Recent Banneker experience

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have any recent experience with Banneker? I was hoping my DD would get into a magnet program for middle school, but that didn’t work out so we’re going to give our home school a try. Would love any feedback.

[Anonymous]

I have an 8th grader at Banneker and an older child who went to Eastern. We also hoped that the younger kid would go to a magnet, but no luck in the lottery. Banneker has been fine. My kid has made some good friends and generally enjoys school, which is the most important thing. My kid has not found classes particularly challenging (especially compared to what we know from Eastern), but has had good teachers and reasonable assignments, and I think that's similar to many other non-magnet middle schools in the county. I think the transition to high school work will be harder than for my Eastern kid, but they'll be prepared. Kid feels safe; I have heard about fights and issues, but my kid is able to avoid those. Acting principal this year, so next year's administration is unknown. There aren't a lot of extracurriculars, but they have been ramping up this year compared to the last two years (which were definitely affected by the pandemic). The advantage of Banneker over Eastern is the much easier commute and also having some friends from the neighborhood that will be in high school together (not the case for my older kid, but also still an issue for my younger kid because of the NEC and the split between 3 high schools).

Hope that helps. If you have any specific questions, I can try to answer more.

[Anonymous]

Yes, this was helpful! Thank you! I was starting to worry because talking to my neighbors, their advice was choose private over Banneker (which isn’t an option for me).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, this was helpful! Thank you! I was starting to worry because talking to my neighbors, their advice was choose private over Banneker (which isn’t an option for me).

PP here - just a few more comments about things I wondered about before sending my kid to Banneker.

The overall test scores for the school may look concerning, but my kid and their friends have continued to do well on MAP, MCAP, etc. There's a "straight-A" breakfast held every quarter to celebrate kids who have achieved that goal, and there are typically ~10-20% of the kids from each grade listed. If you were hoping for a magnet middle school, I'm assuming your kid is relatively high-achieving, so it's good to know there is a cohort of similarly achieving kids (although maybe it's smaller than at some other schools).

I'll admit that the racial and economic makeup of the school is something I thought/worried about. The school has about 70% of kids qualifying for FARMS, and the whole school gets free breakfast/lunch. My family doesn't fall in the FARMS category. My kid is also in a distinct racial minority at the school (Banneker is 65% black, 20% Hispanic, <10% Asian, and <5% white). Neither of these things seem to impact my kid (or enter their mind) on a regular basis. I've always kept the idea of private school in the back of my mind as an option to consider if public school wasn't working for my children, but Banneker has worked okay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, this was helpful! Thank you! I was starting to worry because talking to my neighbors, their advice was choose private over Banneker (which isn’t an option for me).

PP here - just a few more comments about things I wondered about before sending my kid to Banneker.

The overall test scores for the school may look concerning, but my kid and their friends have continued to do well on MAP, MCAP, etc. There's a "straight-A" breakfast held every quarter to celebrate kids who have achieved that goal, and there are typically ~10-20% of the kids from each grade listed. If you were hoping for a magnet middle school, I'm assuming your kid is relatively high-achieving, so it's good to know there is a cohort of similarly achieving kids (although maybe it's smaller than at some other schools).

I'll admit that the racial and economic makeup of the school is something I thought/worried about. The school has about 70% of kids qualifying for FARMS, and the whole school gets free breakfast/lunch. My family doesn't fall in the FARMS category. My kid is also in a distinct racial minority at the school (Banneker is 65% black, 20% Hispanic, <10% Asian, and <5% white). Neither of these things seem to impact my kid (or enter their mind) on a regular basis. I've always kept the idea of private school in the back of my mind as an option to consider if public school wasn't working for my children, but Banneker has worked okay.

This wasn’t really a concern for me. My kid doesn’t qualify for FARMS either and we’re black.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, this was helpful! Thank you! I was starting to worry because talking to my neighbors, their advice was choose private over Banneker (which isn’t an option for me).

PP here - just a few more comments about things I wondered about before sending my kid to Banneker.

The overall test scores for the school may look concerning, but my kid and their friends have continued to do well on MAP, MCAP, etc. There's a "straight-A" breakfast held every quarter to celebrate kids who have achieved that goal, and there are typically ~10-20% of the kids from each grade listed. If you were hoping for a magnet middle school, I'm assuming your kid is relatively high-achieving, so it's good to know there is a cohort of similarly achieving kids (although maybe it's smaller than at some other schools).

I'll admit that the racial and economic makeup of the school is something I thought/worried about. The school has about 70% of kids qualifying for FARMS, and the whole school gets free breakfast/lunch. My family doesn't fall in the FARMS category. My kid is also in a distinct racial minority at the school (Banneker is 65% black, 20% Hispanic, <10% Asian, and <5% white). Neither of these things seem to impact my kid (or enter their mind) on a regular basis. I've always kept the idea of private school in the back of my mind as an option to consider if public school wasn't working for my children, but Banneker has worked okay.

This wasn’t really a concern for me. My kid doesn’t qualify for FARMS either and we’re black.

Fair enough. I debated whether to include it in my response, but I figured since it was something that I thought about (in terms of my kid being in the minority at the school and how that may or may not affect them), I would mention it.