Montgomery County Public Schools (Maryland)


Montgomery County Public Schools is the public school district of Montgomery County, Maryland. With 211 schools, it is the largest school district in the state of Maryland. For the 2024-25 school year, the district had about 159,671 students taught by about 13,994 teachers, 86.4 percent of whom had a master's degree or equivalent. MCPS receives nearly half of the county's budget—47.3% in fiscal year 2026.
As of July 2025, the superintendent of the district is Thomas W. Taylor. The board of education includes nine members, including the superintendent and a student member, who votes on all issues except punishment for individuals; in 2025–26, the student board member is Anuva Maloo.
In 2010, MCPS was awarded a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

History

19th century

Only private schools existed in Montgomery County, Maryland, until 1860, when the public school district was established for white children. The outbreak of the Civil War the following year brought raids by both Union and Confederate forces on local schools, which ultimately closed from 1862 until 1864.
In 1872, the Maryland General Assembly appropriated state money to open schools for children of color. The county established a segregated school system.
In 1892, the county opened its first high school, Rockville High School, which graduated its first class of 12 seniors graduated in 1897. A second high school, Gaithersburg High School, was established in 1904.

20th century

In the early 20th century, the school budget started to see the effects of suburbanization. In 1908, there were 6,483 students and a budget of $76,000. The school system saw more growth in 1912 after the United States Congress passed a "non-resident" law that excluded Montgomery County school children from enrolling in Washington, D.C. schools, which were known for their higher quality. By 1921, the school budget had grown to more than $316,000.
The county's first Board of Education was named by legislative enactments in 1917; the first board consisted of nine men. A woman was appointed to the board in 1920: Mrs. A. Dawson Trumble, who served a five-year term that led to a steady succession of female members.
Edwin W. Broome, superintendent during 1916–1953, combined one-room schoolhouses into multi-room operations at the beginning of his tenure, reducing the number of schools from 108 to 66 by 1949. At that point, school enrollment was over 22,000. When Broome took the job, there were five high schools, all in the northern portion of the county. He built two secondary schools for Silver Spring and two for Bethesda, and also pushed high schools to add the 12th grade.
In 1936, Broome and his board agreed to equalize teacher pay regardless of race in response to a lawsuit brought by William B. Gibbs Jr. and the NAACP.
In the early 1950s, elementary students of color attended one of four elementary schoolsLinden, Ken-Gar, Takoma Park, and River Roadall of which were considered substandard. Older students of color attended Lincoln Junior High School and George Washington Carver High School in Rockville. Montgomery County was one of the first seven counties in Maryland to start to desegregate its public schools, which it began in September 1955, following the Brown v. Board of Education ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States, which ordered the desegregation of all schools nationwide. Montgomery County completed the integration of its schools in 1960–1961.
In 1961, the school system had 85,000 students and a $70 million budget, having become the largest system in the Washington suburbs.
Prior to 1961, separate schools were maintained for black children. At that time, Rockville's George Washington Carver High School students were rezoned to the previously all-white schools across the county.
File:WOODWARD_HIGH_SCHOOL_IN_BETHESDA,_MD._MANY_STUDENTS_DRIVE_THEIR_OWN_CARS_TO_SCHOOL._SCHOOL_BUSES_IN_BACKGROUND-cropped.jpg|thumb|The parking lot at Woodward High School in Bethesda, Maryland, in May 1973, seen from the U.S. National Archives
MCPS saw enrollment numbers peak in 1972 when they reached 127,912. However, enrollment decreased over the next ten years, hitting a low of 91,030 in 1983. This prompted the closure of 60 schools. However, with more than 96,000 students and 13,000 staff members in 155 schools in 1986, the school system was still one of the 20 largest in the nation. Enrollment was over 100,000 by 1990.
In 1982, Odessa Shannon became the first elected black woman to serve on the Montgomery County School Board. 1991, Paul L. Vance became the county's first black superintendent when there were 107,000 students and 174 schools. When he left in 1999, MCPS had 129,000 students in 185 schools. Over the next ten years, enrollment grew to more than 150,000.

21st century

In 2014, the board modified the school calendar to remove all references to the Christian and Jewish religious holidays of Christmas, Easter, Yom Kippur, and Rosh Hashanah. The amendment was in response to a campaign by the initiative "Equality for Eid", which sought for Montgomery County Public School closures on the Muslim holidays of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.
The amendment received some media attention. Criticism of the amendment came from a variety of sources, including Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett and Congressman John Delaney.
For the 2022–2023 school year, the district has 210 schools and an enrollment of 160,554 students.
On February 2, 2024, Monifa McKnight, the first black woman to serve as superintendent of Montgomery County schools, resigned under pressure from the school board "amid questions about how the district handled sexual harassment, bullying and other allegations involving a former principal," according to the Washington Post.

Governance and budget

MCPS funding comes mostly from Montgomery County and the State of Maryland, with additional funds from federal government grants, enterprise funds, and other sources.
MCPS, which covers the entire county as its school district, is governed by a board of education that sets goals, establishes policies, and allocates resources.
In 1977, the Maryland General Assembly amended Section 3-901 of the Education Article of the Annotated Code of the Public General Laws of Maryland to create a seat for a student on the eight-member board of education with a one-year term. From 1978 until 1982, a small representative assembly of students selected the student member. The first was David Naimon, who served during the 1978–1979 school year. Traci Williams, who served during the 1980–1981 school year, was the first African American to serve as a student member. After Williams died in December 2008, the MCPS board released a declaration recognizing her effect on the county.
Since 1982, the student member has been directly elected by vote of all MCPS secondary students. Kurt Hirsch, the first student member directly elected by secondary students, served during the 1982–1983 school year. During the 1989 session of the Maryland General Assembly, Section 3-901 was again amended and established a limited vote for the student member. In 1995, Charles McCullough was the first African American to be directly elected as a student member of the board, serving during the 1995–1996 school year.
Since 2016, the student member has had full voting rights, except for votes to punish people. The student member of the board serves one year and can vote on matters related to collective bargaining, capital and operating budgets, and school closings, re–openings, and boundaries. The student member of the board receives a college scholarship equivalent to the cost of one year at the University of Maryland, student service learning hours, and one honors-level social studies credit.
The student member for the 2025–2026 school year is Anuva Maloo, a senior at Montgomery Blair High School. Of the 61,647 students who voted, Maloo received 62 percent of the vote. She was sworn in on July 1, 2025.
The board's current members are:
NameDistrictTerm ends
Brenda WolffDistrict 52026
Karla SilvestreAt-large2026
Grace Rivera-OvenDistrict 12026
Laura StewartDistrict 42028
Rita MontoyaAt-large2028
Julie YangDistrict 3, President2026
Natalie ZimmermanDistrict 22028
Anuva MalooStudent Member2026
Thomas W. TaylorSuperintendentN/A

Students

The MCPS student population has continued to grow over the years. The district saw a record enrollment of 160,564 students at the start of the 2022–23 school year. MCPS serves a diverse student body, with 32.8% Hispanic, 25.8% White, 21.8% Black, 14.3% Asian,.1% Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, and 5.0% two or more races.
Graduates from the class of 2018 earned $364 million in college scholarships, an increase of more than $14 million over the previous year.
The class of 2017 outperformed their peers in the state of Maryland, and the nation as a whole, on Advanced Placement exams, based on AP Cohort Results released by the College Board. In 2017, more than 7,000 MCPS graduates took one or more AP exams. The percentage of students receiving a college-ready score of 3 or higher on at least one exam rose to 52%, higher than the 31% of the public school graduates in Maryland and 23% of the national graduates.
The total number of AP tests taken declined from 41,048 in 2019 to 31,750 in 2021. Passing scores increased from 71.5% in 2019 to 75.1% in 2020; however, they declined again in 2021 to 68.1%.
The class of 2024 saw a 91.8% four-year graduation rate, an increase of 2.2% from the previous year.