Do Walls/Banneker/McKinley look at test scores?

[Anonymous]

or just grades/recs/interview? Asking because kid is at a middle with atypical grading system (which I'm worried might hurt her odds) but has high scores.

[Anonymous]

No. It's not on the rubric.

[Anonymous]

My sense is that McKinley is not a tough admit so an atypical grading system won't hurt. They do need to have good teacher recs and seem interested in the school during the interview. There is an in-person handwritten essay. But it's more a weed out process than a weed in process, IMO. Less of a crap shoot than the other two schools. They also accept kids with ieps, I'm not sure Bannaker or Walls does though there are some 504 kids at those schools. This is a signal of inclusivity to me

Do a shadow day there and see what you think of the school.

[Anonymous]

Nope

[Anonymous]

Grades and recs.

That said - my kid's private did not share grades in a typical way. We worked with the school registrar in order to get a transcript with actual percentage points and GPA value. They have the info, but it was just not shared in their portal or on report cards. DCPS will otherwise assign a point value to alternative systems such as P+/P/F; I recall seeing this online somewhere but not sure where, but perhaps the staff at myschoolDC could help.

[Anonymous]

If it is a Montessori middle they will give you a transcript that translates the grades to a traditional grading structure.