Montgomery County: Collaboration results in county Global Center

Montgomery County Executive Isaiah Leggett and Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley joined with executives from the International Baccalaureate Organization (IB), a global non-profit educational foundation to announce the selection of Montgomery County as the location of a new global center for the IB Americas region. The center will house more than 100 employees and will manage operations and assessment for 1,494 schools in 28 countries and territories in the Americas. The foundation is currently looking at a variety of locations throughout the county."This significant win for Montgomery County could not have happened without our partners at the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development and Montgomery County Public Schools," said Leggett. "This success is the result of true collaboration between education and economic development, and State and County."

The opening of the global center is part of the organization's plan to expand capacity over the next 12 years in preparation for an estimated 2.5 million students and 10,000 IB programs worldwide by 2020. The center will be fully functional by June 2010. "The selection of Montgomery County, Maryland to serve as the base of our operations in the Americas provides us with an opportunity to not only be geographically closer to the 91 IB World Schools in the Maryland, DC and Virginia area but to also expand our service offerings to include assessment ability for the first time in the region," said Drew Deutsch, IB Americas director. "We look forward to creating a world-class center from which we can provide more high quality services to our schools."

"Maryland's well-deserved reputation as a national leader in education, combined with our highly-educated workforce, diverse cultural community and strategic location make us an ideal location for the Global Centre for the Americas," said Governor O'Malley. "This is a tremendous win for Maryland, for Montgomery County and for the thousands of international students worldwide that will benefit from Maryland's exceptional educational assets."

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) played an important role in International Baccalaureate's decision to locate its new global center in Montgomery County. The 16th largest school district in the nation, MCPS has focused on encouraging and supporting student participation in the IB program as part of its commitment to making rigorous academic programs available to all students.

"It is great news that IB has selected Montgomery County as its new home in the Americas. It will not only benefit our county economically, but it will also be a wonderful asset for our school system," said Jerry D. Weast, superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools. "We look forward to enhancing our strong partnership with IB to benefit all children in our community.

"IB's decision to locate its new global center for the Americas in Montgomery County reinforces the many attractive assets and advantages found here," Weast continued. "These include an abundance of human capital available to grow the center, in particular education and research, professional services and IT workers; a diverse international population well suited to serve the needs of an international educational non-profit like IB; and a County government and economic development team in tune with the specific needs of the client and capable of delivering a customized solution.