else for a child misbehaving or failing. The reality of it is, its not the teachers fault nor the schools fault! Discipline your children! Stop pointing the finger and blaming everyone else!!!!