County Public High Schools Rank Among Best In State, Country
MCPS high schools were ranked the top seven in the state and placed three schools in the nation's top 100.
Montgomery County features the top seven public schools in the state of Maryland and three of the top 100 in the country, according to the Best High Schools list by US News & World Report.
"The Best High Schools list, released Tuesday, ranks schools on academic performance and how schools are preparing students for college-level work," MCPS said in a press release. "The magazine evaluated nearly 22,000 high schools from 49 states and the District of Columbia in developing its report."
Potomac's Winston Churchill High School (No. 57), Bethesda's Walt Whitman High School (No. 84) and Rockville's Thomas S. Wootton High School (No. 93) finished with a top-100 ranking.
Churchill, Whitman, and Wootton were joined by Poolesville High School,Walter Johnson High School, Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, andRichard Montgomery High School to round out the top seven in the state.
MCPS Superintendent Joshua Starr said in a press release the rankings, while having limitations, are a good way for the public to compare schools based on similar criteria.
“The Best High Schools ranking is another indicator that, overall, MCPS is doing a great job preparing students for college and careers,” Starr said. "We celebrate the accomplishments of the schools on this list and remain focused on helping all schools improve teaching and learning in order to best serve the needs of our students.”
Wootton principal Michael Doran said the rankings should help push legislators away from reducing funding for education.
"It does not surprise me about the rankings of our MCPS schools," Doran told Patch in an email. "Our county council and State department need to understand just what an effective program we have here in Montgomery County and to be very careful not to dismantle it in these tough budget times."
In This article
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Winston Churchill High School
11300 Gainsborough Rd, Potomac, MD -
Walt Whitman High School
7100 Whittier Blvd, Bethesda, MD -
Thomas S. Wootton High School
2100 Wootton Pkwy, Rockville, MD -
Walter Johnson High School
6400 Rock Spring Dr, Bethesda, MD -
Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School
4301 E West Hwy, Bethesda, MD -
Richard Montgomery High School
250 Richard Montgomery Dr, Rockville, MD
Jeff Hawkins
3:51 pm on Tuesday, May 8, 2012
I guess you could drag your mouse over this article and drag it to the article on house prices being high and not enough affordable housing. Those issues are a bi-product of success......
Jim Burnetti
10:51 pm on Tuesday, May 8, 2012
The GT and Magnet School programs, which the new Superintendent is not a big fan of -- are a major contributor to the excellence of the school system. Sigh.
Brigitta Mullican
8:20 am on Wednesday, May 9, 2012
The students who produce those high school rankings are due to the educated parents who have very prestigious and high paying positions. Educated families produce educated students. Teachers are a big part of motivating school children but many high school students come from other private schools who have a higher success rates. It is the background of the families, the curriculum, and not the amount of money spent on the school system that produces successful students and high rankings.
Greg Cohen
9:12 am on Wednesday, May 9, 2012
I don't know that I'd be so quick to dismiss the efforts of both the students and faculty members by simply chalking this up as "due to the educated parents who have very prestigious and high paying positions."
Spend some time in a Churchill, Whitman, Wootton, etc. classroom before writing off the efforts of those in the building on an everyday basis.
Theresa Defino
9:45 am on Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Low and middle income parents also want the best for their children!
Jeff Hawkins
1:19 pm on Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Brigitta
With all due respect, you may want to revisit your comment. We all know that there are many reasons for success and failure in the public school system and probably too many to mention here.
To merely equate family background and the financial health of the parents to the child's success is in my opinion in error. There are just too many variables to come to that conclusion.
Greg Cohen
10:15 am on Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Exactly, Theresa.
Temperance Blalock
12:28 pm on Wednesday, May 9, 2012
If academic excellence is largely the result of parental intervention at home, then why are those parents so eager to get their children into the best schools? Would they not assume that their child's academic performance is only secondary to the actual school the child attended?
It's a lot like trying to determine what effect breast-feeding has on the child's IQ. Since the women who do breast-feed for a significant amount of time have higher IQs than those who don't, and since they come from households with higher incomes, once you factor those things out then there's only a demonstrably marginal effect between breast-feeding and higher child IQ.
Most middle-income and lower-income parents would love to get their children into those high-performing schools.