Businesses continue to think that Montgomery County is a great place for employees’ children to attend public schools. This year, for the 13th year in a row, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) has received the top “gold” rating in Expansion Management magazine’s 2007 Education Quotient. The award measures the school system’s attractiveness to the business community.

Gold medal school systems this year rank in the top 17 percent of the 2,819 public school districts in the nation with an enrollment of at least 3,300 students.

MCPS and other gold medalists were recognized for offering companies considering expansion or relocation among the best educational services nationally, including well-prepared high school graduates and excellent schools for employees to enroll their children.

MCPS was one of three Maryland school systems (the others were Howard and Carroll counties) to earn the gold medal designation this year. Prince George’s County schools earned a green flag (middle of the group); District of Columbia schools received a yellow flag (bottom 25 percent), Fairfax County schools in Virginia received a gold medal, and Arlington County schools earned a blue ribbon.

A school district’s Education Quotient rating is a weighted average of three major categories:

Graduate Outcome Index—The district’s average College Board scores (SAT or ACT) and its graduation rate.
Resource Index—A measure of a community’s financial commitment to public education; includes teacher salaries, per pupil spending and student-teacher ratio
Community Index—Median household income, adult education levels (high school and college) and child poverty rate.