Richard Montgomery High School

Richard Montgomery High School (RMHS) (#201) is a secondary public school located in Rockville, Maryland. Academics The school houses Montgomery County's first International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB). This competitive-entry magnet programme draws students from all over Montgomery County and has an IB diploma rate of 97%, the highest of its kind in the United States. The IB programme has an approximately 12.5% acceptance rate for incoming freshmen. Entry is based on an entrance examination, middle school transcripts, and personal essays. Incoming freshmen who have been accepted into the IB programme are first enrolled in a special two-year programme consisting of courses designed to prepare them for more rigorous IB courses they will take in their junior and senior years. This also serves as a continuation of the final two years of the Middle Years Programme (MYP). The first three years of the MYP programme are offered to all students who attend Julius West Middle School, which is the sole middle school that feeds into RM. The MYP curriculum stresses "life long learning," "critical thinking," and "responsible global citizenship." It is a five-year programme designed for students in grades 6–10, and all Richard Montgomery students participate regardless of whether they are in the IB programme or whether they participated in middle school. Upon completion, non-IB students can apply to enroll in the IB programme. Students are accepted each year through this secondary application process for the IB programme. The average class size is 24.8, although this number has recently been increasing, and it has a student to staff ratio of 14.5:1.