Lottery Results - High School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can definitely believe that there aren’t enough students in DC that meet the standards of these schools.

Seems a shame to build a nice big building and not fill it up. They could at least allow new residents to apply, and appeals for kids who very nearly missed being admitted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can definitely believe that there aren’t enough students in DC that meet the standards of these schools.

Seems a shame to build a nice big building and not fill it up. They could at least allow new residents to apply, and appeals for kids who very nearly missed being admitted.

It looks to me like Banneker is absolutely growing (incrementally, not all at once) to fill the building. But again, the number of kids they actually enroll is not directly linked with the number of seats they make available in the lottery.

[Anonymous]

My conspiracy theory. There was a huge influx of kids for this freshmen class 2028 and the schools are overwhelmed. McKinley has never filled this many seats in the last 4 years of historical data. JR is over crowded, they built MacArthur and are trying to spread out kids to curve overcrowding at all DCPS HS especially selective schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My conspiracy theory. There was a huge influx of kids for this freshmen class 2028 and the schools are overwhelmed. McKinley has never filled this many seats in the last 4 years of historical data. JR is over crowded, they built MacArthur and are trying to spread out kids to curve overcrowding at all DCPS HS especially selective schools.

This necessarily requires a certain level of coordination, competence and execution. This is DCPS we are talking about. Not possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So with so many kids marked as ineligible. How will the remaining 18 seats be filled? If given a waitlist number they'd simply have to wait and see.

They aren't "real" seats. The "seats" at these selective high schools represents the ceiling of the number of kids they can match on count day. It does not correlate to the actual number of seats the school plans to enroll/matriculate for the grade level. So the extra seats just disappear - because the school didn't identify a kid they wanted to match for them.

The challenge with your line of thinking (that may well be the actual reason) is that the test scores don't back up this theory of high performers. There are way too many kids just below grade level (or worse). Certainly there are other kids applying who would be no worse than those admitted?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can definitely believe that there aren’t enough students in DC that meet the standards of these schools.

This is a very, very rough way of approximating, but if you look at SY22-23, there were just under 1,000 8th graders who scored proficient on any math PARCC.

Also in SY22-23, the 9th grade enrollment across application schools (Banneker, Ellington, McKinley, Walls) was 681. At BASIS, DCI, and Latin was 420. Another 681 at JR.

So the seats are more or less there. I doubt they're efficiently or effectively allocated and matched to students though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So with so many kids marked as ineligible. How will the remaining 18 seats be filled? If given a waitlist number they'd simply have to wait and see.

They aren't "real" seats. The "seats" at these selective high schools represents the ceiling of the number of kids they can match on count day. It does not correlate to the actual number of seats the school plans to enroll/matriculate for the grade level. So the extra seats just disappear - because the school didn't identify a kid they wanted to match for them.

The challenge with your line of thinking (that may well be the actual reason) is that the test scores don't back up this theory of high performers. There are way too many kids just below grade level (or worse). Certainly there are other kids applying who would be no worse than those admitted?

They may be selecting for attitude and willingness to positively engage with authority figures as well as pure grades. To me, this would make sense as it can have a bigger impact on a student's future performance than how a child did in a poorly performing middle school where peer pressure was not on their side.

Obviously, test scores are not a factor as they are not submitted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So with so many kids marked as ineligible. How will the remaining 18 seats be filled? If given a waitlist number they'd simply have to wait and see.

They aren't "real" seats. The "seats" at these selective high schools represents the ceiling of the number of kids they can match on count day. It does not correlate to the actual number of seats the school plans to enroll/matriculate for the grade level. So the extra seats just disappear - because the school didn't identify a kid they wanted to match for them.

I just find it hard to believe there are only that many deserving kids in the city. And I find it hard to believe that so much class size variation is a good thing. And I find it hard to believe that there isn't a secret second round for insiders to get their kids a spot.

This sounds like a you problem, not a city problem.

Really? I think the culture of corruption and dishonesty and favoritism is part of what puts people off DCPS. Not to mention the financial losses such as in the food services scandal a few years back. My kids staying or going isn't going to make a difference, but the impact of corruption and the perception of corruption is much broader.

They cracked down on this after Antwan Wilson had to resign in 2018.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So with so many kids marked as ineligible. How will the remaining 18 seats be filled? If given a waitlist number they'd simply have to wait and see.

They aren't "real" seats. The "seats" at these selective high schools represents the ceiling of the number of kids they can match on count day. It does not correlate to the actual number of seats the school plans to enroll/matriculate for the grade level. So the extra seats just disappear - because the school didn't identify a kid they wanted to match for them.

I just find it hard to believe there are only that many deserving kids in the city. And I find it hard to believe that so much class size variation is a good thing. And I find it hard to believe that there isn't a secret second round for insiders to get their kids a spot.

This sounds like a you problem, not a city problem.

Really? I think the culture of corruption and dishonesty and favoritism is part of what puts people off DCPS. Not to mention the financial losses such as in the food services scandal a few years back. My kids staying or going isn't going to make a difference, but the impact of corruption and the perception of corruption is much broader.

They cracked down on this after Antwan Wilson had to resign in 2018.

I know, and there was a scattering of MD residents busted for sneaking their kids into various schools including McKinley Tech. So many city and DCPS employees were busted, I have to think they ran some sort of data match against city payroll data or something. Still, that was a while ago, and it's very hard for me to believe that there's zero problems after that. The selective high school application process is, as far as I know, NEVER audited. (I know MySchoolDC is audited, but the part with the interviews and essays being scored isn't through MySchoolDC). And the stakes are just too high for insider parents not to try and finagle something for their kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It looks to me, from the data, that Sojourner Truth has simply changed their model for admissions and is waiting to admit until they know how many current middle schoolers will move to other high schools. I suspect many will, based on a conversation with a friend about her middle schooler at Sojourner Truth moving to the High School program. So, what I'm trying to say is, I think that, at least this year, Sojourner Truth will go through their entire waiting list. Who knows about future years, but if you put Sojourner Truth on your list and you were shut out elsewhere, I think you'll make it in.

Not so sure about that. I'll admit I'm on the pessimistic end, with DC sitting at 73 on the waitlist for 9th grade. (and that was their best lottery number!)
I think that space is going to be a real issue at Truth this year and next, and they are shrinking incoming class sizes a bit to deal with that.