Clarksville Information

Clarksville is both the name of an unincorporated community and the name associated with District 5 in Howard County in the U.S. state of Maryland. The United States Census Bureau uses the district as a county subdivision for statistical purposes. The community is named for William Clark, a farmer who owned much of the land on which the community now lies.

According to the Howard County Economic Development Authority, the community of Clarksville had a population of 16,593 as of 2007. The village of River Hill is contained within Clarksville, the newest addition to the planned community of Columbia.

Clarksville's public schools, part of the Howard County public school system, are among the highest-ranked in the nation and often have significantly higher funding than competing private and charter schools. Some of the most expensive homes on the East Coast are located in or around the town, whose property values are among the highest in the country.

Clarksville is perhaps best known for its highly successful high school, River Hill. The school made the 397th rank on Newsweek's Top 1,200 High School.  River Hill, originally a tech-magnet school specializing in mathematics and electronics, became a regular high school in 2002. It has 1,652 students and ranks as one of the top schools in the state of Maryland. In 2005, River Hill has a 97.55% graduation rate, ranking the highest in Maryland. 86.3% of its students passed the HSA (High school Assessment). River Hill is also very successful in sports, capturing numerous state titles in many sports. The boy’s soccer team has captured three of the last four class 3A state titles (losing in 2006 to rival Mount Hebron). In 2007 River Hill also won the boy's basketball 3A state title and won in the state championship for football.

The area is located southwest of Baltimore and north of Washington, D.C., and many residents of Clarksville commute to work in one of these two cities or their close-in suburbs.