Banneker interviews

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Small point, but they do, in fact, teach Latin at Banneker.

This thread suddenly turned into misinformation zone. Don't rely on it for real information about Banneker, folks.

It's really hard to tell if it's the usual racist trolls or if it's the type As trying to increase the odds of their kids getting in by getting others to drop interest.

They're not even trying hard - readily obvious falsehoods.

Grow up already.

They teach 14 or 15 AP subjects and we're racist trolls for noting that that's not nearly enough in 2024 for an elite "application" high school program. Got it. But our true racist selves emerge when we mention that Banneker IBD scores have been dismal from the get go, for many years now.

It’s also a Title 1 school that requires significant community service hours.

Are the community service requirements different from the usual 100 hours? And the point of offering more APs is that it gives students more choice.

Banneker requires 270 community service hours spread out over four years: 45 in freshman and sophomore year, 90 in junior and senior year.

Am I correct that since the DCPS graduation requirement is 100 hours of community service, Banneker will still allow you to graduate as long as you have 100 hours? The 270 hours of community service is a requirement in theory but cannot be enforced in practice

No clue. I graduated from there years ago, but no one ever challenged it. You have to go to your community lab site every Wednesday. Every other week, school gets out two hours early for that specific purpose. I'm not sure how it is now, but back when I was there you had to get a sign off from your community lab supervisor verifying your progress towards your hours.

This is all still true today. Also, community lab is 1.5 ungraded credits (0.25, 0.25, 0.5, 0.5), and those credits are required for the Banneker diploma. I suppose you could stop midway through your senior year and transfer to your neighborhood school and get a DCPS diploma, but why would you want to?

You can just stay at Banneker and get a DCPS diploma. I believe they would have to give it to you if you fulfill the DCPS graduation requirements. You would not need to transfer to your neighborhood school. And to be honest, barely anyone outside of Banneker is aware there is a separate Banneker diploma and who ever looks at your diploma anyway. I’m not advocating that students skip the Banneker community service requirements but I do believe clarifying options is important. Feel free to ask at the Banneker interview- what happens if a student does not complete all the required 270 hours of community service? If they are honest, they will tell you that the student will still graduate

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hard to understand why Banneker bothers with IB Diploma. Sheesh.

As long as enough kids want to do it, why would they shut it down? The top IB kids have great college outcomes (and for middle class and poorer kids that often means a full ride, too). Plus many people believe the IB curriculum is inherently valuable. And if you don’t feel that way, just do the AP track.

But if it is only 20 kids per class doing IB, how many are the top kids? Maybe 5 or 6. So if you mean there are 5 or 6 kids each year who do very well on the IB track and have excellent college outcomes , that’s good but wouldn’t it make more sense to just make it an AP school and offer more AP classes so overall more kids benefit and have excellent college outcomes. In other words, is a tiny IB program the best way to allocate scarce resources in a public school system? Perhaps the answer is yes but it is a question worth asking and knowing DCPS, it is unlikely they reflect on optimization

+1. AP offerings are lacking. IB offerings are lacking. Just focus on AP and offer more classes for the majority. Only 40% of AP offerings is pretty low and the AP STEM offerings subpar.

Subpar is putting it mildly. They don't even teach the mother romance language, Latin. We asked if they did at the parent interview. Ridiculous. Only in DCPS would there be high demand for a selective urban magnet program running on AP fumes like Banneker. Affirmative action is over at the college level. Time for Banneker to get with the times with a younger head.

THIS. IS. RACIST. Why does every Banneker thread have to devolve to “affirmative action” and the insinuations that come with that? And the school is CLEARLY not “subpar.” If you don’t like it, don’t send your kid there. YOU RACIST TROLL. YOU ARE A SUBPAR EXCUSE FOR A HUMAN BEING. And no, I’m not black. But I can still see who YOU are—a racist coward who hides behind an anonymous thread to spew garbage.

Wow, sounds like you need to get help with your anger management.

Nobody wins when you have a subpar program and offerings especially the lower SES kids that the school serves, since families can’t afford to supplement outside of school.

+100. We're a minority family and we want Banneker to teach AP Chem & BC Calculus. We want ib diploma scores in the 30s or the program to be scrapped. We want more AP languages than French & Spanish.

Yes, the end of affirmative action in college admissions means URMs are going to have to compete more on academic record than in the past. No denying that one. We want a dynamic new Banneker principal who gets it.

If your kid is in ES, there probably will be a new principal in a few years. Not sure anything will change though. I could see the present principal handpicking her successor. Same with the CHEC principal who has also been around for ever

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Small point, but they do, in fact, teach Latin at Banneker.

This thread suddenly turned into misinformation zone. Don't rely on it for real information about Banneker, folks.

It's really hard to tell if it's the usual racist trolls or if it's the type As trying to increase the odds of their kids getting in by getting others to drop interest.

They're not even trying hard - readily obvious falsehoods.

Grow up already.

They teach 14 or 15 AP subjects and we're racist trolls for noting that that's not nearly enough in 2024 for an elite "application" high school program. Got it. But our true racist selves emerge when we mention that Banneker IBD scores have been dismal from the get go, for many years now.

It’s also a Title 1 school that requires significant community service hours.

Are the community service requirements different from the usual 100 hours? And the point of offering more APs is that it gives students more choice.

Banneker requires 270 community service hours spread out over four years: 45 in freshman and sophomore year, 90 in junior and senior year.

Am I correct that since the DCPS graduation requirement is 100 hours of community service, Banneker will still allow you to graduate as long as you have 100 hours? The 270 hours of community service is a requirement in theory but cannot be enforced in practice

No clue. I graduated from there years ago, but no one ever challenged it. You have to go to your community lab site every Wednesday. Every other week, school gets out two hours early for that specific purpose. I'm not sure how it is now, but back when I was there you had to get a sign off from your community lab supervisor verifying your progress towards your hours.

This is all still true today. Also, community lab is 1.5 ungraded credits (0.25, 0.25, 0.5, 0.5), and those credits are required for the Banneker diploma. I suppose you could stop midway through your senior year and transfer to your neighborhood school and get a DCPS diploma, but why would you want to?

You can just stay at Banneker and get a DCPS diploma. I believe they would have to give it to you if you fulfill the DCPS graduation requirements. You would not need to transfer to your neighborhood school. And to be honest, barely anyone outside of Banneker is aware there is a separate Banneker diploma and who ever looks at your diploma anyway. I’m not advocating that students skip the Banneker community service requirements but I do believe clarifying options is important. Feel free to ask at the Banneker interview- what happens if a student does not complete all the required 270 hours of community service? If they are honest, they will tell you that the student will still graduate

Idk. My kid is already at Banneker and really enjoys their community lab situation, and also as a parent I try to encourage responsible and pro-social behavior, so I don’t plan to “clarify” this “option.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Small point, but they do, in fact, teach Latin at Banneker.

This thread suddenly turned into misinformation zone. Don't rely on it for real information about Banneker, folks.

It's really hard to tell if it's the usual racist trolls or if it's the type As trying to increase the odds of their kids getting in by getting others to drop interest.

They're not even trying hard - readily obvious falsehoods.

Grow up already.

They teach 14 or 15 AP subjects and we're racist trolls for noting that that's not nearly enough in 2024 for an elite "application" high school program. Got it. But our true racist selves emerge when we mention that Banneker IBD scores have been dismal from the get go, for many years now.

It’s also a Title 1 school that requires significant community service hours.

Are the community service requirements different from the usual 100 hours? And the point of offering more APs is that it gives students more choice.

Banneker requires 270 community service hours spread out over four years: 45 in freshman and sophomore year, 90 in junior and senior year.

Am I correct that since the DCPS graduation requirement is 100 hours of community service, Banneker will still allow you to graduate as long as you have 100 hours? The 270 hours of community service is a requirement in theory but cannot be enforced in practice

No clue. I graduated from there years ago, but no one ever challenged it. You have to go to your community lab site every Wednesday. Every other week, school gets out two hours early for that specific purpose. I'm not sure how it is now, but back when I was there you had to get a sign off from your community lab supervisor verifying your progress towards your hours.

This is all still true today. Also, community lab is 1.5 ungraded credits (0.25, 0.25, 0.5, 0.5), and those credits are required for the Banneker diploma. I suppose you could stop midway through your senior year and transfer to your neighborhood school and get a DCPS diploma, but why would you want to?

You can just stay at Banneker and get a DCPS diploma. I believe they would have to give it to you if you fulfill the DCPS graduation requirements. You would not need to transfer to your neighborhood school. And to be honest, barely anyone outside of Banneker is aware there is a separate Banneker diploma and who ever looks at your diploma anyway. I’m not advocating that students skip the Banneker community service requirements but I do believe clarifying options is important. Feel free to ask at the Banneker interview- what happens if a student does not complete all the required 270 hours of community service? If they are honest, they will tell you that the student will still graduate

Idk. My kid is already at Banneker and really enjoys their community lab situation, and also as a parent I try to encourage responsible and pro-social behavior, so I don’t plan to “clarify” this “option.”

Smart. Sounds like an easy way to weed your family out as it’s incredibly entitled to try to circumvent the requirements.

Banneker is not a school that caters to UMC parents nor should it be in a city for the diverse city of students it serves. I would love for them to offer additional IB and AP courses and they probably will eventually. Most kids prefer the AP track though there seems to be more interest than usual in the IB track in the current freshman class.

[Anonymous]

PP here and I responded to the wrong post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Small point, but they do, in fact, teach Latin at Banneker.

This thread suddenly turned into misinformation zone. Don't rely on it for real information about Banneker, folks.

It's really hard to tell if it's the usual racist trolls or if it's the type As trying to increase the odds of their kids getting in by getting others to drop interest.

They're not even trying hard - readily obvious falsehoods.

Grow up already.

They teach 14 or 15 AP subjects and we're racist trolls for noting that that's not nearly enough in 2024 for an elite "application" high school program. Got it. But our true racist selves emerge when we mention that Banneker IBD scores have been dismal from the get go, for many years now.

It’s also a Title 1 school that requires significant community service hours.

Are the community service requirements different from the usual 100 hours? And the point of offering more APs is that it gives students more choice.

Banneker requires 270 community service hours spread out over four years: 45 in freshman and sophomore year, 90 in junior and senior year.

Am I correct that since the DCPS graduation requirement is 100 hours of community service, Banneker will still allow you to graduate as long as you have 100 hours? The 270 hours of community service is a requirement in theory but cannot be enforced in practice

No clue. I graduated from there years ago, but no one ever challenged it. You have to go to your community lab site every Wednesday. Every other week, school gets out two hours early for that specific purpose. I'm not sure how it is now, but back when I was there you had to get a sign off from your community lab supervisor verifying your progress towards your hours.

This is all still true today. Also, community lab is 1.5 ungraded credits (0.25, 0.25, 0.5, 0.5), and those credits are required for the Banneker diploma. I suppose you could stop midway through your senior year and transfer to your neighborhood school and get a DCPS diploma, but why would you want to?

You can just stay at Banneker and get a DCPS diploma. I believe they would have to give it to you if you fulfill the DCPS graduation requirements. You would not need to transfer to your neighborhood school. And to be honest, barely anyone outside of Banneker is aware there is a separate Banneker diploma and who ever looks at your diploma anyway. I’m not advocating that students skip the Banneker community service requirements but I do believe clarifying options is important. Feel free to ask at the Banneker interview- what happens if a student does not complete all the required 270 hours of community service? If they are honest, they will tell you that the student will still graduate

Idk. My kid is already at Banneker and really enjoys their community lab situation, and also as a parent I try to encourage responsible and pro-social behavior, so I don’t plan to “clarify” this “option.”

Smart. Sounds like an easy way to weed your family out as it’s incredibly entitled to try to circumvent the requirements.

Banneker is not a school that caters to UMC parents nor should it be in a city for the diverse city of students it serves. I would love for them to offer additional IB and AP courses and they probably will eventually. Most kids prefer the AP track though there seems to be more interest than usual in the IB track in the current freshman class.

I actually think it is a reasonable question. Nothing wrong in asking if they ever have kids who don’t finish the community service requirement and whether they are able to graduate? Asking questions should be encouraged not discouraged so you end up with kids who are the best fit for the school. And it is best for low ses kids to be mixed with upper ses kids. That leads to better college graduation outcomes otherwise lower income kids get a huge culture shock when they get to competitive colleges and often drop out. Trying to keep upper middle class kids out of Banneker is a bad strategy in my opinion. It is important to plan for success for students after Banneker as high school is just a stepping stone

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Small point, but they do, in fact, teach Latin at Banneker.

This thread suddenly turned into misinformation zone. Don't rely on it for real information about Banneker, folks.

It's really hard to tell if it's the usual racist trolls or if it's the type As trying to increase the odds of their kids getting in by getting others to drop interest.

They're not even trying hard - readily obvious falsehoods.

Grow up already.

They teach 14 or 15 AP subjects and we're racist trolls for noting that that's not nearly enough in 2024 for an elite "application" high school program. Got it. But our true racist selves emerge when we mention that Banneker IBD scores have been dismal from the get go, for many years now.

It’s also a Title 1 school that requires significant community service hours.

Are the community service requirements different from the usual 100 hours? And the point of offering more APs is that it gives students more choice.

Banneker requires 270 community service hours spread out over four years: 45 in freshman and sophomore year, 90 in junior and senior year.

Am I correct that since the DCPS graduation requirement is 100 hours of community service, Banneker will still allow you to graduate as long as you have 100 hours? The 270 hours of community service is a requirement in theory but cannot be enforced in practice

No clue. I graduated from there years ago, but no one ever challenged it. You have to go to your community lab site every Wednesday. Every other week, school gets out two hours early for that specific purpose. I'm not sure how it is now, but back when I was there you had to get a sign off from your community lab supervisor verifying your progress towards your hours.

This is all still true today. Also, community lab is 1.5 ungraded credits (0.25, 0.25, 0.5, 0.5), and those credits are required for the Banneker diploma. I suppose you could stop midway through your senior year and transfer to your neighborhood school and get a DCPS diploma, but why would you want to?

You can just stay at Banneker and get a DCPS diploma. I believe they would have to give it to you if you fulfill the DCPS graduation requirements. You would not need to transfer to your neighborhood school. And to be honest, barely anyone outside of Banneker is aware there is a separate Banneker diploma and who ever looks at your diploma anyway. I’m not advocating that students skip the Banneker community service requirements but I do believe clarifying options is important. Feel free to ask at the Banneker interview- what happens if a student does not complete all the required 270 hours of community service? If they are honest, they will tell you that the student will still graduate

Idk. My kid is already at Banneker and really enjoys their community lab situation, and also as a parent I try to encourage responsible and pro-social behavior, so I don’t plan to “clarify” this “option.”

Smart. Sounds like an easy way to weed your family out as it’s incredibly entitled to try to circumvent the requirements.

Banneker is not a school that caters to UMC parents nor should it be in a city for the diverse city of students it serves. I would love for them to offer additional IB and AP courses and they probably will eventually. Most kids prefer the AP track though there seems to be more interest than usual in the IB track in the current freshman class.

Brooklyn Tech grad, POC, who couldn't disagree more. Your myopia and, presumably, white guilt, is unacknowledged in the argument you're making. When an urban magnet HS "caters" to UMC parents, what it's doing is serving the talented, hard-working poor kids there better than a more socio-economically segregated program ever could. I doubt that I could have handled a top 10 SLAC on a Pell Grant without having had many high SES and, gasp, white and Asian classmates, in HS. At BT, I became friends with kids whose parents, who I also got to know, had attended my future alma mater. I didn't know those sorts of highly educated and prosperous people before HS. Making high SES friends at school broadened my horizons in a thousand constructive ways, enabling me to imagine my own UMC future. I'd really like to see Banneker become no more as AA and low SES than the population of the District is. The interview my kid just had seemed stuck in a time warp. We're not as interested as we were before our interviews.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Small point, but they do, in fact, teach Latin at Banneker.

This thread suddenly turned into misinformation zone. Don't rely on it for real information about Banneker, folks.

It's really hard to tell if it's the usual racist trolls or if it's the type As trying to increase the odds of their kids getting in by getting others to drop interest.

They're not even trying hard - readily obvious falsehoods.

Grow up already.

They teach 14 or 15 AP subjects and we're racist trolls for noting that that's not nearly enough in 2024 for an elite "application" high school program. Got it. But our true racist selves emerge when we mention that Banneker IBD scores have been dismal from the get go, for many years now.

It’s also a Title 1 school that requires significant community service hours.

Are the community service requirements different from the usual 100 hours? And the point of offering more APs is that it gives students more choice.

Banneker requires 270 community service hours spread out over four years: 45 in freshman and sophomore year, 90 in junior and senior year.

Am I correct that since the DCPS graduation requirement is 100 hours of community service, Banneker will still allow you to graduate as long as you have 100 hours? The 270 hours of community service is a requirement in theory but cannot be enforced in practice

No clue. I graduated from there years ago, but no one ever challenged it. You have to go to your community lab site every Wednesday. Every other week, school gets out two hours early for that specific purpose. I'm not sure how it is now, but back when I was there you had to get a sign off from your community lab supervisor verifying your progress towards your hours.

This is all still true today. Also, community lab is 1.5 ungraded credits (0.25, 0.25, 0.5, 0.5), and those credits are required for the Banneker diploma. I suppose you could stop midway through your senior year and transfer to your neighborhood school and get a DCPS diploma, but why would you want to?

You can just stay at Banneker and get a DCPS diploma. I believe they would have to give it to you if you fulfill the DCPS graduation requirements. You would not need to transfer to your neighborhood school. And to be honest, barely anyone outside of Banneker is aware there is a separate Banneker diploma and who ever looks at your diploma anyway. I’m not advocating that students skip the Banneker community service requirements but I do believe clarifying options is important. Feel free to ask at the Banneker interview- what happens if a student does not complete all the required 270 hours of community service? If they are honest, they will tell you that the student will still graduate

Idk. My kid is already at Banneker and really enjoys their community lab situation, and also as a parent I try to encourage responsible and pro-social behavior, so I don’t plan to “clarify” this “option.”

Smart. Sounds like an easy way to weed your family out as it’s incredibly entitled to try to circumvent the requirements.

Banneker is not a school that caters to UMC parents nor should it be in a city for the diverse city of students it serves. I would love for them to offer additional IB and AP courses and they probably will eventually. Most kids prefer the AP track though there seems to be more interest than usual in the IB track in the current freshman class.

While not a large group, there are wealthy white kids at Banneker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Small point, but they do, in fact, teach Latin at Banneker.

This thread suddenly turned into misinformation zone. Don't rely on it for real information about Banneker, folks.

It's really hard to tell if it's the usual racist trolls or if it's the type As trying to increase the odds of their kids getting in by getting others to drop interest.

They're not even trying hard - readily obvious falsehoods.

Grow up already.

They teach 14 or 15 AP subjects and we're racist trolls for noting that that's not nearly enough in 2024 for an elite "application" high school program. Got it. But our true racist selves emerge when we mention that Banneker IBD scores have been dismal from the get go, for many years now.

It’s also a Title 1 school that requires significant community service hours.

Are the community service requirements different from the usual 100 hours? And the point of offering more APs is that it gives students more choice.

Banneker requires 270 community service hours spread out over four years: 45 in freshman and sophomore year, 90 in junior and senior year.

Am I correct that since the DCPS graduation requirement is 100 hours of community service, Banneker will still allow you to graduate as long as you have 100 hours? The 270 hours of community service is a requirement in theory but cannot be enforced in practice

No clue. I graduated from there years ago, but no one ever challenged it. You have to go to your community lab site every Wednesday. Every other week, school gets out two hours early for that specific purpose. I'm not sure how it is now, but back when I was there you had to get a sign off from your community lab supervisor verifying your progress towards your hours.

This is all still true today. Also, community lab is 1.5 ungraded credits (0.25, 0.25, 0.5, 0.5), and those credits are required for the Banneker diploma. I suppose you could stop midway through your senior year and transfer to your neighborhood school and get a DCPS diploma, but why would you want to?

You can just stay at Banneker and get a DCPS diploma. I believe they would have to give it to you if you fulfill the DCPS graduation requirements. You would not need to transfer to your neighborhood school. And to be honest, barely anyone outside of Banneker is aware there is a separate Banneker diploma and who ever looks at your diploma anyway. I’m not advocating that students skip the Banneker community service requirements but I do believe clarifying options is important. Feel free to ask at the Banneker interview- what happens if a student does not complete all the required 270 hours of community service? If they are honest, they will tell you that the student will still graduate

Idk. My kid is already at Banneker and really enjoys their community lab situation, and also as a parent I try to encourage responsible and pro-social behavior, so I don’t plan to “clarify” this “option.”

Smart. Sounds like an easy way to weed your family out as it’s incredibly entitled to try to circumvent the requirements.

Banneker is not a school that caters to UMC parents nor should it be in a city for the diverse city of students it serves. I would love for them to offer additional IB and AP courses and they probably will eventually. Most kids prefer the AP track though there seems to be more interest than usual in the IB track in the current freshman class.

Brooklyn Tech grad, POC, who couldn't disagree more. Your myopia and, presumably, white guilt, is unacknowledged in the argument you're making. When an urban magnet HS "caters" to UMC parents, what it's doing is serving the talented, hard-working poor kids there better than a more socio-economically segregated program ever could. I doubt that I could have handled a top 10 SLAC on a Pell Grant without having had many high SES and, gasp, white and Asian classmates, in HS. At BT, I became friends with kids whose parents, who I also got to know, had attended my future alma mater. I didn't know those sorts of highly educated and prosperous people before HS. Making high SES friends at school broadened my horizons in a thousand constructive ways, enabling me to imagine my own UMC future. I'd really like to see Banneker become no more as AA and low SES than the population of the District is. The interview my kid just had seemed stuck in a time warp. We're not as interested as we were before our interviews.

+100. Also, in general it is easier to recruit high quality teachers to teach a diverse mix of kids (lower ses kids are often struggling with a host of issues through no fault of their own). Usually a mix of higher income kids + lower income kids is easier to teach than a bunch of 100% minority low income kids. So more mixed schools often attract a bigger talent pool of teachers which is critical in subjects that are hard to find teachers for such as math, chemistry, physics, computer science, foreign language.

[Anonymous]

I believe it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Small point, but they do, in fact, teach Latin at Banneker.

This thread suddenly turned into misinformation zone. Don't rely on it for real information about Banneker, folks.

It's really hard to tell if it's the usual racist trolls or if it's the type As trying to increase the odds of their kids getting in by getting others to drop interest.

They're not even trying hard - readily obvious falsehoods.

Grow up already.

They teach 14 or 15 AP subjects and we're racist trolls for noting that that's not nearly enough in 2024 for an elite "application" high school program. Got it. But our true racist selves emerge when we mention that Banneker IBD scores have been dismal from the get go, for many years now.

It’s also a Title 1 school that requires significant community service hours.

Are the community service requirements different from the usual 100 hours? And the point of offering more APs is that it gives students more choice.

Banneker requires 270 community service hours spread out over four years: 45 in freshman and sophomore year, 90 in junior and senior year.

Am I correct that since the DCPS graduation requirement is 100 hours of community service, Banneker will still allow you to graduate as long as you have 100 hours? The 270 hours of community service is a requirement in theory but cannot be enforced in practice

No clue. I graduated from there years ago, but no one ever challenged it. You have to go to your community lab site every Wednesday. Every other week, school gets out two hours early for that specific purpose. I'm not sure how it is now, but back when I was there you had to get a sign off from your community lab supervisor verifying your progress towards your hours.

This is all still true today. Also, community lab is 1.5 ungraded credits (0.25, 0.25, 0.5, 0.5), and those credits are required for the Banneker diploma. I suppose you could stop midway through your senior year and transfer to your neighborhood school and get a DCPS diploma, but why would you want to?

You can just stay at Banneker and get a DCPS diploma. I believe they would have to give it to you if you fulfill the DCPS graduation requirements. You would not need to transfer to your neighborhood school. And to be honest, barely anyone outside of Banneker is aware there is a separate Banneker diploma and who ever looks at your diploma anyway. I’m not advocating that students skip the Banneker community service requirements but I do believe clarifying options is important. Feel free to ask at the Banneker interview- what happens if a student does not complete all the required 270 hours of community service? If they are honest, they will tell you that the student will still graduate

Idk. My kid is already at Banneker and really enjoys their community lab situation, and also as a parent I try to encourage responsible and pro-social behavior, so I don’t plan to “clarify” this “option.”

Smart. Sounds like an easy way to weed your family out as it’s incredibly entitled to try to circumvent the requirements.

Banneker is not a school that caters to UMC parents nor should it be in a city for the diverse city of students it serves. I would love for them to offer additional IB and AP courses and they probably will eventually. Most kids prefer the AP track though there seems to be more interest than usual in the IB track in the current freshman class.

I actually think it is a reasonable question. Nothing wrong in asking if they ever have kids who don’t finish the community service requirement and whether they are able to graduate? Asking questions should be encouraged not discouraged so you end up with kids who are the best fit for the school. And it is best for low ses kids to be mixed with upper ses kids. That leads to better college graduation outcomes otherwise lower income kids get a huge culture shock when they get to competitive colleges and often drop out. Trying to keep upper middle class kids out of Banneker is a bad strategy in my opinion. It is important to plan for success for students after Banneker as high school is just a stepping stone

There's already SES diversity. The average DCUM poster complaining about Banneker is often looking for the elusive DCPS which will cater most to UMC families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Small point, but they do, in fact, teach Latin at Banneker.

This thread suddenly turned into misinformation zone. Don't rely on it for real information about Banneker, folks.

It's really hard to tell if it's the usual racist trolls or if it's the type As trying to increase the odds of their kids getting in by getting others to drop interest.

They're not even trying hard - readily obvious falsehoods.

Grow up already.

They teach 14 or 15 AP subjects and we're racist trolls for noting that that's not nearly enough in 2024 for an elite "application" high school program. Got it. But our true racist selves emerge when we mention that Banneker IBD scores have been dismal from the get go, for many years now.

It’s also a Title 1 school that requires significant community service hours.

Are the community service requirements different from the usual 100 hours? And the point of offering more APs is that it gives students more choice.

Banneker requires 270 community service hours spread out over four years: 45 in freshman and sophomore year, 90 in junior and senior year.

Am I correct that since the DCPS graduation requirement is 100 hours of community service, Banneker will still allow you to graduate as long as you have 100 hours? The 270 hours of community service is a requirement in theory but cannot be enforced in practice

No clue. I graduated from there years ago, but no one ever challenged it. You have to go to your community lab site every Wednesday. Every other week, school gets out two hours early for that specific purpose. I'm not sure how it is now, but back when I was there you had to get a sign off from your community lab supervisor verifying your progress towards your hours.

This is all still true today. Also, community lab is 1.5 ungraded credits (0.25, 0.25, 0.5, 0.5), and those credits are required for the Banneker diploma. I suppose you could stop midway through your senior year and transfer to your neighborhood school and get a DCPS diploma, but why would you want to?

You can just stay at Banneker and get a DCPS diploma. I believe they would have to give it to you if you fulfill the DCPS graduation requirements. You would not need to transfer to your neighborhood school. And to be honest, barely anyone outside of Banneker is aware there is a separate Banneker diploma and who ever looks at your diploma anyway. I’m not advocating that students skip the Banneker community service requirements but I do believe clarifying options is important. Feel free to ask at the Banneker interview- what happens if a student does not complete all the required 270 hours of community service? If they are honest, they will tell you that the student will still graduate

Idk. My kid is already at Banneker and really enjoys their community lab situation, and also as a parent I try to encourage responsible and pro-social behavior, so I don’t plan to “clarify” this “option.”

Smart. Sounds like an easy way to weed your family out as it’s incredibly entitled to try to circumvent the requirements.

Banneker is not a school that caters to UMC parents nor should it be in a city for the diverse city of students it serves. I would love for them to offer additional IB and AP courses and they probably will eventually. Most kids prefer the AP track though there seems to be more interest than usual in the IB track in the current freshman class.

Brooklyn Tech grad, POC, who couldn't disagree more. Your myopia and, presumably, white guilt, is unacknowledged in the argument you're making. When an urban magnet HS "caters" to UMC parents, what it's doing is serving the talented, hard-working poor kids there better than a more socio-economically segregated program ever could. I doubt that I could have handled a top 10 SLAC on a Pell Grant without having had many high SES and, gasp, white and Asian classmates, in HS. At BT, I became friends with kids whose parents, who I also got to know, had attended my future alma mater. I didn't know those sorts of highly educated and prosperous people before HS. Making high SES friends at school broadened my horizons in a thousand constructive ways, enabling me to imagine my own UMC future. I'd really like to see Banneker become no more as AA and low SES than the population of the District is. The interview my kid just had seemed stuck in a time warp. We're not as interested as we were before our interviews.

PP here. My best friend is Brooklyn Tech grad, SWW for me. We're both disappointed in how drastically the demographics have changed over the years. We're both POC, FYI.

Attending a socioeconomically diverse school was an excellent experience for us as well. However, there was a time when SWW and Brooklyn Tech better reflected the city it serves. UMC families have MacArthur and Jackson-Reed as IB options, in addition to DC magnet. For some hardworking kids in the city, the alternatives are schools like Anacostia or Woodson, where completing HS is the accomplishment. While Banneker was our first choice, our family's backup plan was to move IB for RM or another MoCo school. As frustrating as navigating choices in DCPS can be, I recognize that most families at Banneker will not have the means to change zip codes for better options.

I really do appreciate that Banneker recognizes that some of their students were performing well at underperforming MSs and will arrive behind their peers. The goal is college readiness for everyone. The school is growing and AP/IB offerings will increase over time. Our household is trying to figure out where to fit in Physics with the IB program. Not ideal, but I get it. I've there are only 3 kids in IB desiring Physics, that probably wouldn't move the needle.

[Anonymous]

PP here, excuse the typos. Multitasking and it shows.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Small point, but they do, in fact, teach Latin at Banneker.

This thread suddenly turned into misinformation zone. Don't rely on it for real information about Banneker, folks.

It's really hard to tell if it's the usual racist trolls or if it's the type As trying to increase the odds of their kids getting in by getting others to drop interest.

They're not even trying hard - readily obvious falsehoods.

Grow up already.

They teach 14 or 15 AP subjects and we're racist trolls for noting that that's not nearly enough in 2024 for an elite "application" high school program. Got it. But our true racist selves emerge when we mention that Banneker IBD scores have been dismal from the get go, for many years now.

It’s also a Title 1 school that requires significant community service hours.

Are the community service requirements different from the usual 100 hours? And the point of offering more APs is that it gives students more choice.

Banneker requires 270 community service hours spread out over four years: 45 in freshman and sophomore year, 90 in junior and senior year.

Am I correct that since the DCPS graduation requirement is 100 hours of community service, Banneker will still allow you to graduate as long as you have 100 hours? The 270 hours of community service is a requirement in theory but cannot be enforced in practice

No clue. I graduated from there years ago, but no one ever challenged it. You have to go to your community lab site every Wednesday. Every other week, school gets out two hours early for that specific purpose. I'm not sure how it is now, but back when I was there you had to get a sign off from your community lab supervisor verifying your progress towards your hours.

This is all still true today. Also, community lab is 1.5 ungraded credits (0.25, 0.25, 0.5, 0.5), and those credits are required for the Banneker diploma. I suppose you could stop midway through your senior year and transfer to your neighborhood school and get a DCPS diploma, but why would you want to?

You can just stay at Banneker and get a DCPS diploma. I believe they would have to give it to you if you fulfill the DCPS graduation requirements. You would not need to transfer to your neighborhood school. And to be honest, barely anyone outside of Banneker is aware there is a separate Banneker diploma and who ever looks at your diploma anyway. I’m not advocating that students skip the Banneker community service requirements but I do believe clarifying options is important. Feel free to ask at the Banneker interview- what happens if a student does not complete all the required 270 hours of community service? If they are honest, they will tell you that the student will still graduate

Idk. My kid is already at Banneker and really enjoys their community lab situation, and also as a parent I try to encourage responsible and pro-social behavior, so I don’t plan to “clarify” this “option.”

Smart. Sounds like an easy way to weed your family out as it’s incredibly entitled to try to circumvent the requirements.

Banneker is not a school that caters to UMC parents nor should it be in a city for the diverse city of students it serves. I would love for them to offer additional IB and AP courses and they probably will eventually. Most kids prefer the AP track though there seems to be more interest than usual in the IB track in the current freshman class.

I actually think it is a reasonable question. Nothing wrong in asking if they ever have kids who don’t finish the community service requirement and whether they are able to graduate? Asking questions should be encouraged not discouraged so you end up with kids who are the best fit for the school. And it is best for low ses kids to be mixed with upper ses kids. That leads to better college graduation outcomes otherwise lower income kids get a huge culture shock when they get to competitive colleges and often drop out. Trying to keep upper middle class kids out of Banneker is a bad strategy in my opinion. It is important to plan for success for students after Banneker as high school is just a stepping stone

There's already SES diversity. The average DCUM poster complaining about Banneker is often looking for the elusive DCPS which will cater most to UMC families.

Not buying this. I don't believe in average DCUM posters. I believe in parents in search of good public schools for their hard-earned tax dollars. Urban schools that drawn in sizeable cohorts of UMC families are the good ones. We don't have nearly enough of those here in the District. Banneker has considerable potential it could run with at a juncture in history where more UMC parents are willing to give it a shot for lack of a better public high school option EotP. To harness that potential, visionary leadership is needed at Banneker. Will it emerge? I doubt it. But it still could.

[Anonymous]

NP. If we still haven't been called for an interview, I am assuming it's not gonna happen, correct? I was holding out hope and watching this thread until this past Friday March 8. It would have been our top choice