External consultant WXY Architecture + Urban Design has provided the Montgomery County Board of Education with a final report assessing Montgomery County Public Schools’ boundaries as part of a comprehensive Districtwide Boundary Analysis. The nearly 200-page document includes an in-depth analysis of school utilization, school diversity, student proximity to school, and student assignment stability. The report process also reviewed boundary benchmarking data from other school districts and includes a summary of community engagement.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The purpose of the Boundary Analysis work was to examine existing conditions in the district and provide a critical data resource for the Board of Education that will allow them to comprehensively understand districtwide issues informed through data and community feedback and guide future boundary considerations. The final report does not make any boundary recommendations.
Read the Final Boundary Analysis
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The Districtwide Boundary Analysis is an initiative designed to provide a comprehensive assessment of Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) boundaries by analyzing data points, such as school facility utilization and capacity, student demographics and proximity to schools. The initiative builds upon MCPS’ engagement efforts from the spring of 2019 and will continue to involve community members through a series of forums to fully understand the challenges in creating more meaningfully integrated and culturally responsive schools within Montgomery County.
In the past 20 years, MCPS enrollment has increased by more than 30,000 students. This growth has helped MCPS become one of the largest and most diverse districts in the nation. Unfortunately, facility construction has not kept pace with this significant growth. The overcapacity of many schools, paired with a continued focus on equity and excellence, prompted the Board of Education to initiate an assessment of current school boundaries to ensure that MCPS can continue to provide high-quality facilities that support the educational programming needed to reinforce its core values of Learning, Relationships, Respect, Excellence and Equity.
Before the COVID-19 crisis hit, we had just completed Phase I of our engagement process and analysis. This culminated with an interim report in March 2020.
The consultant team, WXY Studio, is developing an Interactive Boundary Explorer to support residents and stakeholders in conducting a deeper exploration of MCPS schools. The tool allows participants to understand the three lenses—utilization, diversity and proximity—from the individual school to the district as a whole, while enabling them to explore relationships between clusters located next to one another at a deeper level.
Phase II is centered around engaging as many county residents and stakeholders as possible in the use of this interactive tool and gaining robust input and feedback, centered around key questions:
Throughout this process, the team will also collect broader insights about the public’s priorities related to school boundaries, and how these might have shifted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Phase II engagement will take place virtually during the fall of 2020 and will include:
Feedback the consultant team gathers will be included in the final report and presented to the Board of Education to inform future planning on school boundaries. Once complete, this report will serve as a critical data resource for Board members and will allow them to comprehensively understand districtwide issues informed through data and community feedback. The final report will not have any recommendations on boundary changes.
The Districtwide Boundary Analysis is an initiative designed to provide a comprehensive assessment of Montgomery County Public School boundaries by analyzing various data points such as school facility utilization and capacity, student demographics, school assignment and travel patterns. The initiative builds on MCPS’s engagement efforts from Spring 2019 and will continue to involve community members from all backgrounds through a variety of forums to fully understand the spectrum of challenges towards creating more meaningfully integrated and culturally responsive schools within Montgomery County.
Over the twenty years, student enrollment at Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) has increased by more than 30,000 students. This growth has helped MCPS become one of the largest and most diverse districts in the nation. Unfortunately, facility construction has not been able to keep pace with this significant growth. The overcapacity of many schools, paired with our continued focus on equity and excellence, prompted the Board of Education to initiate an assessment of current school boundaries to ensure that MCPS can continue to provide high-quality facilities that support the educational programming needed to reinforce MCPS’s core values of Learning, Relationships, Respect, Excellence, and Equity.
The Facts About the Districtwide Boundary Analysis (A letter from Board President Shebra Evans and Superintendent Jack Smith – Dec. 11, 2019)
This initiative will result in an analytical assessment and a summary of the community engagement process. It will not make recommendations on potential boundary revisions.
The two major components of the initiative will adhere to some key principles identified below:
District Boundary Analysis Archive