Downcounty Consortium

For other uses, see DCC (disambiguation).

The Downcounty Consortium (DCC) is a group of five high schools that rising middle-schoolers in a select part of Montgomery County, Maryland choose from to attend for high school education. These high schools are Albert Einstein High School, John F. Kennedy High School, Montgomery Blair High School, Wheaton High School, and Northwood High School. Introduced in 2004, each DCC high school offers different academy programs catered to the interests of a student. These academies are open to all students in the DCC area. After picking one academy and taking four of that particular academy's classes, students are eligible for a special certificate. Students also participate in internships as they are referred through the program. The schools that feed into the Downcounty Consortium are Argyle Middle School, Eastern Middle School, Col. E. Brook Lee Middle School, A. Mario Loiederman Middle School, Newport Mill Middle School, Parkland Middle School, Sligo Middle School, Silver Spring International Middle School, and Takoma Park Middle School.

Choice process

The DCC choice process allows students to request certain high schools to attend. The students rank high schools by preference, which is often related to the school's academies. An academy is a set of classes that focus on a specific subject, such as theater, photography, or law. Unlike in a magnet, where students must pass a test to be accepted, students get into academies by requesting them at the end of 9th grade, and begin them in 10th grade.

List of DCC academies by school

Montgomery Blair HS

• Entrepreneurship & Business Management
• Human Service Professions
• International Studies & Law
• Media, Music, and The Arts
• Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math

Albert Einstein HS

• Finance, Business Management, and Marketing
• International Baccalaureate (IB) Program
• Renaissance (mixed subjects)
• Visual and Performing Arts

John F. Kennedy HS

• Business Management
• Health Careers
• International Baccalaureate Diploma Program
• Media Communications
• Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (NJROTC)

Northwood HS

• Humanities, Arts, and Media (HAM)
• Musical Theater
• Politics, Advocacy, and Law (PAL)
• Technology, Environmental, and Systems Sciences (TESS)

Wheaton HS

• Biosciences & Health Professions
• Engineering
• Information Technology (AOIT)
• Institute for Global and Cultural Studies(IGCS)

External links

• Official MCPS Website