Talk to me about McKinley

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So seriously, the standard we're setting for McKinley Tech is "how many of its students are going to Caltech?"

Love that.

No, McKinley Tech is fine for many science-focused students. But for the kids who have the potential for CalTech, DCPS does not offer a good solution. Don't those students matter too?

CalTech is only 980 students total...so only about 245 per class. It is my understanding that not a single kid from any DC school (public, private or charter) was admitted to CalTech for the 2023 class. That said, very few applied.

DCPS sends kids to MIT, Ivy League, Stanford, UC schools, Michigan, UVA, etc. every year. Yes, probably 90%+ of those students attend Walls or JR (though McKinley sent some as well...believe the Valedictorian last year is at Cornell). You would agree those are strong schools.

By 2023 year, do you mean kids who were admitted in the spring of this year? Because I know that a student at BASIS DC was admitted to Caltech this past spring.

Yes…so that is a good reference…none of the privates nor JR or Walls had any. Nice there was one DC kid.

I’m sorry I think your bar is just too high. Who even knows how many kids at JR or Walls applied to CalTech? Lots of kids from those schools study engineering or math at Cornell, Princeton, UMichigan, Carnegie Mellon, UVA, UPenn, UC schools, etc.

I agree with you…I would be shocked if 20 kids in all of DC across every school even applied.

This was all in response to PP that said McKinley kids should get accepted to Caltech when the entire school only has 245 kids in each class.

It’s not about Caltech specifically, but if it actually is a real STEM school yes, I would expect that a few kids every year are getting admitted to top STEM programs.

[Anonymous]

McKinley is NOT trying to be TJ or Bronx school of science and failing. It is trying to be McKinley Tech and succeeding. It is a school accepting of motivated students of varied levels of prior preparation and achievement with a range of opportunities to explore interest in and (for some areas) earn industry certifications in STEM areas. It offers a lot of help landing field specific internships and in engineering very strong extracurricular offerings (I.e. robot and EV car teams that travel nationally and internationally). It is a place that both celebrates the student who through hard work earns a 2 on an AP and the achievement of a stronger student who earns a 5. It also provides exposure to STEM fields that can help both a student going to colllege immediately and a student who isn’t. For example in biotech students prepare for the BACE exam that certified lab techs. This provides a straight out of HS pathway to a decently paying job, exposure to topics that will help in college level lab science classes, and a pathway to a non-scut work college work study job or college internship. It is OK to wish for a TJ style school in DC but please do not fault McKinley for not being what it has no intention of being.

If your student is incredibly lazy and will do a minimum amount of work and not reach their potential if not surrounded by mostly above grade level students then maybe they won’t thrive at McKinley. But if you have a strong student academically that will work hard McKinley will provide challenge for them to excel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So seriously, the standard we're setting for McKinley Tech is "how many of its students are going to Caltech?"

Love that.

No, McKinley Tech is fine for many science-focused students. But for the kids who have the potential for CalTech, DCPS does not offer a good solution. Don't those students matter too?

CalTech is only 980 students total...so only about 245 per class. It is my understanding that not a single kid from any DC school (public, private or charter) was admitted to CalTech for the 2023 class. That said, very few applied.

DCPS sends kids to MIT, Ivy League, Stanford, UC schools, Michigan, UVA, etc. every year. Yes, probably 90%+ of those students attend Walls or JR (though McKinley sent some as well...believe the Valedictorian last year is at Cornell). You would agree those are strong schools.

Going to college on the opposite side of the U.S. is not easy. I wouldn’t think many kids would do it unless they have family in CA. The only thing that makes sense is Stanford over MIT to me. Stanford is a feeder into the SV startup scene. The only thing coming out of MIT are inflated egos/self-worth.

What a goofy statement. This MIT grad think you aren't a serious person, not even close. Many of my former classmates are modest types who do absolutely amazing things. I interview applicants to MIT as an alum volunteer. To my knowledge, DCPS generally produces zero MIT admits in a given year, occasionally one or two. In fact, BASIS alone has produced more MIT admits in the last several years than DCPS has in the last decade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:McKinley is NOT trying to be TJ or Bronx school of science and failing. It is trying to be McKinley Tech and succeeding. It is a school accepting of motivated students of varied levels of prior preparation and achievement with a range of opportunities to explore interest in and (for some areas) earn industry certifications in STEM areas. It offers a lot of help landing field specific internships and in engineering very strong extracurricular offerings (I.e. robot and EV car teams that travel nationally and internationally). It is a place that both celebrates the student who through hard work earns a 2 on an AP and the achievement of a stronger student who earns a 5. It also provides exposure to STEM fields that can help both a student going to colllege immediately and a student who isn’t. For example in biotech students prepare for the BACE exam that certified lab techs. This provides a straight out of HS pathway to a decently paying job, exposure to topics that will help in college level lab science classes, and a pathway to a non-scut work college work study job or college internship. It is OK to wish for a TJ style school in DC but please do not fault McKinley for not being what it has no intention of being.

If your student is incredibly lazy and will do a minimum amount of work and not reach their potential if not surrounded by mostly above grade level students then maybe they won’t thrive at McKinley. But if you have a strong student academically that will work hard McKinley will provide challenge for them to excel.

The tyranny of low expectations shines through in yet another rose-colored-glasses post about McKinley giving DCPS a pass on failing to support ES and MS GT challenge for top talent and performers in the system, particularly low SES minority kids.

Sure, DCPS has no intention of bothering to try to compete with suburban and NYC public school talent and ambition. At least you got one thing right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So seriously, the standard we're setting for McKinley Tech is "how many of its students are going to Caltech?"

Love that.

No, McKinley Tech is fine for many science-focused students. But for the kids who have the potential for CalTech, DCPS does not offer a good solution. Don't those students matter too?

CalTech is only 980 students total...so only about 245 per class. It is my understanding that not a single kid from any DC school (public, private or charter) was admitted to CalTech for the 2023 class. That said, very few applied.

DCPS sends kids to MIT, Ivy League, Stanford, UC schools, Michigan, UVA, etc. every year. Yes, probably 90%+ of those students attend Walls or JR (though McKinley sent some as well...believe the Valedictorian last year is at Cornell). You would agree those are strong schools.

Going to college on the opposite side of the U.S. is not easy. I wouldn’t think many kids would do it unless they have family in CA. The only thing that makes sense is Stanford over MIT to me. Stanford is a feeder into the SV startup scene. The only thing coming out of MIT are inflated egos/self-worth.

What a goofy statement. This MIT grad think you aren't a serious person, not even close. Many of my former classmates are modest types who do absolutely amazing things. I interview applicants to MIT as an alum volunteer. To my knowledge, DCPS generally produces zero MIT admits in a given year, occasionally one or two. In fact, BASIS alone has produced more MIT admits in the last several years than DCPS has in the last decade.

In fairness...go look at Sidwell, GDS, STA and Maret and you are lucky to have 1 kid in total from all those schools combined admitted to MIT each year. I know the private school folks claim that it is just due to not having an interest in MIT (of course STA literally has like 10+ kids going to U Chicago every year)...however, I would think it is a combination of where interest and acceptance my overlap. Since MIT does not really recruit heavily for sports and offers no legacy benefit...I guess it makes sense for private schools.

JR actually has had one admit in each of the last two years. In both years, top of the class URM that was accepted to nearly every school they applied. Both actually matriculated at different Ivy schools for one reason or another.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McKinley is NOT trying to be TJ or Bronx school of science and failing. It is trying to be McKinley Tech and succeeding. It is a school accepting of motivated students of varied levels of prior preparation and achievement with a range of opportunities to explore interest in and (for some areas) earn industry certifications in STEM areas. It offers a lot of help landing field specific internships and in engineering very strong extracurricular offerings (I.e. robot and EV car teams that travel nationally and internationally). It is a place that both celebrates the student who through hard work earns a 2 on an AP and the achievement of a stronger student who earns a 5. It also provides exposure to STEM fields that can help both a student going to colllege immediately and a student who isn’t. For example in biotech students prepare for the BACE exam that certified lab techs. This provides a straight out of HS pathway to a decently paying job, exposure to topics that will help in college level lab science classes, and a pathway to a non-scut work college work study job or college internship. It is OK to wish for a TJ style school in DC but please do not fault McKinley for not being what it has no intention of being.

If your student is incredibly lazy and will do a minimum amount of work and not reach their potential if not surrounded by mostly above grade level students then maybe they won’t thrive at McKinley. But if you have a strong student academically that will work hard McKinley will provide challenge for them to excel.

The tyranny of low expectations shines through in yet another rose-colored-glasses post about McKinley giving DCPS a pass on failing to support ES and MS GT challenge for top talent and performers in the system, particularly low SES minority kids.

Sure, DCPS has no intention of bothering to try to compete with suburban and NYC public school talent and ambition. At least you got one thing right.

I get it. You want a school for high academically performing gifted students and that doesn’t exist in DC. Why though is it bad to have a school catering to students of diverse academic strengths but interest in science and technology. My relative for example was a middling student with an interest in math at a large suburban HS. Went in to a middling college. Got a job doing database administration and is making mid-100,000 salary. They would have loved to tech exposure at McKinley but would not have tested into a program like TJ. Why is an option for students like that horrible?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McKinley is NOT trying to be TJ or Bronx school of science and failing. It is trying to be McKinley Tech and succeeding. It is a school accepting of motivated students of varied levels of prior preparation and achievement with a range of opportunities to explore interest in and (for some areas) earn industry certifications in STEM areas. It offers a lot of help landing field specific internships and in engineering very strong extracurricular offerings (I.e. robot and EV car teams that travel nationally and internationally). It is a place that both celebrates the student who through hard work earns a 2 on an AP and the achievement of a stronger student who earns a 5. It also provides exposure to STEM fields that can help both a student going to colllege immediately and a student who isn’t. For example in biotech students prepare for the BACE exam that certified lab techs. This provides a straight out of HS pathway to a decently paying job, exposure to topics that will help in college level lab science classes, and a pathway to a non-scut work college work study job or college internship. It is OK to wish for a TJ style school in DC but please do not fault McKinley for not being what it has no intention of being.

If your student is incredibly lazy and will do a minimum amount of work and not reach their potential if not surrounded by mostly above grade level students then maybe they won’t thrive at McKinley. But if you have a strong student academically that will work hard McKinley will provide challenge for them to excel.

The tyranny of low expectations shines through in yet another rose-colored-glasses post about McKinley giving DCPS a pass on failing to support ES and MS GT challenge for top talent and performers in the system, particularly low SES minority kids.

Sure, DCPS has no intention of bothering to try to compete with suburban and NYC public school talent and ambition. At least you got one thing right.

I get it. You want a school for high academically performing gifted students and that doesn’t exist in DC. Why though is it bad to have a school catering to students of diverse academic strengths but interest in science and technology. My relative for example was a middling student with an interest in math at a large suburban HS. Went in to a middling college. Got a job doing database administration and is making mid-100,000 salary. They would have loved to tech exposure at McKinley but would not have tested into a program like TJ. Why is an option for students like that horrible?

+1. Kids who work hard should have good high school options regardless of how strong they are academically. McKinley is not why there is no TJ option in DC, and even if there were, it would still be desirable to have McKinley.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:McKinley is NOT trying to be TJ or Bronx school of science and failing. It is trying to be McKinley Tech and succeeding. It is a school accepting of motivated students of varied levels of prior preparation and achievement with a range of opportunities to explore interest in and (for some areas) earn industry certifications in STEM areas. It offers a lot of help landing field specific internships and in engineering very strong extracurricular offerings (I.e. robot and EV car teams that travel nationally and internationally). It is a place that both celebrates the student who through hard work earns a 2 on an AP and the achievement of a stronger student who earns a 5. It also provides exposure to STEM fields that can help both a student going to colllege immediately and a student who isn’t. For example in biotech students prepare for the BACE exam that certified lab techs. This provides a straight out of HS pathway to a decently paying job, exposure to topics that will help in college level lab science classes, and a pathway to a non-scut work college work study job or college internship. It is OK to wish for a TJ style school in DC but please do not fault McKinley for not being what it has no intention of being.

If your student is incredibly lazy and will do a minimum amount of work and not reach their potential if not surrounded by mostly above grade level students then maybe they won’t thrive at McKinley. But if you have a strong student academically that will work hard McKinley will provide challenge for them to excel.

I wish you would get a little more specific by what you mean by “expose.” The goal of school is to teach, not “expose.” Per test scores, McKinley actually is not doing a good job of teaching some kids. It’s high school, not preschool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McKinley is NOT trying to be TJ or Bronx school of science and failing. It is trying to be McKinley Tech and succeeding. It is a school accepting of motivated students of varied levels of prior preparation and achievement with a range of opportunities to explore interest in and (for some areas) earn industry certifications in STEM areas. It offers a lot of help landing field specific internships and in engineering very strong extracurricular offerings (I.e. robot and EV car teams that travel nationally and internationally). It is a place that both celebrates the student who through hard work earns a 2 on an AP and the achievement of a stronger student who earns a 5. It also provides exposure to STEM fields that can help both a student going to colllege immediately and a student who isn’t. For example in biotech students prepare for the BACE exam that certified lab techs. This provides a straight out of HS pathway to a decently paying job, exposure to topics that will help in college level lab science classes, and a pathway to a non-scut work college work study job or college internship. It is OK to wish for a TJ style school in DC but please do not fault McKinley for not being what it has no intention of being.

If your student is incredibly lazy and will do a minimum amount of work and not reach their potential if not surrounded by mostly above grade level students then maybe they won’t thrive at McKinley. But if you have a strong student academically that will work hard McKinley will provide challenge for them to excel.

The tyranny of low expectations shines through in yet another rose-colored-glasses post about McKinley giving DCPS a pass on failing to support ES and MS GT challenge for top talent and performers in the system, particularly low SES minority kids.

Sure, DCPS has no intention of bothering to try to compete with suburban and NYC public school talent and ambition. At least you got one thing right.

I get it. You want a school for high academically performing gifted students and that doesn’t exist in DC. Why though is it bad to have a school catering to students of diverse academic strengths but interest in science and technology. My relative for example was a middling student with an interest in math at a large suburban HS. Went in to a middling college. Got a job doing database administration and is making mid-100,000 salary. They would have loved to tech exposure at McKinley but would not have tested into a program like TJ. Why is an option for students like that horrible?

I appreciate this vision too but I don’t think it’s actually what is happening at McKinley.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McKinley is NOT trying to be TJ or Bronx school of science and failing. It is trying to be McKinley Tech and succeeding. It is a school accepting of motivated students of varied levels of prior preparation and achievement with a range of opportunities to explore interest in and (for some areas) earn industry certifications in STEM areas. It offers a lot of help landing field specific internships and in engineering very strong extracurricular offerings (I.e. robot and EV car teams that travel nationally and internationally). It is a place that both celebrates the student who through hard work earns a 2 on an AP and the achievement of a stronger student who earns a 5. It also provides exposure to STEM fields that can help both a student going to colllege immediately and a student who isn’t. For example in biotech students prepare for the BACE exam that certified lab techs. This provides a straight out of HS pathway to a decently paying job, exposure to topics that will help in college level lab science classes, and a pathway to a non-scut work college work study job or college internship. It is OK to wish for a TJ style school in DC but please do not fault McKinley for not being what it has no intention of being.

If your student is incredibly lazy and will do a minimum amount of work and not reach their potential if not surrounded by mostly above grade level students then maybe they won’t thrive at McKinley. But if you have a strong student academically that will work hard McKinley will provide challenge for them to excel.

The tyranny of low expectations shines through in yet another rose-colored-glasses post about McKinley giving DCPS a pass on failing to support ES and MS GT challenge for top talent and performers in the system, particularly low SES minority kids.

Sure, DCPS has no intention of bothering to try to compete with suburban and NYC public school talent and ambition. At least you got one thing right.

I get it. You want a school for high academically performing gifted students and that doesn’t exist in DC. Why though is it bad to have a school catering to students of diverse academic strengths but interest in science and technology. My relative for example was a middling student with an interest in math at a large suburban HS. Went in to a middling college. Got a job doing database administration and is making mid-100,000 salary. They would have loved to tech exposure at McKinley but would not have tested into a program like TJ. Why is an option for students like that horrible?

I appreciate this vision too but I don’t think it’s actually what is happening at McKinley.

The original poster asked for people who were actually at McKinley. Making assumptions about what you think is happening there isn't useful for anybody.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McKinley is NOT trying to be TJ or Bronx school of science and failing. It is trying to be McKinley Tech and succeeding. It is a school accepting of motivated students of varied levels of prior preparation and achievement with a range of opportunities to explore interest in and (for some areas) earn industry certifications in STEM areas. It offers a lot of help landing field specific internships and in engineering very strong extracurricular offerings (I.e. robot and EV car teams that travel nationally and internationally). It is a place that both celebrates the student who through hard work earns a 2 on an AP and the achievement of a stronger student who earns a 5. It also provides exposure to STEM fields that can help both a student going to colllege immediately and a student who isn’t. For example in biotech students prepare for the BACE exam that certified lab techs. This provides a straight out of HS pathway to a decently paying job, exposure to topics that will help in college level lab science classes, and a pathway to a non-scut work college work study job or college internship. It is OK to wish for a TJ style school in DC but please do not fault McKinley for not being what it has no intention of being.

If your student is incredibly lazy and will do a minimum amount of work and not reach their potential if not surrounded by mostly above grade level students then maybe they won’t thrive at McKinley. But if you have a strong student academically that will work hard McKinley will provide challenge for them to excel.

I wish you would get a little more specific by what you mean by “expose.” The goal of school is to teach, not “expose.” Per test scores, McKinley actually is not doing a good job of teaching some kids. It’s high school, not preschool.

Which schools in the United States with McKinley's racial and economic demographics and which don't use standardized tests as part of the admissions process or control their own student pipeline (like, via having an associated ES and MS) have test scores you find acceptable?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McKinley is NOT trying to be TJ or Bronx school of science and failing. It is trying to be McKinley Tech and succeeding. It is a school accepting of motivated students of varied levels of prior preparation and achievement with a range of opportunities to explore interest in and (for some areas) earn industry certifications in STEM areas. It offers a lot of help landing field specific internships and in engineering very strong extracurricular offerings (I.e. robot and EV car teams that travel nationally and internationally). It is a place that both celebrates the student who through hard work earns a 2 on an AP and the achievement of a stronger student who earns a 5. It also provides exposure to STEM fields that can help both a student going to colllege immediately and a student who isn’t. For example in biotech students prepare for the BACE exam that certified lab techs. This provides a straight out of HS pathway to a decently paying job, exposure to topics that will help in college level lab science classes, and a pathway to a non-scut work college work study job or college internship. It is OK to wish for a TJ style school in DC but please do not fault McKinley for not being what it has no intention of being.

If your student is incredibly lazy and will do a minimum amount of work and not reach their potential if not surrounded by mostly above grade level students then maybe they won’t thrive at McKinley. But if you have a strong student academically that will work hard McKinley will provide challenge for them to excel.

I wish you would get a little more specific by what you mean by “expose.” The goal of school is to teach, not “expose.” Per test scores, McKinley actually is not doing a good job of teaching some kids. It’s high school, not preschool.

Expose= doing electrophoresis, PCR, and other biotechnology lab procedures in HS.

Expose= designing working websites, building robots with raspberry pi’s as controllers

Expose= getting a summer internship at engineering companies and research labs at Children’s hospital through connections provided by the school

Expose= designing an electric car and traveling to Doha to race it in an international competition

Expose= video conference with a NASA design team about your mars rover prototype your team is building

All of these things have happened in the last year at McKinley. None of them will show up in test scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So seriously, the standard we're setting for McKinley Tech is "how many of its students are going to Caltech?"

Love that.

No, McKinley Tech is fine for many science-focused students. But for the kids who have the potential for CalTech, DCPS does not offer a good solution. Don't those students matter too?

CalTech is only 980 students total...so only about 245 per class. It is my understanding that not a single kid from any DC school (public, private or charter) was admitted to CalTech for the 2023 class. That said, very few applied.

DCPS sends kids to MIT, Ivy League, Stanford, UC schools, Michigan, UVA, etc. every year. Yes, probably 90%+ of those students attend Walls or JR (though McKinley sent some as well...believe the Valedictorian last year is at Cornell). You would agree those are strong schools.

By 2023 year, do you mean kids who were admitted in the spring of this year? Because I know that a student at BASIS DC was admitted to Caltech this past spring.

Yes…so that is a good reference…none of the privates nor JR or Walls had any. Nice there was one DC kid.

I’m sorry I think your bar is just too high. Who even knows how many kids at JR or Walls applied to CalTech? Lots of kids from those schools study engineering or math at Cornell, Princeton, UMichigan, Carnegie Mellon, UVA, UPenn, UC schools, etc.

I agree with you…I would be shocked if 20 kids in all of DC across every school even applied.

This was all in response to PP that said McKinley kids should get accepted to Caltech when the entire school only has 245 kids in each class.

It’s not about Caltech specifically, but if it actually is a real STEM school yes, I would expect that a few kids every year are getting admitted to top STEM programs.

What are other top programs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McKinley is NOT trying to be TJ or Bronx school of science and failing. It is trying to be McKinley Tech and succeeding. It is a school accepting of motivated students of varied levels of prior preparation and achievement with a range of opportunities to explore interest in and (for some areas) earn industry certifications in STEM areas. It offers a lot of help landing field specific internships and in engineering very strong extracurricular offerings (I.e. robot and EV car teams that travel nationally and internationally). It is a place that both celebrates the student who through hard work earns a 2 on an AP and the achievement of a stronger student who earns a 5. It also provides exposure to STEM fields that can help both a student going to colllege immediately and a student who isn’t. For example in biotech students prepare for the BACE exam that certified lab techs. This provides a straight out of HS pathway to a decently paying job, exposure to topics that will help in college level lab science classes, and a pathway to a non-scut work college work study job or college internship. It is OK to wish for a TJ style school in DC but please do not fault McKinley for not being what it has no intention of being.

If your student is incredibly lazy and will do a minimum amount of work and not reach their potential if not surrounded by mostly above grade level students then maybe they won’t thrive at McKinley. But if you have a strong student academically that will work hard McKinley will provide challenge for them to excel.

I wish you would get a little more specific by what you mean by “expose.” The goal of school is to teach, not “expose.” Per test scores, McKinley actually is not doing a good job of teaching some kids. It’s high school, not preschool.

Expose= doing electrophoresis, PCR, and other biotechnology lab procedures in HS.

Expose= designing working websites, building robots with raspberry pi’s as controllers

Expose= getting a summer internship at engineering companies and research labs at Children’s hospital through connections provided by the school

Expose= designing an electric car and traveling to Doha to race it in an international competition

Expose= video conference with a NASA design team about your mars rover prototype your team is building

All of these things have happened in the last year at McKinley. None of them will show up in test scores.

Those are all nice but shouldn’t take the place of teaching kids math & writing. A video conference with NASA is not going to help if a kid can’t do basic math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McKinley is NOT trying to be TJ or Bronx school of science and failing. It is trying to be McKinley Tech and succeeding. It is a school accepting of motivated students of varied levels of prior preparation and achievement with a range of opportunities to explore interest in and (for some areas) earn industry certifications in STEM areas. It offers a lot of help landing field specific internships and in engineering very strong extracurricular offerings (I.e. robot and EV car teams that travel nationally and internationally). It is a place that both celebrates the student who through hard work earns a 2 on an AP and the achievement of a stronger student who earns a 5. It also provides exposure to STEM fields that can help both a student going to colllege immediately and a student who isn’t. For example in biotech students prepare for the BACE exam that certified lab techs. This provides a straight out of HS pathway to a decently paying job, exposure to topics that will help in college level lab science classes, and a pathway to a non-scut work college work study job or college internship. It is OK to wish for a TJ style school in DC but please do not fault McKinley for not being what it has no intention of being.

If your student is incredibly lazy and will do a minimum amount of work and not reach their potential if not surrounded by mostly above grade level students then maybe they won’t thrive at McKinley. But if you have a strong student academically that will work hard McKinley will provide challenge for them to excel.

I wish you would get a little more specific by what you mean by “expose.” The goal of school is to teach, not “expose.” Per test scores, McKinley actually is not doing a good job of teaching some kids. It’s high school, not preschool.

Which schools in the United States with McKinley's racial and economic demographics and which don't use standardized tests as part of the admissions process or control their own student pipeline (like, via having an associated ES and MS) have test scores you find acceptable?

I don’t think 75% failing is acceptable. We can do better.