Presidential Scholarship Candidates

[Anonymous]

I know a bunch of these kids from the cross country and math team circuits. Nice job homies!

[Anonymous]

9 from GDS in DC!

[Anonymous]

There are two big differences between the Presidential Scholar Candidate selection process and National Merit Semifinalist selection process that are relevant in looking at how schools "did":

1. For the Presidential Scholar program, they look at where the student lives, not the school location. So if you go to school in DC (at say, Maret or GDS) you are still matched up against other students from the jurisdiction in which you live.

2. The National Merit Semifinalist program effectively penalizes Washington, D.C. by pegging the D.C. qualifying score to the top in the country. In the Presidential Scholar Candidate selection process, being from DC is more advantageous than being from VA or MD. The reason is that the Presidential Scholar program uses a "flat" approach not taking into account the state's population or number of high scoring students. The top 20 male test takers and top 20 female test takers in any jurisdiction, whether it's giant California or tiny Delaware or tiny Washington, D.C., are designated as candidates.

So, the D.C. private schools -- which have a lot of D.C. residents who are also disproportionately good test takers compared to the entire pool of D.C. high school seniors -- have a built in structural advantage when it comes to Presidential Scholars. But those same D.C. kids with high scores have a built in disadvantage for National Merit Semifinalist, so it works out in a cosmic sense.

[Anonymous]

^ interesting points.

[Anonymous]

My child isn't on it...what a travesty! Of course DC got better ACT scores than SAT and those don't count

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are two big differences between the Presidential Scholar Candidate selection process and National Merit Semifinalist selection process that are relevant in looking at how schools "did":

1. For the Presidential Scholar program, they look at where the student lives, not the school location. So if you go to school in DC (at say, Maret or GDS) you are still matched up against other students from the jurisdiction in which you live.

2. The National Merit Semifinalist program effectively penalizes Washington, D.C. by pegging the D.C. qualifying score to the top in the country. In the Presidential Scholar Candidate selection process, being from DC is more advantageous than being from VA or MD. The reason is that the Presidential Scholar program uses a "flat" approach not taking into account the state's population or number of high scoring students. The top 20 male test takers and top 20 female test takers in any jurisdiction, whether it's giant California or tiny Delaware or tiny Washington, D.C., are designated as candidates.

So, the D.C. private schools -- which have a lot of D.C. residents who are also disproportionately good test takers compared to the entire pool of D.C. high school seniors -- have a built in structural advantage when it comes to Presidential Scholars. But those same D.C. kids with high scores have a built in disadvantage for National Merit Semifinalist, so it works out in a cosmic sense.

So if a particular school consistently does well by both measures, over the course of several years, I assume you'd agree that suggests its students are quite successful academically. Right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:9 from GDS in DC!

Yes, also a good year for GDS, since it averages only about 5 candidates over the past several years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child isn't on it...what a travesty! Of course DC got better ACT scores than SAT and those don't count

They use ACT score. For SAT takers, they convert to ACT score. Below is from Dept of Education web site:

"The U.S. Department of Education then looks at test records for the top 30 males and top 30 females in each of the states/jurisdictions. For each examinee, the SAT score is converted to the ACT Sum of Scores, according to a concordance table. Each individual examinee's highest test score (in a single test administration ) is identified, and duplicates and/or lower scores are dropped"

Which means your DC's ACT score wasn't high enough.

[Anonymous]

The 9 GDS are the DC students only.

[Anonymous]

Quick review and counting looks like:

STA 10
NCS 6
Potomac 6
Maret 6
SFS 7
GDS 11
Holton 1
Landon 1

[Anonymous]

Quick review and counting looks like, with each school's multi-year average in (parentheses):

STA 10 (average 5)
NCS 6 (7)
Potomac 6 (2)
Maret 6 (6)
SFS 7 (11)
GDS 11 (6)
Holton 1 (2)
Landon 1 (1)

[Anonymous]

My daughter is on the list from MD. She offered me an interesting observation. The math section of the SAT is designed to test skills that she learned in eighth grade. Her view was that it in no way tested advanced concepts or higher order thinking (which are the points of emphasis in the local accelerated programs). Draw your own conclusions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is on the list from MD. She offered me an interesting observation. The math section of the SAT is designed to test skills that she learned in eighth grade. Her view was that it in no way tested advanced concepts or higher order thinking (which are the points of emphasis in the local accelerated programs). Draw your own conclusions.

It's not meant to.

[Anonymous]

Its so interesting because I have to assume a large population of kids from all of these schools live in Maryland, yet these schools appear almost nowhere on the list of Maryland nominees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Its so interesting because I have to assume a large population of kids from all of these schools live in Maryland, yet these schools appear almost nowhere on the list of Maryland nominees.

Only one student from these schools on the VA list.