Lessons in Early Learning: Building an Integrated Pre-K-12 System in Montgomery County Public Schools

Over the course of a decade, Montgomery County Public Schools developed a successful pre-kindergarten-12th grade public education system that should serve as a model for other school districts and states, and for federal policy makers looking to narrow the achievement gap through education reform. The school district accomplished impressive results in student achievement — including double-digit declines in achievement gaps between different racial and ethnic groups and a 90 percent high school-graduation rate — even as the district’s population of English language learners grew 103 percent and the number of students receiving a free or reduced-price lunch increased by 44 percent.

Our new report, Lessons in Early Learning: Building an Integrated Pre-K-12 System in Montgomery County Public Schools, provides an overview of how MCPS used local and federal dollars to craft, implement and improve a system-wide education reform strategy built on a foundation of providing high-quality pre-kindergarten. School officials, state and federal policymakers alike will benefit from learning about the trail that MCPS has blazed as well as the comprehensive education reform roadmap they’ve left behind for other districts to follow.