MCPS in the News
Read recent news stories of interest.
October 2009
The Washington Post: Montgomery proposes to add, expand schools
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Summary: Montgomery County would build two new schools and expand nine others in an effort to address overcrowded buildings under a $1.49 billion, six-year plan issued Wednesday by Superintendent Jerry D. Weast.
The Washington Post: Program Spurs 'Tweens to Consider Careers in Science
Monday, October 12, 2009
Summary: Montgomery County has hit on the formula for getting young people interested in science: Unleash 190 seventh-graders in a building full of robots, prosthetic limbs, microscopes, remote-controlled surgical arms and bacteria-filled flasks, and watch what happens.
September 2009
The Washington Post: 14 Schools in Md., Va. and D.C. Earn Blue Ribbon Status
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Summary: U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan made the announcement at Highland Elementary School in Silver Spring, the only public school to win the award in Montgomery County this year, and a remarkable turnaround story that Duncan said he hoped would inspire similar success elsewhere.
The Gazette: Highland Receives Blue Ribbon Honor
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Summary: What was once a poor Wheaton elementary school faced with being taken over by the state is now a part of the most elite 4 percent in the country.
July 2009
The Washington Post: Over 10 Years, Montgomery's Weast Aced Tough Tests
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Summary: The achievement gap that separates the haves and have-nots has been the most frustrating problem in public education for years. And across the country, few leaders have made more progress in closing that divide than Montgomery County's Jerry D. Weast.
Watch: A video interview that accompanied the online version of this story. 
View: Charts from the online story
June 2009
The Wall Street Journal: Data-Driven Schools See Rising Scores Friday, June 12, 2009
Summary: Montgomery County Public Schools is at the vanguard of what is known as the "data-driven" movement in U.S. The 139,000-student district, one of the nation's largest, says the strategy has helped it nearly close an achievement gap between white and minority students in the early grades. It also says the system has enabled it to identify minorities with academic gifts earlier, vaulting many more into demanding AP classes.
Ed Week: Diplomas Count 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Summary: A study released by Education Week today finds that the graduation rate in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) ranks at the top among the nation’s 50 largest school districts, tied for first place with the Cypress-Fairbanks school district in Texas at 80.7 percent. MCPS is the 16th largest school district in the nation, while Cypress-Fairbanks ranks 35th in size.
WTTG Fox 5: Montgomery Co. #1 in Graduation Rate 
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Summary: Among the 50 largest school districts in the nation, Montgomery County Public Schools has tied for first place in graduation rates.
WUSA Ch. 9: Top High Schools Ranking Based On Courses Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Summary: The principal at a local top high school says rankings should look at students' success rates in college as a real test of how a high school prepared the students.
Newsweek: America's Top High Schools
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Summary: Newsweek has released its annual list of “America’s Top High Schools,” and MCPS has four schools in the top 100 (Richard Montgomery, B-CC, Wootton and Churchill) and two that are just outside the top 100 (Whitman and Walter Johnson).
WTOP-Radio: 15 area high schools among best in U.S.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Summary: Montgomery County had six schools make the top 110 of the list. Richard Montgomery High School had the highest ranking school in the group, coming in 38th. Also making the list were Bethesda-Chevy Chase (55), Thomas S. Wootton High School in Rockville (58), Winston Churchill High in Potomac (94), Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda (104), and Walter Johnson High in Bethesda (109).
May 2009
The Washington Post: Montgomery Co. Touts 'Seven Keys to College Readiness' as an Academic Pathway
Monday, May 18, 2009
Summary: Montgomery County Public Schools initiative the "Seven Keys to College Readiness." spells out in detail the courses and tests that officials say point toward college readiness and academic prosperity.
April 2009
The Gazette: System to teach families about college readiness
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Summary: The school system has launched a plan to help parents and students understand what it takes to be ready for college. The plan, officially called the "Seven Keys to College Readiness," identifies seven milestones for families to monitor to ensure their children are ready for higher education.
March 2009
The Washington Post: Science Magnet's Successes
Monday, March 23, 2009
Summary: The 400-student Science, Mathematics and Computer Science Magnet at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring is one of the nation's top math-science programs, a perennial rival to the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (650 students), Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County (1,800 students) and Stuyvesant High School in New York (3,200 students).
Associated Press: Call of the Classroom: Teaching as a second career
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Summary: Increasing numbers of Americans are leaving their careers to become teachers. The story features teacher Peter Vos of Argyle MS, he is a neuroscientist who started his own internet company but found the school environment to his liking.
February 2009
The Washington Post: ESOL Students in Md., Va. Leaping Ahead of U.S. Peers
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Summary: The success of English learners in the region is partly a matter of where many of them live: Montgomery and Fairfax counties, achievement powerhouses that have trained their formidable resources on burgeoning populations of immigrant students. Montgomery has more than 17,000 such students.
The Washington Post: Md. Leads U.S. in Passing Rates on AP Exams
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Summary: For the first time, Maryland ranks top in the nation for the share of high school graduates who passed at least one Advanced Placement test. Paint Branch High School in Burtonsville also earned a distinction from the College Board yesterday: No other high school in the United States had as many black students pass the AP world history exam.
WRC TV NBC Channel 4: Maryland Proud Parent of Best AP Scores
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Summary: Students at Maryland schools have registered the best scores in the nation when it comes to the Advanced Placement program.
January 2009
The Washington Post: Math Error To Cost Maryland $31 Million
Monday, January 12, 2009
Summary: As fiscal flubs go, this was a doozy. An error of simple addition in late 2007 threw off a government estimate of Montgomery County property wealth by $16 billion -- an amount equivalent to the gross domestic product of Jordan -- and spread, viruslike, through the budgets of at least 18 counties before it was corrected.
Eight months passed before the error was confirmed, last summer, by mid-level number crunchers in state government. Five more months went by before word reached Montgomery, victim of the miscalculation, just before Christmas.
WUSA TV 9: Maryland Schools Are Best In Nation
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Summary: The story highlighted the state’s number-one ranking by doing a feature story of the success of one school, visiting our recent Maryland Blue Ribbon school honoree, Highland Elementary School.
The Washington Post: Fuzzy Math in Maryland
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Summary: THE NUMBERS didn't add up. When Maryland distributed aid to school systems for the current fiscal year, Montgomery County received millions less than expected. Perplexed county leaders repeatedly questioned state officials, only to be told that everything was fine. In fact, the state had made an accounting error that caused it to short Montgomery schools.
The Washington Post: A School That Works By Working Together
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Summary: At Broad Acres eight years ago, test scores were so low that the state threatened to take the place over. Montgomery County Superintendent Jerry Weast and Principal Jody Leleck decided to remake the school. They negotiated with the teachers union to add extra hours to the workweek for extra pay. Teachers would offer no more excuses about poor kids from dysfunctional families; expectations would soar.
The Washington Post: State Short-Changed Montgomery Schools
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Summary: An accounting error in Maryland's budgeting process cost the Montgomery County school system $24 million in lost revenue in the current fiscal year, and some of the money was mistakenly distributed among the state's 23 other school systems, officials said yesterday.