Downcounty Consortium

From District 4 -- Montgomery County, Maryland

The Downcounty Consortium (DCC) is a school cluster that is part of Maryland’s Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). The DCC cluster serves central and southeastern regions of the county, including a large swath of the unincorporated area that comprises Silver Spring, Maryland.

The DCC cluster area overlaps with the western portions of council districts 4 and 5.

The DCC service area covers regions of the county that have been historically diverse, with large proportions of ethnic minorities as well as first- and second-generation immigrants.

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Downcounty Magnet Programs

The area covered by DCC serves students whose parents run the gamut in terms of education background and income level. The presence of highly-educated parents in this area has been a key factor in the development of magnet programs, particularly those targeted at students labeled “gifted,” “talented,” and “accelerated.”

The magnet programs established in the 1980s were mostly located in lower-county schools surrounded by communities that had experienced extensive white and middle-class flight in the ’60s through ’80s. However, as exurban and infill residential development accelerated in Montgomery during the 1980s through 2000s, parents and educators began pushing for a more decentralized model that led to a proliferation of special-focus programs throughout the county. In competition with “home school”-based academy and other special programs, the original flagship magnet and IB programs still aim to attract motivated and capable students district-wide, beyond consortia/cluster boundaries.

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DCC cluster schools

The Downcounty Consortium includes the following schools:

High School	Year Est.	Approx. Enrollment^†	Closest Feeder Middle Schools (i.e. within E.S. service area)	Feeder Elementary Schools
Montgomery Blair^I,mg1,mg2	1925	~2,700	Eastern^I,mg2 Takoma Park^I,mg1	East Silver Spring Takoma Park Piney Branch Montgomery Knolls Pine Crest New Hampshire Estates Oak View Rolling Terrace^imm-Sp Sligo Creek^imm-Fr (eastern portion)
Albert Einstein^IB	1962	~1,600	Newport Mill	Highland Oakland Terrace Rock View Woodlin
John F. Kennedy^IB	1964	~1,500	Argyle^II	Bel Pre Strathmore Georgian Forest Glenallan Harmony Hills
Wheaton	1954	~1,300	Loiederman^II Parkland^II	Brookhaven Veirs Mill Weller Road Wheaton Woods
Northwood	2004 (orig. 1956 - 1985)	~1,300	Lee Silver Spring International^IB Sligo	Forest Knolls Glen Haven Highland View Kemp Mill Sligo Creek^imm-Fr (western portions)

^† Enrollment figure estimates current for the 2008-2009 academic year and imminent projections.

^I First-generation magnet schools program launched mid-to-late 1980s with Magnet Schools Assistance Program funding from the U.S. Dept. of Education
^II Later-generation magnet schools program — Middle School Magnet Consortium (MSMC)

^mg1 Math/Science/Computer Science magnet program
^mg2 Liberal arts magnet program; program focuses might include: humanities, communications arts, visual arts, performing arts, and the like.