Quince Orchard High School

Quince Orchard High School
Address
15800 Quince Orchard Road
Gaithersburg, Maryland, 20878
USA
Coordinates 39°6′56″N 77°15′15″W / 39.11556°N 77.25417°W / 39.11556; -77.25417Coordinates: 39°6′56″N 77°15′15″W / 39.11556°N 77.25417°W / 39.11556; -77.25417
Information
Type Public Secondary
Established 1988
School district Montgomery County Public Schools
Principal Carole Working
Grades 9–12
Number of students 1,814 [1]
Campus Suburban
Color(s) Red, Black and White
Mascot Cougars
Newspaper The Prowler
Yearbook Tracks
Website www.QOHS.org

Quince Orchard High School (QOHS), also known as Q.O. High School, is a secondary school located on Quince Orchard Road in an unincorporated area of Gaithersburg in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. Quince Orchard's incoming freshmen come from Lakelands Park and Ridgeview Middle School as well as Roberto Clemente Middle School magnet program. Up until the end of the 2007 school year Quince Orchard also took in freshman from Kingsview Middle School. Parts of Gaithersburg and North Potomac assigned to Quince Orchard. Quince Orchard High won 4 state championships in 2007-2008, in boys cross country running, girls soccer, American football, boys indoor track.

Academics

Starting in 2010, QOHS will also take in freshmen from Parkland Middle School or anyone who attended Parkland. According to materials from the school, Quince Orchard "encourages advanced studies in both the arts and books." To this end, 31 Advanced Placement courses are offered, ranging from the arts to world history to science and math.[2] The school also boasts higher-than-average SAT (544 verbal, 558 math, 1102 total) and ACT (22 composite) scores, and requires 75 hours of community service for graduation.[3]

In 2006, Quince Orchard High School was listed in the Newsweek Magazine's top 1,300 High Schools in the U.S., as the 456th highest-rated school in the country.[4]

In 2014, Quince Orchard High School was ranked at #176 by US News on their Best High School list and sixth in the state of Maryland. [5]

Athletics

The football team won the state championships in 1991 and 2007 in the 4A (Maryland's largest classification, based on enrollment) classification.

The varsity baseball team won the 2005 state title. In 2006, the boys cross country team and the girls field hockey team won the State Championships on November 11 and November 14.

Quince Orchard's biggest rivals are Sherwood High School of Sandy Spring, MD, Damascus High School of Damascus, MD, Seneca Valley High School of Germantown, MD, and Northwest High School of Germantown, MD.

Arts

Quince Orchard has theatre and music departments. In the spring of 2008, the Quince Orchard High School Chamber Singers performed at the Kennedy Center with the Manhattan Concert Productions. Over the years the Theatre department has staged nearly 50 productions, including recently "Up the Down Staircase" and the musical "Grease", which was critically acclaimed by the National Theatre Critics Program.

In addition, students produce The Prowler newspaper and the yearbook Tracks.

The QOHS Marching Band went to the inaugural USSBA National Championship and achieved a record-breaking score for Montgomery County, Maryland of 90.275.[6] The next year, the band received their second record-breaking score for Montgomery County, Maryland of 92.325, and placed 9th out of 18 national groups. In 2008, the marching band won The USSBA Group IV Open Maryland State Championships with the show "Jekyll and Hyde."[6] In 2012, the marching band won the USSBA Group IIIA Maryland State Championships with the show "Alive and Amplified".

Student diversity

For the 2005–2006 school year, Quince Orchard has a total enrollment of 1,910 students. The student body is an increasingly diverse group as more Hispanic and Asian families move into the area. During the 2005-2006 school year, the school's student body was 51.3% Non-Hispanic Caucasian, 17.6% African American, 15.7% Asian, 15.1% Hispanic and 0.3% American Indian.[3]

Notable alumni

References

  1. ↑ http://www.localschooldirectory.com/public-school/38265/MD
  2. ↑ "Quince Orchard HS School Profile (PDF)" (PDF).
  3. 1 2 "Quince Orchard HS at a Glance (PDF)" (PDF).
  4. ↑ "Newsweek names MCPS high schools among best in nation" (PDF). The Bulletin. May 8, 2006. p. Pg. 1 & 3.
  5. ↑ http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/national-rankings/spp%2B100/page+2. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  6. 1 2 "Quince Orchard Band Milestones".
  7. ↑ Jensen, Michael (August 5, 2007). "Interview with Greek's Paul James, page 2". AfterElton.com. Retrieved May 11, 2009.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, March 14, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.