Banneker HS - College and Score Outcomes
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Anonymous
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I think Banneker threads are always close to race, class, and achievement gaps.
We compare Banneker in several directions. We evaluate its very particular approach and outcomes. We criticize and defend it from very personal places. We are anonymous here and act accordingly, for good and bad. |
Anonymous
I think you are being dramatic and perhaps resentful. My child, and the others in their cohort who got into Walls and Banneker, are all high-achieving, high GPA's and 4's & 5's on PARCC, and read and math above grade level. Yes, they made it in under the subjective letters of rec, interview, and essay, but those don't negate the objective merits that helped get them in. The bottom line is, there are not enough spots for all the kids who deserve them, as has been said hundreds of time before. So it has to come down to luck at some point. I do believe that the '09-'10 babies were a boom in the city and changed the demographics forever more. Unfortunately it's only going to be harder for the coming cohorts to get into these schools. Hopefully though, the likes of McKinley, DCI, and others will benefit from the onslaught of more high-achieving students and things will start equaling out a bit with more better HS options in DC (plus the intro of MacArthur into the mix). |
Anonymous
Thank God for that. |
Anonymous
Yes, I have children in DCPS and DCPCS who have always been the high-achieveing minority in their classes. So I get what you are saying about the masses in DC schools vs MoCo...however, I also know firsthand of the not-so-high-achievieng (though high SES) students at MoCo schools. My point is that those kids would very likely not get into Walls and Banneker. |
Anonymous
If you define "qualified" as "good grades and testing at grade level", then yes, there are too many qualified kids. But that's not the full range of ways we have of evaluating students no matter how many times someone says it. When a kid who's already testing in the 600s on each section of the SAT can't get into a school where the high school seniors on average are doing less well, it's not because there are too many high-achieving students, it's because the admissions process doesn't look at achievement beyond a certain point. And that bar doesn't even include being at grade level any more. Of course a lot of the kids who get in are still good. But that's a function of the applicant pool, not the admissions process. |
Anonymous
Why, exactly? As someone who went to an excellent Magnet school in another city and state, I see no reason why DC shouldn't compete at this level. |
Anonymous
And this is where it comes down to luck, I’m sorry to say. That sounds like an outlier situation as I’m sure there is not a massive number of middle-schoolers scoring like that on the SAT’s (or even taking the SATs yet?) |
Anonymous
I don't have a kid in high school so I'm just saying this as an observer, but: posters asking questions about Banneker always seem to come from a place of skepticism and "convince me it's really good" with the subtext that they have a preconceived notion that it;s a school for kids unlike their own, but they could be persuaded to overlook the student body if you prove it to their satisfaction. When people ask about SWW there's much more of an underlying assumption that it's the very best there is, and the subtext is IYKYK. Because of that, Banneker supporters have often drafted really involved posts explaining how the school serves their kids, the general vibe and student characteristics, success stories, etc. And usually it's all for nothing, because the person saying "convince me" will either shift the goal posts or say something really condescending about how that's good for *your* kids but I expect more (see the upthread PP about how some kids go to elite colleges from Banneker, but some go to schools that are not impressive at all - what kind of thing is that to 1) say at all, and 2) act like it's remarkably different from any other public high school?). SWW, on the other hand, never has to defend itself on these boards and I've honestly never seen a supporter even describe the school. I've read roughly a billion DCUM schools threads and all I know about SWW is that it's a smaller option than J-R. I don't know whether SWW has a focus at all - is it humanities? Probably not STEM, people would mention that. Certainly not language, because people would scream it from the rooftop. Do they have an amazing arts program? Are there sports, drama, robotics? There's no information provided in the threads at all, just an assertion that it's the best and if you have questions it's because your kids couldn't get in. So from the perspective of someone reading just for general information about all the schools, long before my kid has to make a decision - the reason Banneker threads get ugly is that they attract people who come into them with a predetermined idea that Banneker is actually *not* a good school, or at least not deserving of being discussed in the same breath as J-R (the school for rich kids) or SWW (the school for white parents who can't afford private but think they deserve better than public), and are dedicated to shouting down anyone that likes it or disagrees. |
Anonymous
+1. |
Anonymous
The point isn't that they should use SAT scores, it's that DCPS ignores data they have available, like PARCC and what math class the kid is taking, and doesn't give their own admission tests, the way other school systems do, and so kids like this don't get in. It's luck whether you get in or not because they won't actually look at the things that would help them distinguish between students. |
Anonymous
There are large swaths of the District's youth population which would be excluded simply based on zip code and HHI. Every middle school in the city doesn't afford the opportunity to accelerate in math. There was a particularly rough year where 8 or fewer students were admitted from Wards 7 and 8 combined to Walls in the not-so-distant past. Deal has always been overrepresented at Walls and Banneker and will continue to be. However, if acceleration and test scores are prioritized, it disenfranchises smart kids across the city without the same opportunities and punishes kids in lower performing MSs where families don't have the option to just move to a better school district. |
Anonymous
Yes! This is a great analysis. |
Anonymous
You win...since my kid only got a 4 in Math and is only in Algebra, they probably are less qualified than your 600-scoring middle school kid |
Anonymous
If you're a kid who is managing to test at grade level in a middle school where this is rare, the admissions people can't tell that about you. They can't even look at that data, so you can't use that to distinguish yourself from your classmates, even though obviously you should be admitted. The way to handle this is the same way Chicago has done it for years, the same way TJ is now doing it, etc., which is to disaggregate admissions to some extent based on ward or middle school or however you want to do it, and then take the most academically advanced kids from each of those. We have the technology for this. It's not complicated. But "think of the kids from Ward 7 and 8" is a terrible reason to not use test scores and acceleration to distinguish kids *from the same middle school*. If you're going to take x kids from Deal, take the x highest-performing ones, obviously. |
Anonymous
True but I detect progress! Now they’re complaining they can’t get into Banneker and that Banneker needs to provide more data to solicit them 
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