Banneker versus School Without Walls

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bannecker SAT scores are mediocre at best.

It is a good school compared with Eastern, but not compared with HS elsewhere. Sorry.

Banneker's average SAT scores, in the mid 500s for English and math, would be mediocre if it weren't an elite, test-in HS for "smart kids" as has been noted.

Under the circumstances, the scores can only be described as weak. But many seniors crack great colleges anyway, so perhaps lackluster SAT scores are immaterial in Banneker's particular case.

m

Well that’s because of affirmative action. Which I don’t have a problem with, but that’s why.

[Anonymous]

500’s on SAT and 3’s on AP, especially at a school so heavy on homework with little extracurriculars, is mediocre as previous posters have said. It’s average and not typical stats for a test in school or magnet equivalent.

If kids are getting 3’s on AP exams, then the AP courses either must not be that rigorous or are not preparing them well for the AP test. Then add in the strict KIPP like culture of the school from the principal.

I’m not surprised educated families with high performing kids are not sending their kids there. I say this as an educated minority. It’s not always about racism. Data and numbers don’t lie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:500’s on SAT and 3’s on AP, especially at a school so heavy on homework with little extracurriculars, is mediocre as previous posters have said. It’s average and not typical stats for a test in school or magnet equivalent.

If kids are getting 3’s on AP exams, then the AP courses either must not be that rigorous or are not preparing them well for the AP test. Then add in the strict KIPP like culture of the school from the principal.

I’m not surprised educated families with high performing kids are not sending their kids there. I say this as an educated minority. It’s not always about racism. Data and numbers don’t lie.

Part of the problem is clearly lack of competition among students. An influx of strong students of various races would shake things up at Banneker. But no influential stakeholders seem to want this, enabling the status quo to carry the day year after year, decade after decade. The mediocre tests scores, which belie lack of preparedness for advanced college work on the part of many Banneker students and an off-putting KIPP type culture, have been granted a staying power.

I used to teach at Blair Montgomery HS. More than 30 years ago, Blair was a school that was heavily minority, which weak test scores. MoCo created two test-in HS programs--one for STEM and one for humanities--with a county-wide draw to change that. Within just a few years, strong students from all around the county were flocking to Blair. The test-in programs still give a preference in admissions to qualified students from the Blair catchment area, which remains heavily minority. DCPS just doesn't innovate like that. SATs in the 500s for a magnet HS and mostly 3s on APs, no problem, good enough.

[Anonymous]

If DCPS wants a higher-performing Banneker, and a higher-performing Walls with stronger and more stable minority representation, there's just one path.

DC needs to add GT programming at the elementary and middle school levels. The GT structure needs to include a robust component geared toward identifying and supporting advanced learners who are low SES and minority.

That's how NYC does (now overhauling the system), Chicago, Boston etc. No way around it. No shortcuts will work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:500’s on SAT and 3’s on AP, especially at a school so heavy on homework with little extracurriculars, is mediocre as previous posters have said. It’s average and not typical stats for a test in school or magnet equivalent.

If kids are getting 3’s on AP exams, then the AP courses either must not be that rigorous or are not preparing them well for the AP test. Then add in the strict KIPP like culture of the school from the principal.

I’m not surprised educated families with high performing kids are not sending their kids there. I say this as an educated minority. It’s not always about racism. Data and numbers don’t lie.

Educated families are sending their children there. You don’t know what you’re talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very few Banneker kids do the IB DP. Even fewer earn an an IB diploma. Check out the difference between DCI, an IB for all school, and Banneker’s IB DP graduation numbers (even with selective admissions. Mind Boggling.

They only allow 25 students do the IB path.

+1. The DCI booster(s) need to stop spreading misinformation. There can be more than one good school in the city.

DCUMs love to tear down Banneker. They’ve been doing it for years.

This is true. What always annoyed me was that people wouldn't even have their kids apply there. Apply and check it out and if it doesn't suit you, fine. (I made my kid apply to Banneker, Walls, and Ellington. She ended up at Ellington.) But finding vague reasons not to apply that aren't necessarily germane? That not right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If DCPS wants a higher-performing Banneker, and a higher-performing Walls with stronger and more stable minority representation, there's just one path.

DC needs to add GT programming at the elementary and middle school levels. The GT structure needs to include a robust component geared toward identifying and supporting advanced learners who are low SES and minority.

That's how NYC does (now overhauling the system), Chicago, Boston etc. No way around it. No shortcuts will work.

FCPS doesn't want any of those things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If DCPS wants a higher-performing Banneker, and a higher-performing Walls with stronger and more stable minority representation, there's just one path.

DC needs to add GT programming at the elementary and middle school levels. The GT structure needs to include a robust component geared toward identifying and supporting advanced learners who are low SES and minority.

That's how NYC does (now overhauling the system), Chicago, Boston etc. No way around it. No shortcuts will work.

FCPS doesn't want any of those things.

^ DCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very few Banneker kids do the IB DP. Even fewer earn an an IB diploma. Check out the difference between DCI, an IB for all school, and Banneker’s IB DP graduation numbers (even with selective admissions. Mind Boggling.

They only allow 25 students do the IB path.

+1. The DCI booster(s) need to stop spreading misinformation. There can be more than one good school in the city.

DCUMs love to tear down Banneker. They’ve been doing it for years.

This is true. What always annoyed me was that people wouldn't even have their kids apply there. Apply and check it out and if it doesn't suit you, fine. (I made my kid apply to Banneker, Walls, and Ellington. She ended up at Ellington.) But finding vague reasons not to apply that aren't necessarily germane? That not right.

Vague reasons like the ho-hum test scores, strict environment, and kill-and-drill-ish approach?

In any event, why would someone have to apply to learn more about a school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very few Banneker kids do the IB DP. Even fewer earn an an IB diploma. Check out the difference between DCI, an IB for all school, and Banneker’s IB DP graduation numbers (even with selective admissions. Mind Boggling.

They only allow 25 students do the IB path.

+1. The DCI booster(s) need to stop spreading misinformation. There can be more than one good school in the city.

DCUMs love to tear down Banneker. They’ve been doing it for years.

This is true. What always annoyed me was that people wouldn't even have their kids apply there. Apply and check it out and if it doesn't suit you, fine. (I made my kid apply to Banneker, Walls, and Ellington. She ended up at Ellington.) But finding vague reasons not to apply that aren't necessarily germane? That not right.

Vague reasons like the ho-hum test scores, strict environment, and kill-and-drill-ish approach?

In any event, why would someone have to apply to learn more about a school?

This is not the teaching at Banneker. The principal is strict but it isn’t joyless. You’re really a terrible person to trash a school you have zero first hand knowledge of outside of posts here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very few Banneker kids do the IB DP. Even fewer earn an an IB diploma. Check out the difference between DCI, an IB for all school, and Banneker’s IB DP graduation numbers (even with selective admissions. Mind Boggling.

They only allow 25 students do the IB path.

+1. The DCI booster(s) need to stop spreading misinformation. There can be more than one good school in the city.

DCUMs love to tear down Banneker. They’ve been doing it for years.

This is true. What always annoyed me was that people wouldn't even have their kids apply there. Apply and check it out and if it doesn't suit you, fine. (I made my kid apply to Banneker, Walls, and Ellington. She ended up at Ellington.) But finding vague reasons not to apply that aren't necessarily germane? That not right.

Vague reasons like the ho-hum test scores, strict environment, and kill-and-drill-ish approach?

In any event, why would someone have to apply to learn more about a school?

You really miss the point. By not even being willing to apply you're not willing to consider the possibility of attending. There are no givens in any application schools - only neighborhood schools. A lot of white families will apply to Walls even if they're ambivalent about enrolling, but they won't consider Banneker along the same lines.

[Anonymous]

All the HBCU references...I doubt most of you have ever been on an HBCU campus. Just say "I don't want me kid to be a minority"....Pretty easy to figure that out..

[Anonymous]

Yes, because if you're male you don't apply to women's colleges. With literally a handful of exceptions annually, just like the tiny number of white undergrads enrolling at Howard, whites don't apply to or attend Banneker.

If Banneker wants to stop functioning as the high school equivalent of an HBCU, great, DCPS send the word out. I'd really like to see this happen, now that we're almost 60 years on from the CRM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All the HBCU references...I doubt most of you have ever been on an HBCU campus. Just say "I don't want me kid to be a minority"....Pretty easy to figure that out..

Sorry - I forgot DCUM is where people go ape s@# for the good old days of Jim Crow

[Anonymous]

Total BS. Nobody's been keeping AA students from enrolling in a single DC public school for over half a century now. Poor kids in JKLM etc, yes, AA kids, no.