JUST HOW IMPORTANT IS
education to residents in our area? The
short answer: very.
More than half of the adult residentsof Montgomery County have attained abachelor’s degree—or higher—and thatpercentage goes way up in many of thetowns in our community. Approximately
80 percent of Bethesda’s residents ages
25 or older have bachelor’s degrees, and
54 percent have graduate or professionaldegrees. In 2016, Bethesda toppedNerd Wallet’s list of the “most educatedplaces in America,” and Potomac wasNo. 4.
When it comes to their children’s
education, local parents want nothing but the
best. As a result, the county’s public school
system, the largest in Maryland and the 15th
biggest in the country, boasts some of the
best schools in the nation. It has 39 National
Blue Ribbon schools, a distinction bestowed
by the U.S. Department of Education on
high-performing or high-improving schools, an
89. 8 percent graduation rate and a nearly 66
percent Advanced Placement participation
rate for the Class of 2016.
Potomac’s Winston Churchill and Thomas
S. Wootton High School in Rockville ranked
among the top 110 high schools in U.S.
News & World Report’s 2017 national
rankings, and ;ve of Maryland’s top 10
high schools are in the county, according to
the same rankings. Montgomery County’s
205 public schools serve nearly 162,000
students from 157 countries. The school
system offers 133 elementary schools,
40 middle schools and 25 high schools.
And for families choosing to go the
independent school route, the Bethesda
area has some of the ;nest private schools
in the country.
According to the Private School Reviewwebsite, there are 180 private schools inthe county, serving 34,048 students. Andthere are many others in Washington, D.C.,and Northern Virginia that Bethesda-areastudents attend.
PHOTOBYSKIPBROWN
schools
Students head to
class at Bannockburn
Elementary School
in Bethesda.
