Broad Run High School
Broad Run High School is a public secondary school in Ashburn, an unincorporated area in Loudoun County, Virginia, United States. Broad Run is part of the Loudoun County Public Schools system. It was ranked as the #8 Best Public High School in Loudoun County and #51 in Virginia by U.S. News in 2025.
In 1969, Loudoun County opened its third public high school amidst corn fields in Ashburn to accommodate the growing student populations resulting from new housing developments in the unincorporated communities in the eastern half of the county. Since then, the county population has increased more than twelvefold, straining education budgets, infrastructure, and local politics. For Ashburn, this has resulted in constantly shifting attendance boundaries, as new schools are frequently being opened at all levels: elementary, middle, and high.
Broad Run initially served all of eastern Loudoun County's population; however, since the mid-1990s, its attendance area has steadily shrunk, as numerous new high schools have been built to accommodate the county's rapid population growth driven by the tech boom. While Loudoun County's population continues to grow, enrollment in LCPS peaked in 2019 and has since declined. As a result, new school construction has closed, with Lightridge High School being the most recent school to reduce Broad Run's attendance area, and no additional high schools scheduled to open in LCPS until 2028.
The area's student demographics have significantly changed as well: Loudoun County's residents are now the country's most affluent, and its ethnic composition continues to diversify as foreign immigration into Northern Virginia increases. Broad Run High School is also located in one of the most affluent zip codes in the country, with a recorded median income of exceeding $160,000 per household as of 2025.
History
Public education in Ashburn predates Broad Run's debut in 1969. In 1892, a school for Black Americans was built in Old Ashburn. At a cost of $6,000, a separate school, known as Ashburn High School, was built for both elementary and high school white students in 1911. It was a four-room wood-frame schoolhouse; additions to the original structure were made in 1922, 1930, and 1934. The school served white Ashburn students until February 14, 1944, when the entire building was destroyed by fire. Its replacement, an elementary-only brick structure, was constructed in 1945 and is still in use. Known as the Ashburn Annex, it is a training center for LCPS and has also been used for Broad Run High School population overflow.In the 1960s high school age children from eastern Loudoun County attended Loudoun County High School. As Dulles Airport and residential developments, such as Sterling Park, opened close to the Fairfax County border, Loudoun County High School's population began to outgrow the facility. The decision to construct a high school in rural eastern Loudoun County was made. The strain on Loudoun County High School, however, was so severe that its eastern Loudoun students were temporarily schooled in the then-recently closed Douglass High School in Leesburg. Thus, the first Broad Run High School class actually formed in 1968, a full year before the Broad Run Ashburn campus construction was completed. 1968 had been the first year that the county schools were completely racially integrated, making the previously all-black Douglass High School available as it closed and its population moved to other county schools.
Image:Broad Run HS Ashburn VA 20147 ext2.JPG|thumb|left|Broad Run High School
2007
The campus of the district's third high school, opened its doors in 1969 to grades 8–12, for students from all of Ashburn, Arcola, western Chantilly, and Sterling. Named for the nearby Potomac River tributary, Broad Run was dedicated on October 13, 1969. The ceremony's keynote address was delivered by then-Governor of Virginia, Mills E. Godwin Jr. At the time, Loudoun's three high schools were not limited to 9th through 12th grades since there were no middle schools. Broad Run, therefore, had a "Thetamen" class for two years, its name for eighth graders. In 1976 a portion of the Sterling student body was moved to Park View High School. By 1979 the Thetamen were shifted to newly opened middle schools. As the Ashburn area grew considerably, additional students shifted to Potomac Falls High School in 1997. Stone Bridge High School opened in 2000, which split the Ashburn student body into two different high schools. In 2014, Broad Run moved some of its students in the Ryan Park area to Rock Ridge High School. In 2015, Broad Run shifted students who live in University Center and Potomac Farms to Riverside High School in Lansdowne in order to relieve overcrowding. In addition to this, Broad Run also transferred students living in Ashburn Run, Timberbrooke Estates, The Ridges at Ashburn, and many other subdivisions located off of Ashburn Road to Stone Bridge.
Broad Run's enrollment was 929 on opening in 1969 but the county's steady population increases saw accompanying student body expansions, to 1,838 by 2012, periodically relieved as other high schools opened in eastern Loudoun County.
Campus
The campus sits on along Ashburn Road, across from the Ashbriar community. It has been renovated and expanded many times since its opening in 1969 and is located ½-mile south of Farmwell Road and one mile north of the Dulles Greenway.Students
The Broad Run attendance boundaries encompass the Ashburn communities of Ashburn Village, Farmwell Hunt, One Loudoun, as well as the Ashbrook residential subdivisions. The LCPS middle school Farmwell Station and, by extension, the elementary schools Ashburn, Discovery, and Dominion Trail feed students to the high school. Students living in neighboring communities outside the current attendance boundary, such as Ashburn Farm and Brambleton, have attended in previous years as a result of frequent boundary changes and the school board's policy of "grandfathering" students.In the 2025-2026 school year, the ethnic/racial composition of Broad Run’s student body was 39.0% White, 28.1% Asian, 16.1% Hispanic, 10.6% Black, and 5.7% two or more. 22.8% of the student body is classified as Economically Disadvantaged.
Administration and faculty
The school's administrative team is headed by the principal and includes three assistant principals and the director of guidance. The principal and school, as part of LCPS, are under the direction of the Superintendent, who operates under the authority of the elected Loudoun County School Board.Broad Run has had only five principals since it opened: James C. McBride ; E. Wayne Griffith ; Edgar T. Markley, Ed.D., Doug Anderson, and David Spage. Its principal before Doug Anderson, Edgar T. Markley, a 2003 recipient of The Washington Post's Annual Distinguished Educational Leadership Award, retired after the 2009–2010 school year.
There are 117 teachers, yielding a teacher/student ratio of 1:14.
Curriculum
Students mainly attend classes on the Broad Run campus, but have opportunities to take additional, specialized courses at LCPS's magnet and alternative schools, such as science and math at Loudoun Academy of Science or vocational education classes at C.S. Monroe Technology Center.The school's instructional curriculum is set primarily by the LCPS district office based on Virginia Department of Education requirements. Broad Run's curriculum is typical of Virginia and United States secondary schools.
Students attending the Loudoun Academy of Science and do so every other class day, taking their non-magnet classes at Broad Run on the alternate days.
In the 2007–2008 school year, AP Physics students at Broad Run were credited with the discovery of Asteroid 2007 TW04, which they have officially begun calling "Sparta" in honor of the Broad Run's mascot, the Spartan. The team, led by their AP Physics teacher Janet Bosch, was awarded by NASA.
Academic performance and achievement
Accreditation
Broad Run is a fully accredited high school based on the Standards of Learning examinations in Virginia. Virginia high schools are considered fully accredited if students achieve pass rates of 70% or above in three content areas on SOL examinations administered during the previous school year. Broad Run's pass rates for the 2024–2025 school-year were as follows:| Subject Area | Pass Rate |
| Reading | 89 |
| Mathematics | 79 |
| Science | 78 |
NCLB and Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)
To meet the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the state of Virginia utilizes its Standards of Learning examinations as its progress measurement tool. NCLB requires states to set annual measurable objectives of proficiency in reading and mathematics, participation in testing, and graduation and attendance. These objectives are in addition to the high standards for learning and achievement required under Virginia's SOL program. Schools and school divisions that meet the annual objectives required by the federal education law are considered to have made adequately yearly progress toward the goal of 100 percent proficiency of all students in reading and mathematics by 2014.Broad Run has maintained Adequate Yearly Progress for the school years 2003–2004 through 2005–2006. The percentage of students passing the English and Math tests at Broad Run averages higher than Loudoun County as a whole, but lags slightly behind in Science by three points.