They are likely turning away kids who are getting 1’s and some 2’s on PARCC. Nothing to see here. The PARCC scores are not good where only 26% of kids are on grade level or above in math. Majority of these kids are just on grade level. I don’t really see how you can view McKinley as a good STEM school with those poor stats. |
My understanding is that high school students who are taking AP classes do not take the PARCC. So, it's not a great measure of math performance in schools with many students taking AP Classes. |
It’s easy enough to look at AP scores overall and only 25% of the kids ( 1 out if 4 kids) taking AP are getting 3 and above so stats still pretty bad. If you take out the 3, which is not really a good score, and have just 4 or 5, it’s probably in the single percentages. |
They can't look at student PARCC scores and are not allowed to consider advanced coursework. They're turning away all kinds of kids because they don't have that information. |
They get report cards so they do see advanced coursework. |
I’m surprised more families who want BASIS and get shut out don’t consider DC Prep Edgewood Middle. Their test scores are significantly better than lots of places (EH/SH/Jefferson) that are routinely discussed as backups here. They have a more academically intense outlook that aligns more with the BASIS vibe.
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Most people posting & considering SH/EH/Jefferson live on the Hill, so walking distance or close to at least 1 or 2 of them. That’s a lot of the reason people are willing to take a chance on them. DC Prep Edgewood is not walkable, has similar test scores (compared to SH, they’re worse for ELA and better for math; but also inflated by 4th & 5th grade scores) & has no white kids… |
DCPS explicitly says the only thing they are allowed to do with transcripts is get the GPA. There's no mechanism by which McKinley or any of the selective high schools would be identifying the kids getting 1s and 2s and rejecting them. They do not see that information. |
That comment was to the advanced coursework part, which they obviously see. GPAs are NOT printed on middle school report cards ever so they have to look at something on there. |
Basis is not universally all that appealing. There are lots of families who really want Basis. But there are increasingly Hill middle school families who might have gone with Latin but who then opted out of Basis. |
BASIS middle is not why people go to BASIS. It's to get access to the high school. That is why. |
It seems like inconvenient and if you stay IB at least you'll likely have some friends. And the DC Prep campus has little outdoor space and no field. It's on that weird block where Latin is temporarily, traffic is quite bad. |
Not true for our family. I like the middle school a lot and prefer it to most other middles (due to how much they learn and how they learn how to learn), but there are several high schools that I prefer to BASISs high school (Walls, JR). |
This was us. We matched and declined BASIS. |
There is a published rubric. They calculate your GPA, award you points, and that's the only thing happening with the transcript. |