MCPS Interactive Boundary Explorer

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Pointers

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The goals of the MCPS Boundary Analysis are:

Provide a comprehensive assessment of MCPS school boundaries in light of county growth.
Receive community feedback on the challenges of creating diverse schools.
Understand the related challenges of utilization, diversity, and proximity in school clusters.
Reinforce MCPS's core values of learning, respect, excellence, and equity.

The purpose of the boundary analysis is not to redraw school or cluster boundaries, but rather to examine existing conditions.

The Three Lenses for Analysis

UTILIZATION

Utilization measures the capacity of school facilities. This is calculated by comparing student enrollment to a school’s total available seats. Utilization is important for maintaining reasonable class sizes and accommodating growth.

DIVERSITY

Diversity refers to differences between students. It is measured here by three factors: race and ethnicity, socio-economic background, and English language proficiency. Key measures include racial dissimilarity, Free and Reduced Meals System (FARMS) eligibility and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)

PROXIMITY

Proximity considers the difficulty or ease with which students get to school. This analysis considers miles traveled to school (using road distances) and the proportion of students who attend the school closest to their home or live within their school’s walk zone.

Key Insights

Utilization Diversity Proximity Assignment Stability

What do utilization rates look like across the district today?

MCPS elementary schools are 102% utilized, middle schools are 97% utilized and high schools are 103% utilized.

MCPS defines schools that are 80 to 100% utilized as within the target range, below 80% as “underutilized,” between 100 and 120% as “somewhat overutilized,” and above 120% as “highly overutilized.”

Why is utilization important?

Understanding facility utilization is important for evenly distributing students and for planning for future growth in the county and school system.

MCPS Utilization Ranges

Which school level(s) experience the greatest challenges with utilization?

Overutilization: Elementary schools tend to be most overutilized, followed by high schools and then middle schools.

Underutilization: At present, there are no underutilized high schools, meaning that all high schools are either within the MCPS identified utilization range (80-100%) or are overutilized to some degree (>100%).

How will utilization change in the future?

While utilization at the ES and MS level is expected to decrease or stay flat through the 2025-26 school year, HS utilization is expected to increase to 108% by 2025- 26.

High School Utilization Rate by Attendance Areas

How similar are the utilization rates of neighboring schools?

Elementary schools tend to be more dissimilar from their nearest five neighbors than middle and high schools. The widest gap in utilization rates between two nearest elementary schools is 77 percentage points. A 156.9% overutilized school (Page) is nearest to a 79.5% underutilized school (Cannon Road).

What are the utilization rates in schools with special programs?

Spanish Immersion programs, Title I Elementary Schools, and the DCC and NEC are more overutilized than their counterparts.

Utilization Disparities between Nearest Elementary Schools

How racially diverse is MCPS?

Today, the student body of MCPS is very diverse. No single racial/ethnic group represents a majority of students.

Why is school diversity important?

Student diversity is important for increasing critical thinking and creativity, reducing racial bias, preparing for success in a global environment, and improving test scores.

Student Demographic Distribution

How socio-economically diverse is MCPS?

Across MCPS, the overall FARMS rate is 34%. The overall eligibility rate for students who have ever been eligible for Free and Reduced Meals (Ever-FARMS) is 46%.
Ever-FARMS rates range widely across the district at every school level. For example, at the middle school level, Ever-FARMS rates range from a district minimum of 1%, to a district maximum of 93% However, Ever-FARMS rates are more evenly distributed at the high school level than at the middle school level, and more evenly distributed at the middle school level than at the elementary school level.

How are racial and socio-economic diversity related within MCPS?

Black and Hispanic students make up a combined 88% of FARMS students, despite making up only 54% of the total student population. Hispanic students account for the majority of this group, at 57%.

High School Student Ever-FARMs Distribution

How many English Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) are there in MCPS?

About 1 in 6 students in MCPS receive services to help improve their English-language proficiency, and 36% of high school students have received ESOL services during their time in MCPS.

How are socio-economic and language diversity related within MCPS?

Both FARMS and ESOL rates correlate strongly with racial and ethnic demographics. 73% of ESOL students and 57% of FARMs students are Hispanic.

Ever-ESOL rates at High Schools

How does this analysis measure student proximity to schools?

To measure proximity, this analysis looks at miles traveled to school using road network distances and examines the proportion of students per school who attend the school located closest to their home. This analysis also looks at the proportion of students living in a school's walk zone.

What are some factors that impact proximity?

School level, population density, and school attendance area size are just some of the factors that impact proximity to school in MCPS.

Middle School students tend to travel further than Elementary or High School students. Students in large school attendance areas and less densely populated parts of the county also tend to travel further to school.

This analysis uses road network distances to measure proximity.

How many MCPS students live in the walk zone?

While 37% of elementary school students, 25% of middle school students, and 28% of high school students live in walk zones, most students depend on car and bus trips of varying distances.

Elementary school students are most likely to live within their school’s walk zone, followed by high school students.

How far do MCPS students travel to school?

On average, students living in walk zones tend to live at least 0.5 miles away from school. This increases across school levels.

Average Distance Travelled Across School Levels

In which parts of the district do students tend to live farthest from school?

The Northeast Consortium (NEC) seems to experience greater challenges with proximity than many other areas of the district—consortia or not.

Some factors that underlie this include a high number of island assignment attendance areas, and areas of lower density within the consortia.

In which parts of the district are students most likely to live in their school’s walk zone?

Students who live in the I-270 corridor area are more likely to live within their school’s walk zone than in other parts of the county.

This suggests a correlation between population density and the likelihood of students living within their school’s walk zones.

Average Distance Travelled to Middle Schools

What is assignment stability?

Assignment stability refers to the number of times a student, school, or geographic area is impacted by changes to student assignment over time.

How frequent are boundary changes in MCPS?

Between 1984 and 2006, there were 107 boundary changes in total, or roughly 4.5 boundary changes per year on average. Since 2010 the number of boundary changes has slowed, with under two boundary changes per year on average.

Historical Boundary Changes Since 1984 by Current Clusters

Which school levels are most affected by boundary changes?

During the last nine years, middle school students were most likely to be redistricted, followed by elementary and then high school students.

6.5% of middle school students live in areas that experienced redistricting, the most of any school level. In a given year, approximately 0.7% of middle school students were redistricted.

Which parts of the district are most effected by boundary changes in recent years?

Downcounty and Northeast Consortia (DCC, NEC) have seen the largest number of boundary changes since 1984. However, clusters in the northern part of the district have seen the greatest number of boundary changes on a per school basis.

On a per school basis, the Clarksburg cluster has seen the largest number of boundary changes since 1984, most in recent years. The Seneca Valley, Damascus, Gaithersburg, and Sherwood Clusters all have had eight boundary changes since 1994.