Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) was named a "gold medal" school system for the seventh consecutive year by Expansion Management magazine as a measure of the attractiveness of the school system to the business community. Gold Medal school systems rank in the top 18 percent of districts evaluated.

The school system was 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.

Other Maryland school districts to receive a gold rating were Calvert, Carroll, Frederick and Howard counties. In the metropolitan area, Arlington, Fairfax and Prince William counties also received gold ratings.

Gold medal districts constitute the high scorers on an "education quotient" (EQ) that includes the Graduate Outcome Index (graduates' College Board scores and graduation rates), Resource Index (including per pupil expenditure, student-teacher ratios and teacher salaries) and Community Index (socioeconomic factors such as level of education and family income, used as a benchmark but having little weight in final calculation). MCPS received an overall 140 out of 150 points on the EQ, highest in the state.

The annual review gathered data from almost 2,500 school districts nationwide with populations of at least 15,000.


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