Thoughts on McKinley Tech

[Anonymous]

OP, I would suggest a tutor as the starting base. But if you decide to do private schools you are looking at hiring a private school consultant. Either way, good public school education is no longer "free". In order to be competitive one must put in the work: a tutor, a good number of volunteer hours, paid for enriching experiences, etc. That's how there are excellent public schools in the 'burbs because of the parents/school community value education enough to make it a private like school experience. DC lacks the school community experience because of the lottery and the upper middle class/wealthy go private in D.C. which leaves the rest of the population in an educational crisis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP's kid is only going into 7th next year.

The OP is doing well to try to gather information beforehand as the lottery process is generally unclear, riddled with admission scandals or some other political drama.

You're making me blush. I am trying to figure out reasonable expectations for a good-not-great student given the lottery results, new schools, etc. Yes, it is a year in advance but if we are going to apply to (and pay for) privates or potentially move, better to think about it early. My hope is that DC will make it into McKinley or Banneker or EC@Coolidge, but we will see.

Your kid will have an incredibly difficult time getting into Banneker, Wilson, SWW, and McKinley if he is not great. Which leaves you with choices: push him pretty hard and get a tutor to fill in gaps so that his GPA goes up, pay for private school or move. If I were you I wouldn't pay for private because it's likely you will end up paying for private and a tutor as DC schools tend to have larges gaps in the curriculum. So realistically, you are looking at a tutor now and hope the dividends pay off or move to suburbia. But be aware that half of everyone in suburbia has a tutor by 3rd/4th grade to make it to the gifted programs, magnet programs, specialized programs, etc.

-Banneker Grad, VCU (undergrad). Hopkins (med school)

Thank you! I guess my question is, given this year's lottery result of many empty seats at McKinley and Coolidge, plus the new Bard and possibly an expansion of Latin, are things going to be as competitive next year?

Latin is only taking 5th and 6th graders.

Even though there were seats open at McKinley, over 500 students didn't make the cut. If your child were to rank those first and second, and has the PARCC and GPA, they will likely be admitted. But if they don't have the test score and grades, they won't.

[Anonymous]

Thank you. Thus far DC has always had tests and grades adequate for McKinley eligibility. I am less sure how to evaluate the essay and interview standards.

How many kids were eligible for McKinley but did not match, or did not attend?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you. Thus far DC has always had tests and grades adequate for McKinley eligibility. I am less sure how to evaluate the essay and interview standards.

How many kids were eligible for McKinley but did not match, or did not attend?

My DC applied last year. The essay was brief. It is completed on their own time and the subject changes from year to year. Typically it is a variation on 'why do you want to attend.'

The interview is more conversation than an interrogation. I think they are mostly looking for kids that are engaged in the process and don't appear to be put up to it by their parents. Parents are not in the room, but from what my DC said they did a good job making him comfortable and steering the conversation to a topic of interest to him.

The data on applicants vs admits, vs lost to the lottery for the last couple years is on this page.

http://enrolldcps.dc.gov/node/61

For this year, 780 applied (you can assume that some of them didn't meet the GPA or PARCC cutoff).

They offered slots to 220. 61 of those applied and were admitted to another school they ranked higher.

[Anonymous]

OP, you mentioned applying to private schools. Perhaps this link might be useful: http://goo.gl/GgQvR

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, you mentioned applying to private schools. Perhaps this link might be useful: http://goo.gl/GgQvR

Wow!! DCPS doesn't even male the cut. I wish this link had listed the "high performing charters"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I would suggest a tutor as the starting base. But if you decide to do private schools you are looking at hiring a private school consultant. Either way, good public school education is no longer "free". In order to be competitive one must put in the work: a tutor, a good number of volunteer hours, paid for enriching experiences, etc. That's how there are excellent public schools in the 'burbs because of the parents/school community value education enough to make it a private like school experience. DC lacks the school community experience because of the lottery and the upper middle class/wealthy go private in D.C. which leaves the rest of the population in an educational crisis.

Gee whiz! who are you, assessor of all education in the region with a few sweeping statements? Competitive much?

[Anonymous]

I think people are grossly overstating the number of kids who have tutors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you mentioned applying to private schools. Perhaps this link might be useful: http://goo.gl/GgQvR

Wow!! DCPS doesn't even male the cut. I wish this link had listed the "high performing charters"

Banneker and Walls were listed.

[Anonymous]

Take the tutor advice with a grain of salt. My kid did not have a tutor, had good grades at Deal with minimal effort, had good PARCC scores, refused to study even a tiny bit for the Walls test but got in. Most kids don’t need a tutor. We did not apply to McKinley.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Take the tutor advice with a grain of salt. My kid did not have a tutor, had good grades at Deal with minimal effort, had good PARCC scores, refused to study even a tiny bit for the Walls test but got in. Most kids don’t need a tutor. We did not apply to McKinley.

We shall see how prepared your kid is for SSAT and college admissions. Tutors are not grossly overstated but rather necessary. Just look at the USC scandal, even the wealthy are becoming desperate to place their children in good schools. Aunt Becky spent $500,000 to buy a spot for her two daughters when it would have been cheaper and wiser to spend it on a tutor. It’s clear she could have afforded the best academic prep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you mentioned applying to private schools. Perhaps this link might be useful: http://goo.gl/GgQvR

Wow!! DCPS doesn't even male the cut. I wish this link had listed the "high performing charters"

Banneker and Walls were listed.

Yes they were listed but not even enough to make a wave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you mentioned applying to private schools. Perhaps this link might be useful: http://goo.gl/GgQvR

Wow!! DCPS doesn't even male the cut. I wish this link had listed the "high performing charters"

Banneker and Walls were listed.

Yes they were listed but not even enough to make a wave.

I didn't' see a date on that spreadsheet, much less link to where the data came from?

[Anonymous]

How does one go about finding a good tutor?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you mentioned applying to private schools. Perhaps this link might be useful: http://goo.gl/GgQvR

Wow!! DCPS doesn't even male the cut. I wish this link had listed the "high performing charters"

Banneker and Walls were listed.

Yes they were listed but not even enough to make a wave.

I didn't' see a date on that spreadsheet, much less link to where the data came from?

This information was compiled from the now defunct matriculationstats.org website. The site relied heavily on the US News & World Report rankings. Of course, no such rankings are perfect. But for the methodologies to make any sense, the site developer needed to use some such rankings and these are the most widely known and cited.
However, the site developer also developed the MATRIC© indices. These indices are a weighted average of the schools included in each classification. For the MATRIC Top School Index©, he/she took the 25 national universities and placed them into groups of 5. The first 5 schools got 5 points, the second 5 got 4 points, etc. For the 15 schools in the Liberal Arts Colleges, he/she also placed them into groups of 5. The top group included schools like Williams and Swarthmore, which although certainly excellent schools, did not seem to merit the same number of points as Yale and Stanford. So, he/she started with 4 points for that group, 2.5 points for the 2nd group and 1 point for the third group. For the MATRIC Strong School Index©, he/she similarly allocated points amongst the larger group of schools, but points decreased between groups of 5 at a slower rate. In the event of ties in the rankings, he/she occasionally used their judgment to move schools up or down a group to make matters balance out. All points assigned are shown on the College Lists page of this now-defunct website.

No data is perfect but the spreadsheet is a good start

I'm posting a link to what the former website analyzed.

http://web.archive.org/web/20100213015303/http://www.matriculationstats.org/