Montgomery County High Schools With the Best Graduation Rates of 2016

MCPS saw improved graduation levels, lower dropout rates last year

By Bethany Rodgers

Graduation rates for Montgomery County Public Schools students edged upward in 2016, with nearly nine out of 10 high schoolers earning their diplomas in four years.

At five county high schools, including Walt Whitman in Bethesda, Thomas S. Wootton in Rockville, and Winston Churchill in Potomac, more than 95 percent graduated in four years.

A report card released on Tuesday by the Maryland State Department of Education showed the county had a four-year graduation rate of 89.83 percent, about 0.5 percentage points better than last year and surpassing the statewide average of 87.61 percent. The figures indicate graduation levels have reached new heights across the state.

“The new data is great news for Maryland, as the high school diploma is the important first step of a successful journey,” Karen Salmon, the state’s superintendent of schools, said in a news release. “We continue to strengthen our standards and our classrooms to better prepare each student for employment or additional education.”

Montgomery County school board President Michael Durso said he was pleased with the state data but said MCPS aims to do more than award diplomas.

"The real key is maybe not as much in the graduation rates but in what happens beyond and are our kids prepared to do a career or college or both upon graduation," he said.

The percentage of black and Hispanic students finishing high school in Montgomery County continues to grow and to top the statewide average for these subgroups, according to MSDE. A 2015 study of the nation’s largest school districts showed that MCPS had the highest graduation rates for African-American males.

The county’s four-year dropout rate dipped to 5.69 percent in 2016, about 0.05 percentage points below the prior year.

Ranking of Montgomery County high schools by four-year graduation rate: