Education

MCPS sent out a community message with ‘things to know’ on Thursday Sept. 14. The message includes information about a new guide to ensure student success, Covid-19 district measures, how you can share your feedback on the 2023-2024 school calendar, upcoming Girls’ Summit, and a chance to comment on proposed amendments to three policies:

Pathway to College, Career and Community Readiness: MCPS created a new guide to help families, students and teachers work together to ensure student success. The Pathway to College, Career and Community Readinesshelps identify students’ strengths and areas of improvement to ensure each student receives the support they need. Here’s how it works:

This year, MCPS is providing new opportunities for middle and high school students, including career advising and no fees for approved college courses and Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) exams.

No Fees for Approved College Courses and Transportation: Students will be able to access college courses at no cost. Additionally, MCPS will provide transportation to Montgomery College (MC) campuses during the school day for college courses that are not available online or at a student’s high school. A transportation schedule has been developed with routes from each high school to the nearest MC campus. Students interested in taking an approved college course not currently offered at their high school or online during the school day and in need of transportation should work with their high school Dual Enrollment Program Assistant (DEPA) and their assigned high school counselor to identify courses of interest that would support their high school plan and fit within the transportation schedule.

MCPS is seeking feedback on the design of the MCPS 2024-2025 Calendar. This feedback represents one component of the development process incorporating feedback from our students, staff, and families. MCPS will consider educational interests, operational needs, mandated school closures by state law, compliance with minimum instructional days and credit hour requirements, contingencies for inclement weather and other emergencies, staff professional days and early release days, alignment with assessment schedules, and etc.

MCPS provides a school year calendar that allows for effective use of time for teaching and learning, for professional growth opportunities, and planning instructional strategies focused on improving student achievement, while maintaining our lens of equity for all students and commitment to community engagement in the MCPS Antiracist Audit Action Plan.

MCPS has 189 semifinalists in the 2023 National Merit Scholarship competition. The semifinalists will compete nationally for scholarships that will be announced in the spring. The competition is sponsored by the National Merit Scholarship Corp.

The MCPS semifinalists come from 14 high schools: Bethesda-Chevy Chase, Montgomery Blair, James Hubert Blake, Winston Churchill, Clarksburg, Damascus, Northwest, Poolesville, Richard Montgomery, Rockville, Walter Johnson, Wheaton, Walt Whitman and Thomas S. Wootton.