History

In response to the effect of these cuts, a group of staff, parents, alumni, students, business leaders, and concerned citizens representing all sectors of the community, formed the Community Coalition for B-CC High School (CC-B-CC) which issued “A Call to Action” for Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School. After a year of intensive research, surveying, and educational forums, the group presented an initiative for re-engineering B-CC. This consensus initiative, “Stand Up For B-CC 2000,” established Three Pillars of Reform — Academic Excellence, Small School Experience, and Connecting with Community — that launched a renaissance at B-CC High School.

For the school to maintain and enhance its rich academic tradition, the initiative found additional resources, both financial and material, in B-CC’s surrounding businesses, parents, and alumni. And with that effort, the Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School Educational Foundation was incorporated in August 1995.

The Foundation is instrumental in bringing several “firsts” to B-CC:

• B-CC’s IB Diploma Program is the first open-access IB program in Montgomery County Public Schools.

• B-CC is the first Montgomery County public school to have a technology-based Language Lab for teaching foreign languages and for teaching English to students in the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program.

• B-CC offered the first Cyber Cafe in Montgomery County public schools – designed to offer students access to computers and necessary software before and after school and during lunch hours.

• B-CC launched CollegeTracks, a program now at five Montgomery County high schools, which helps improve college access and success for students most at risk of not going to college — low income, first-generation-to-college, immigrant, and minority youth.