[1][3] For the 2022–23 school year, the district had about 160,554 students taught by about 13,994 teachers, 86.4 percent of whom had a master's degree or equivalent.

The outbreak of the Civil War the following year brought raids by both Union and Confederate forces on local schools, which ultimately closed from 1862 until 1864.

[8] In 1872, the Maryland General Assembly appropriated state money to open schools for children of color.

[12] A woman was appointed to the board in 1920: Mrs. A. Dawson Trumble, who served a five-year term that led to a steady succession of female members.

[12] Edwin W. Broome, superintendent during 1916–1953, combined one-room schoolhouses into multi-room operations at the beginning of his tenure, reducing the number of schools from 108 to 66 by 1949.

[8] In 1936, Broome and his board agreed to equalize teacher pay regardless of race in response to a lawsuit brought by William B. Gibbs Jr. and the NAACP.

[14][15] Montgomery County was one of the first seven counties in Maryland to start to desegregate its public schools, which it began in September 1955, following the Brown v. Board of Education ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States that ordered the desegregation of all schools nationwide.

[8] In 2014, the board modified the school calendar to remove all references to the Christian and Jewish religious holidays of Christmas, Easter, Yom Kippur, and Rosh Hashanah.

[25][26] Criticism of the amendment came from a variety of sources, including Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett and Congressman John Delaney.

[28] On February 2, 2024, Monifa McKnight, the first black woman to serve as superintendent of Montgomery County schools,[29] resigned under pressure from the school board "amid questions about how the district handled sexual harassment, bullying and other allegations involving a former principal," according to the Washington Post.

[31] MCPS, which covers the entire county as its school district,[32] is governed by a board of education that sets goals, establishes policies, and allocates resources.

[36][38] After Williams died in December 2008, the MCPS board released a declaration recognizing her effect on the county.

[35][36] During the 1989 session of the Maryland General Assembly, Section 3-901 was again amended and established a limited vote for the student member.

[35] In 1995, Charles McCullough was the first African American to be directly elected as a student member of the board, serving during the 1995–1996 school year.

[37][42] The student member of the board serves one year and can vote on matters related to collective bargaining, capital and operating budgets, and school closings, re–openings, and boundaries.

[48] MCPS serves a diverse student body, with 32.8% Hispanic, 25.8% White, 21.8% Black, 14.3% Asian, .1% Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, and 5.0% two or more races.

[54] During the 2017–18 school year, the district launched data dashboards to focus on learning, accountability, and results.

In April 2018, the College Board and Project Lead the Way awarded more than 3,000 students in the U.S. for their accomplishments in the 2016–17 school year.

Twice-exceptional students have a unique profile of significant strengths and weaknesses – they are gifted and talented and also meet the criteria for an Individualized Education Program (IEP) or a Section 504 plan.

[64] The plan aims to help economically disadvantaged students, who lose the most ground during long summer breaks.