The April 2 issue of The Wall Street Journal has identified three public high schools in Montgomery County as among the best schools in the nation for enrolling students in the most prestigious colleges and universities in America.

The newspaper cited Walt Whitman, Richard Montgomery, and Winston Churchill high schools in an article called “The Price of Admission.” The three schools are among 65 private and public schools recognized for their success in placing students in 10 of the most competitive colleges and universities in the nation.

“The ability of our high schools to compete at the very highest academic levels not only sets a standard for all schools in the county, but also provides a vision for the quality of public education in our country,” said Dr. Jerry D. Weast, superintendent of schools. “This level of excellence is a goal worth working toward as we seek to raise the bar of academic attainment for all our students.”

Only Schools in Maryland

The three Montgomery County schools are the only public schools in Maryland represented on the list. They constitute 10 percent of the 29 public schools named out of approximately 14,000 public high schools nationwide. The tuition charged at the 36 private schools on the list ranges from $12,000 to $31,000 a year.

The universities and colleges chosen by the Journal for their survey included seven Ivy League schools (Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale) and selective schools in the South, Midwest, and West (Duke, University of Chicago, and Pomona). The high schools recognized by the Journal had a graduation class of at least 50 students and placed at least 20 students in the 10 selected schools.

This latest recognition of Montgomery County schools follows continued high performance on the SATs by county high school students and a report in Newsweek magazine last year that named 20 of 23 Montgomery County high schools as among the nation's best for offering rigorous instruction. Five of the schools were listed among the nation's top 100.