Banneker HS - College and Score Outcomes

[Anonymous]

Walls is at least 50% white this school year. J-R is predicted to be majority white within several years. So is Latin's high school. DCI's Higher Level IB Diploma classes are heavily white and Asian. And so on.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look up DCPS SAT scores. I think on the DCPS site. There's a spreadsheet. You can also find AP scores. Walls is the only school that's just across the board higher. JR is obviously huge and high-variance.

Thanks. Found the SAT (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/dcps-data-set-sat) and AP (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/ap-score-data-sets) spreadsheets. The averages are indeed as you say. I would have expected Banneker to do better but I take it that there is a very long thread from a few years back on that topic.

Why do you think your child will score in line with others? I have a Banneker student who has scored 5 on APs and 1540 on SATs. You’re aware this is a Title 1 school. The kids are all very studious and bright but there are some kids who have tough home lives. If your kid doesn’t have these challenges, s/he will score high. Test score track HHI closely.

My personable Asian 8th grader who finds 10th grade math/Trigonometry easy at a DC charter, scored 600s on the SAT for admission to a Johns Hopkins CTY STEM camp and has a 3.9 GPA wasn't so much as waitlisted at Banneker. I'm left with the impression that Banneker doesn't knock itself out on the STEM achievement front. We're staying at the charter, which the kid isn't wild about, with new appreciation for it.

Banneker is a Humanities focused school so no you won't get the STEM feel you want. It's not hard to figure out. I'd look at moving if you feel like your kid needs more of a challenge. TJ would probably be great..Blair also.

Do you not understand the residency requirements that apply to public schools across the country or are you trying to make a different point about where you would like people from certain backgrounds to move to? I'm genuinely curious.

DP who referenced TJ, Blair and RMIB. No, it has nothing to do with race. Just making a point about how annoying parents are when they declare nothing is possibly good enough for their “advanced” child. Ok friend, try your hand at the VERY selective and demanding public programs just a short move away. Oh, Larlo won’t get into TJ? You don’t say …

They didn't get into Banneker. Banneker decided the kid wasn't good enough for them, not the other way around. And it wasn't because they had a long line of more academically-advanced kids trying to get in.

+1. What a joke. When a pleasant, diligent 8th grader does HS math two or three years ahead of grade level and destroyed both mandatory sections of the SAT at age 14 but can't even get waitlisted at Banneker, the system is broken. Everybody's sure that not being low SES or AA was irrelevant in the case? I'm far from convinced. I note that Banneker's average SAT scores for 17–18-year-olds are still just a little above the national average, in the low 500s.

They don't look at PARCC scores or what math class the kid is taking, much less SAT, and they're explicit about that. I think that's a huge mistake. But I don't think you need an additional explanation on top of that. It's basically random.

What an outrage. Why in the hell can't DC support a single world-class public high school with transparent admissions or an elite school-within-a-school program like other big US cities do here in 2024? High time for DC voters to demand more.

Walls, BASIS, Banneker, J-R, Latin, DCI, none of them are half as good as Boston Latin or Cambridge Rindge and Latin (although Boston and DC are very close in population size). All of our best public high schools either support middling academics, weak facilities or both. All of them essentially admit by lottery, or by real estate. None of them even aspire to be in the same league as the Blair Montgomery magnets, TJ, or Richard Montgomery or Washington-Liberty IB Diploma, here in the DMV. High time for DC to up its game.

Thank God for that.

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.

I don't see any reason either. DC has the public-school academics, demographics and location to support at least one bona fide magnet high school, just not the political will or leadership in our ed sector to bother building the program. Highly discretionary and unaccountable admissions systems at both Walls and Banneker actively shortchange our best and brightest, particularly low SES talent. Kids who aren't the strongest students at their place on the socioeconomic spectrum in their DC public middle schools often crack Walls and/or Banneker. Meanwhile, academic stars relative to others based on SES often don't get in via an ever-changing and uncomfortably opaque admissions process. The process is so ad hoc and, frankly, unfair that it's become a disgrace. Why assume that Boston, New York City and Chicago got it wrong, just to be contrary and woke? The inconvenient truth is that magnet schools in other big cities have generated superior results for low-income students for decades.

The reason the admissions process is ad hoc, untransparent and unaccountable is because the last thing people in DC want is a high performing school that's dominated by Asians and whites.

Times are changing steadily in this city: the optics of majority white + Asian classes aren't the problem they would have been even 5 years ago. Banneker won't be allowed to become majority white, but Walls already is, so is BASIS' HS, and J-R and Latin are nearly there.

Look at TJ. Punished for being too Asian.

Oh boohoo, poor TJ. Give me a break. How is it being punished?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look up DCPS SAT scores. I think on the DCPS site. There's a spreadsheet. You can also find AP scores. Walls is the only school that's just across the board higher. JR is obviously huge and high-variance.

Thanks. Found the SAT (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/dcps-data-set-sat) and AP (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/ap-score-data-sets) spreadsheets. The averages are indeed as you say. I would have expected Banneker to do better but I take it that there is a very long thread from a few years back on that topic.

Why do you think your child will score in line with others? I have a Banneker student who has scored 5 on APs and 1540 on SATs. You’re aware this is a Title 1 school. The kids are all very studious and bright but there are some kids who have tough home lives. If your kid doesn’t have these challenges, s/he will score high. Test score track HHI closely.

My personable Asian 8th grader who finds 10th grade math/Trigonometry easy at a DC charter, scored 600s on the SAT for admission to a Johns Hopkins CTY STEM camp and has a 3.9 GPA wasn't so much as waitlisted at Banneker. I'm left with the impression that Banneker doesn't knock itself out on the STEM achievement front. We're staying at the charter, which the kid isn't wild about, with new appreciation for it.

Banneker is a Humanities focused school so no you won't get the STEM feel you want. It's not hard to figure out. I'd look at moving if you feel like your kid needs more of a challenge. TJ would probably be great..Blair also.

Do you not understand the residency requirements that apply to public schools across the country or are you trying to make a different point about where you would like people from certain backgrounds to move to? I'm genuinely curious.

DP who referenced TJ, Blair and RMIB. No, it has nothing to do with race. Just making a point about how annoying parents are when they declare nothing is possibly good enough for their “advanced” child. Ok friend, try your hand at the VERY selective and demanding public programs just a short move away. Oh, Larlo won’t get into TJ? You don’t say …

They didn't get into Banneker. Banneker decided the kid wasn't good enough for them, not the other way around. And it wasn't because they had a long line of more academically-advanced kids trying to get in.

+1. What a joke. When a pleasant, diligent 8th grader does HS math two or three years ahead of grade level and destroyed both mandatory sections of the SAT at age 14 but can't even get waitlisted at Banneker, the system is broken. Everybody's sure that not being low SES or AA was irrelevant in the case? I'm far from convinced. I note that Banneker's average SAT scores for 17–18-year-olds are still just a little above the national average, in the low 500s.

They don't look at PARCC scores or what math class the kid is taking, much less SAT, and they're explicit about that. I think that's a huge mistake. But I don't think you need an additional explanation on top of that. It's basically random.

What an outrage. Why in the hell can't DC support a single world-class public high school with transparent admissions or an elite school-within-a-school program like other big US cities do here in 2024? High time for DC voters to demand more.

Walls, BASIS, Banneker, J-R, Latin, DCI, none of them are half as good as Boston Latin or Cambridge Rindge and Latin (although Boston and DC are very close in population size). All of our best public high schools either support middling academics, weak facilities or both. All of them essentially admit by lottery, or by real estate. None of them even aspire to be in the same league as the Blair Montgomery magnets, TJ, or Richard Montgomery or Washington-Liberty IB Diploma, here in the DMV. High time for DC to up its game.

While I agree with much of this, why is it that Walls, for example, gets a rating of 2nd best Metro-area school, after TJ? It's not any of the MoCo schools. BTW I'm a MoCo school product and don't believe I received some kind of superior education to the masses.

Walls' USNWR rating is set to drop under bad new leadership. Do you have kids in DCPS? I used to teach AP humanities at BCC in MoCo. We can't take another year low-capacity DCPS, with Mathnasium teaching the math and a tutor teaching the writing. Good thing we applied to parochial high schools for my 8th grader. She and longtime pals, academic stars who win essays competitions and work one or two years ahead in math, have been shut out of both Banneker and Walls. The masses in DC public and the masses in MCPS, v. different things.

What's wrong with Walls' leadership? You sound bitter just because your kid didn't get admitted.

NP. I'm not bitter. My kid was admitted. The current head of Walls is dim-witted and ineffectual, period. The kids don't respect her, the parents don't respect her, the teachers don't respect her. Do you need more?

I really do since my kid is a student already. So give some concrete examples of what you "heard" or "think" you know?

If the leadership is so bad, why trust your kid in the environment?

[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:

Anonymous wrote:Look up DCPS SAT scores. I think on the DCPS site. There's a spreadsheet. You can also find AP scores. Walls is the only school that's just across the board higher. JR is obviously huge and high-variance.

Thanks. Found the SAT (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/dcps-data-set-sat) and AP (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/ap-score-data-sets) spreadsheets. The averages are indeed as you say. I would have expected Banneker to do better but I take it that there is a very long thread from a few years back on that topic.

Why do you think your child will score in line with others? I have a Banneker student who has scored 5 on APs and 1540 on SATs. You’re aware this is a Title 1 school. The kids are all very studious and bright but there are some kids who have tough home lives. If your kid doesn’t have these challenges, s/he will score high. Test score track HHI closely.

My personable Asian 8th grader who finds 10th grade math/Trigonometry easy at a DC charter, scored 600s on the SAT for admission to a Johns Hopkins CTY STEM camp and has a 3.9 GPA wasn't so much as waitlisted at Banneker. I'm left with the impression that Banneker doesn't knock itself out on the STEM achievement front. We're staying at the charter, which the kid isn't wild about, with new appreciation for it.

Banneker is a Humanities focused school so no you won't get the STEM feel you want. It's not hard to figure out. I'd look at moving if you feel like your kid needs more of a challenge. TJ would probably be great..Blair also.

Do you not understand the residency requirements that apply to public schools across the country or are you trying to make a different point about where you would like people from certain backgrounds to move to? I'm genuinely curious.

DP who referenced TJ, Blair and RMIB. No, it has nothing to do with race. Just making a point about how annoying parents are when they declare nothing is possibly good enough for their “advanced” child. Ok friend, try your hand at the VERY selective and demanding public programs just a short move away. Oh, Larlo won’t get into TJ? You don’t say …

They didn't get into Banneker. Banneker decided the kid wasn't good enough for them, not the other way around. And it wasn't because they had a long line of more academically-advanced kids trying to get in.

+1. What a joke. When a pleasant, diligent 8th grader does HS math two or three years ahead of grade level and destroyed both mandatory sections of the SAT at age 14 but can't even get waitlisted at Banneker, the system is broken. Everybody's sure that not being low SES or AA was irrelevant in the case? I'm far from convinced. I note that Banneker's average SAT scores for 17–18-year-olds are still just a little above the national average, in the low 500s.

They don't look at PARCC scores or what math class the kid is taking, much less SAT, and they're explicit about that. I think that's a huge mistake. But I don't think you need an additional explanation on top of that. It's basically random.

What an outrage. Why in the hell can't DC support a single world-class public high school with transparent admissions or an elite school-within-a-school program like other big US cities do here in 2024? High time for DC voters to demand more.

Walls, BASIS, Banneker, J-R, Latin, DCI, none of them are half as good as Boston Latin or Cambridge Rindge and Latin (although Boston and DC are very close in population size). All of our best public high schools either support middling academics, weak facilities or both. All of them essentially admit by lottery, or by real estate. None of them even aspire to be in the same league as the Blair Montgomery magnets, TJ, or Richard Montgomery or Washington-Liberty IB Diploma, here in the DMV. High time for DC to up its game.

While I agree with much of this, why is it that Walls, for example, gets a rating of 2nd best Metro-area school, after TJ? It's not any of the MoCo schools. BTW I'm a MoCo school product and don't believe I received some kind of superior education to the masses.

Walls' USNWR rating is set to drop under bad new leadership. Do you have kids in DCPS? I used to teach AP humanities at BCC in MoCo. We can't take another year low-capacity DCPS, with Mathnasium teaching the math and a tutor teaching the writing. Good thing we applied to parochial high schools for my 8th grader. She and longtime pals, academic stars who win essays competitions and work one or two years ahead in math, have been shut out of both Banneker and Walls. The masses in DC public and the masses in MCPS, v. different things.

What's wrong with Walls' leadership? You sound bitter just because your kid didn't get admitted.

NP. I'm not bitter. My kid was admitted. The current head of Walls is dim-witted and ineffectual, period. The kids don't respect her, the parents don't respect her, the teachers don't respect her. Do you need more?

I really do since my kid is a student already. So give some concrete examples of what you "heard" or "think" you know?

If the leadership is so bad, why trust your kid in the environment?

The leadership is focused on the kids who attend, not perspective parents, which is exactly why one would send their kid to 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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look up DCPS SAT scores. I think on the DCPS site. There's a spreadsheet. You can also find AP scores. Walls is the only school that's just across the board higher. JR is obviously huge and high-variance.

Thanks. Found the SAT (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/dcps-data-set-sat) and AP (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/ap-score-data-sets) spreadsheets. The averages are indeed as you say. I would have expected Banneker to do better but I take it that there is a very long thread from a few years back on that topic.

Why do you think your child will score in line with others? I have a Banneker student who has scored 5 on APs and 1540 on SATs. You’re aware this is a Title 1 school. The kids are all very studious and bright but there are some kids who have tough home lives. If your kid doesn’t have these challenges, s/he will score high. Test score track HHI closely.

My personable Asian 8th grader who finds 10th grade math/Trigonometry easy at a DC charter, scored 600s on the SAT for admission to a Johns Hopkins CTY STEM camp and has a 3.9 GPA wasn't so much as waitlisted at Banneker. I'm left with the impression that Banneker doesn't knock itself out on the STEM achievement front. We're staying at the charter, which the kid isn't wild about, with new appreciation for it.

Banneker is a Humanities focused school so no you won't get the STEM feel you want. It's not hard to figure out. I'd look at moving if you feel like your kid needs more of a challenge. TJ would probably be great..Blair also.

Do you not understand the residency requirements that apply to public schools across the country or are you trying to make a different point about where you would like people from certain backgrounds to move to? I'm genuinely curious.

DP who referenced TJ, Blair and RMIB. No, it has nothing to do with race. Just making a point about how annoying parents are when they declare nothing is possibly good enough for their “advanced” child. Ok friend, try your hand at the VERY selective and demanding public programs just a short move away. Oh, Larlo won’t get into TJ? You don’t say …

They didn't get into Banneker. Banneker decided the kid wasn't good enough for them, not the other way around. And it wasn't because they had a long line of more academically-advanced kids trying to get in.

+1. What a joke. When a pleasant, diligent 8th grader does HS math two or three years ahead of grade level and destroyed both mandatory sections of the SAT at age 14 but can't even get waitlisted at Banneker, the system is broken. Everybody's sure that not being low SES or AA was irrelevant in the case? I'm far from convinced. I note that Banneker's average SAT scores for 17–18-year-olds are still just a little above the national average, in the low 500s.

They don't look at PARCC scores or what math class the kid is taking, much less SAT, and they're explicit about that. I think that's a huge mistake. But I don't think you need an additional explanation on top of that. It's basically random.

What an outrage. Why in the hell can't DC support a single world-class public high school with transparent admissions or an elite school-within-a-school program like other big US cities do here in 2024? High time for DC voters to demand more.

Walls, BASIS, Banneker, J-R, Latin, DCI, none of them are half as good as Boston Latin or Cambridge Rindge and Latin (although Boston and DC are very close in population size). All of our best public high schools either support middling academics, weak facilities or both. All of them essentially admit by lottery, or by real estate. None of them even aspire to be in the same league as the Blair Montgomery magnets, TJ, or Richard Montgomery or Washington-Liberty IB Diploma, here in the DMV. High time for DC to up its game.

While I agree with much of this, why is it that Walls, for example, gets a rating of 2nd best Metro-area school, after TJ? It's not any of the MoCo schools. BTW I'm a MoCo school product and don't believe I received some kind of superior education to the masses.

Walls' USNWR rating is set to drop under bad new leadership. Do you have kids in DCPS? I used to teach AP humanities at BCC in MoCo. We can't take another year low-capacity DCPS, with Mathnasium teaching the math and a tutor teaching the writing. Good thing we applied to parochial high schools for my 8th grader. She and longtime pals, academic stars who win essays competitions and work one or two years ahead in math, have been shut out of both Banneker and Walls. The masses in DC public and the masses in MCPS, v. different things.

What's wrong with Walls' leadership? You sound bitter just because your kid didn't get admitted.

NP. I'm not bitter. My kid was admitted. The current head of Walls is dim-witted and ineffectual, period. The kids don't respect her, the parents don't respect her, the teachers don't respect her. Do you need more?

I really do since my kid is a student already. So give some concrete examples of what you "heard" or "think" you know?

If the leadership is so bad, why trust your kid in the environment?

Simple. Walls is still running on the capacity built by almost two decades of competent leadership. All stakeholders didn't care for the previous head, but he was undeniably far smarter, focused and dynamic than the current lackluster principal, and that's putting it mildly. Her tenure doesn't bode well for Walls.

As for Banneker, the lady is clearly very old school, not with the times, set in her ways, particularly re curriculum.

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look up DCPS SAT scores. I think on the DCPS site. There's a spreadsheet. You can also find AP scores. Walls is the only school that's just across the board higher. JR is obviously huge and high-variance.

Thanks. Found the SAT (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/dcps-data-set-sat) and AP (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/ap-score-data-sets) spreadsheets. The averages are indeed as you say. I would have expected Banneker to do better but I take it that there is a very long thread from a few years back on that topic.

Why do you think your child will score in line with others? I have a Banneker student who has scored 5 on APs and 1540 on SATs. You’re aware this is a Title 1 school. The kids are all very studious and bright but there are some kids who have tough home lives. If your kid doesn’t have these challenges, s/he will score high. Test score track HHI closely.

My personable Asian 8th grader who finds 10th grade math/Trigonometry easy at a DC charter, scored 600s on the SAT for admission to a Johns Hopkins CTY STEM camp and has a 3.9 GPA wasn't so much as waitlisted at Banneker. I'm left with the impression that Banneker doesn't knock itself out on the STEM achievement front. We're staying at the charter, which the kid isn't wild about, with new appreciation for it.

Banneker is a Humanities focused school so no you won't get the STEM feel you want. It's not hard to figure out. I'd look at moving if you feel like your kid needs more of a challenge. TJ would probably be great..Blair also.

Do you not understand the residency requirements that apply to public schools across the country or are you trying to make a different point about where you would like people from certain backgrounds to move to? I'm genuinely curious.

DP who referenced TJ, Blair and RMIB. No, it has nothing to do with race. Just making a point about how annoying parents are when they declare nothing is possibly good enough for their “advanced” child. Ok friend, try your hand at the VERY selective and demanding public programs just a short move away. Oh, Larlo won’t get into TJ? You don’t say …

They didn't get into Banneker. Banneker decided the kid wasn't good enough for them, not the other way around. And it wasn't because they had a long line of more academically-advanced kids trying to get in.

+1. What a joke. When a pleasant, diligent 8th grader does HS math two or three years ahead of grade level and destroyed both mandatory sections of the SAT at age 14 but can't even get waitlisted at Banneker, the system is broken. Everybody's sure that not being low SES or AA was irrelevant in the case? I'm far from convinced. I note that Banneker's average SAT scores for 17–18-year-olds are still just a little above the national average, in the low 500s.

They don't look at PARCC scores or what math class the kid is taking, much less SAT, and they're explicit about that. I think that's a huge mistake. But I don't think you need an additional explanation on top of that. It's basically random.

What an outrage. Why in the hell can't DC support a single world-class public high school with transparent admissions or an elite school-within-a-school program like other big US cities do here in 2024? High time for DC voters to demand more.

Walls, BASIS, Banneker, J-R, Latin, DCI, none of them are half as good as Boston Latin or Cambridge Rindge and Latin (although Boston and DC are very close in population size). All of our best public high schools either support middling academics, weak facilities or both. All of them essentially admit by lottery, or by real estate. None of them even aspire to be in the same league as the Blair Montgomery magnets, TJ, or Richard Montgomery or Washington-Liberty IB Diploma, here in the DMV. High time for DC to up its game.

While I agree with much of this, why is it that Walls, for example, gets a rating of 2nd best Metro-area school, after TJ? It's not any of the MoCo schools. BTW I'm a MoCo school product and don't believe I received some kind of superior education to the masses.

Walls' USNWR rating is set to drop under bad new leadership. Do you have kids in DCPS? I used to teach AP humanities at BCC in MoCo. We can't take another year low-capacity DCPS, with Mathnasium teaching the math and a tutor teaching the writing. Good thing we applied to parochial high schools for my 8th grader. She and longtime pals, academic stars who win essays competitions and work one or two years ahead in math, have been shut out of both Banneker and Walls. The masses in DC public and the masses in MCPS, v. different things.

What's wrong with Walls' leadership? You sound bitter just because your kid didn't get admitted.

NP. I'm not bitter. My kid was admitted. The current head of Walls is dim-witted and ineffectual, period. The kids don't respect her, the parents don't respect her, the teachers don't respect her. Do you need more?

I really do since my kid is a student already. So give some concrete examples of what you "heard" or "think" you know?

If the leadership is so bad, why trust your kid in the environment?

Simple. Walls is still running on the capacity built by almost two decades of competent leadership. All stakeholders didn't care for the previous head, but he was undeniably far smarter, focused and dynamic than the current lackluster principal, and that's putting it mildly. Her tenure doesn't bode well for Walls.

As for Banneker, the lady is clearly very old school, not with the times, set in her ways, particularly re curriculum.

Sure did give those concrete examples 😎😎....

[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:

Anonymous wrote:Look up DCPS SAT scores. I think on the DCPS site. There's a spreadsheet. You can also find AP scores. Walls is the only school that's just across the board higher. JR is obviously huge and high-variance.

Thanks. Found the SAT (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/dcps-data-set-sat) and AP (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/ap-score-data-sets) spreadsheets. The averages are indeed as you say. I would have expected Banneker to do better but I take it that there is a very long thread from a few years back on that topic.

Why do you think your child will score in line with others? I have a Banneker student who has scored 5 on APs and 1540 on SATs. You’re aware this is a Title 1 school. The kids are all very studious and bright but there are some kids who have tough home lives. If your kid doesn’t have these challenges, s/he will score high. Test score track HHI closely.

My personable Asian 8th grader who finds 10th grade math/Trigonometry easy at a DC charter, scored 600s on the SAT for admission to a Johns Hopkins CTY STEM camp and has a 3.9 GPA wasn't so much as waitlisted at Banneker. I'm left with the impression that Banneker doesn't knock itself out on the STEM achievement front. We're staying at the charter, which the kid isn't wild about, with new appreciation for it.

Banneker is a Humanities focused school so no you won't get the STEM feel you want. It's not hard to figure out. I'd look at moving if you feel like your kid needs more of a challenge. TJ would probably be great..Blair also.

Do you not understand the residency requirements that apply to public schools across the country or are you trying to make a different point about where you would like people from certain backgrounds to move to? I'm genuinely curious.

DP who referenced TJ, Blair and RMIB. No, it has nothing to do with race. Just making a point about how annoying parents are when they declare nothing is possibly good enough for their “advanced” child. Ok friend, try your hand at the VERY selective and demanding public programs just a short move away. Oh, Larlo won’t get into TJ? You don’t say …

They didn't get into Banneker. Banneker decided the kid wasn't good enough for them, not the other way around. And it wasn't because they had a long line of more academically-advanced kids trying to get in.

+1. What a joke. When a pleasant, diligent 8th grader does HS math two or three years ahead of grade level and destroyed both mandatory sections of the SAT at age 14 but can't even get waitlisted at Banneker, the system is broken. Everybody's sure that not being low SES or AA was irrelevant in the case? I'm far from convinced. I note that Banneker's average SAT scores for 17–18-year-olds are still just a little above the national average, in the low 500s.

They don't look at PARCC scores or what math class the kid is taking, much less SAT, and they're explicit about that. I think that's a huge mistake. But I don't think you need an additional explanation on top of that. It's basically random.

What an outrage. Why in the hell can't DC support a single world-class public high school with transparent admissions or an elite school-within-a-school program like other big US cities do here in 2024? High time for DC voters to demand more.

Walls, BASIS, Banneker, J-R, Latin, DCI, none of them are half as good as Boston Latin or Cambridge Rindge and Latin (although Boston and DC are very close in population size). All of our best public high schools either support middling academics, weak facilities or both. All of them essentially admit by lottery, or by real estate. None of them even aspire to be in the same league as the Blair Montgomery magnets, TJ, or Richard Montgomery or Washington-Liberty IB Diploma, here in the DMV. High time for DC to up its game.

While I agree with much of this, why is it that Walls, for example, gets a rating of 2nd best Metro-area school, after TJ? It's not any of the MoCo schools. BTW I'm a MoCo school product and don't believe I received some kind of superior education to the masses.

Walls' USNWR rating is set to drop under bad new leadership. Do you have kids in DCPS? I used to teach AP humanities at BCC in MoCo. We can't take another year low-capacity DCPS, with Mathnasium teaching the math and a tutor teaching the writing. Good thing we applied to parochial high schools for my 8th grader. She and longtime pals, academic stars who win essays competitions and work one or two years ahead in math, have been shut out of both Banneker and Walls. The masses in DC public and the masses in MCPS, v. different things.

What's wrong with Walls' leadership? You sound bitter just because your kid didn't get admitted.

NP. I'm not bitter. My kid was admitted. The current head of Walls is dim-witted and ineffectual, period. The kids don't respect her, the parents don't respect her, the teachers don't respect her. Do you need more?

I really do since my kid is a student already. So give some concrete examples of what you "heard" or "think" you know?

If the leadership is so bad, why trust your kid in the environment?

A few DCPS principals are excellent. Many are super lame.

If parents only sent their kids to schools with good leadership, all the kids would have to crowd into the same 10% of schools.

At least at Walls, you have some good teachers and few disruptive kids, do the principal's capability is less critical than some schools.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Look up DCPS SAT scores. I think on the DCPS site. There's a spreadsheet. You can also find AP scores. Walls is the only school that's just across the board higher. JR is obviously huge and high-variance.

Thanks. Found the SAT (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/dcps-data-set-sat) and AP (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/ap-score-data-sets) spreadsheets. The averages are indeed as you say. I would have expected Banneker to do better but I take it that there is a very long thread from a few years back on that topic.

Why do you think your child will score in line with others? I have a Banneker student who has scored 5 on APs and 1540 on SATs. You’re aware this is a Title 1 school. The kids are all very studious and bright but there are some kids who have tough home lives. If your kid doesn’t have these challenges, s/he will score high. Test score track HHI closely.

My personable Asian 8th grader who finds 10th grade math/Trigonometry easy at a DC charter, scored 600s on the SAT for admission to a Johns Hopkins CTY STEM camp and has a 3.9 GPA wasn't so much as waitlisted at Banneker. I'm left with the impression that Banneker doesn't knock itself out on the STEM achievement front. We're staying at the charter, which the kid isn't wild about, with new appreciation for it.

Banneker is a Humanities focused school so no you won't get the STEM feel you want. It's not hard to figure out. I'd look at moving if you feel like your kid needs more of a challenge. TJ would probably be great..Blair also.

Do you not understand the residency requirements that apply to public schools across the country or are you trying to make a different point about where you would like people from certain backgrounds to move to? I'm genuinely curious.

DP who referenced TJ, Blair and RMIB. No, it has nothing to do with race. Just making a point about how annoying parents are when they declare nothing is possibly good enough for their “advanced” child. Ok friend, try your hand at the VERY selective and demanding public programs just a short move away. Oh, Larlo won’t get into TJ? You don’t say …

They didn't get into Banneker. Banneker decided the kid wasn't good enough for them, not the other way around. And it wasn't because they had a long line of more academically-advanced kids trying to get in.

+1. What a joke. When a pleasant, diligent 8th grader does HS math two or three years ahead of grade level and destroyed both mandatory sections of the SAT at age 14 but can't even get waitlisted at Banneker, the system is broken. Everybody's sure that not being low SES or AA was irrelevant in the case? I'm far from convinced. I note that Banneker's average SAT scores for 17–18-year-olds are still just a little above the national average, in the low 500s.

They don't look at PARCC scores or what math class the kid is taking, much less SAT, and they're explicit about that. I think that's a huge mistake. But I don't think you need an additional explanation on top of that. It's basically random.

What an outrage. Why in the hell can't DC support a single world-class public high school with transparent admissions or an elite school-within-a-school program like other big US cities do here in 2024? High time for DC voters to demand more.

Walls, BASIS, Banneker, J-R, Latin, DCI, none of them are half as good as Boston Latin or Cambridge Rindge and Latin (although Boston and DC are very close in population size). All of our best public high schools either support middling academics, weak facilities or both. All of them essentially admit by lottery, or by real estate. None of them even aspire to be in the same league as the Blair Montgomery magnets, TJ, or Richard Montgomery or Washington-Liberty IB Diploma, here in the DMV. High time for DC to up its game.

While I agree with much of this, why is it that Walls, for example, gets a rating of 2nd best Metro-area school, after TJ? It's not any of the MoCo schools. BTW I'm a MoCo school product and don't believe I received some kind of superior education to the masses.

Walls' USNWR rating is set to drop under bad new leadership. Do you have kids in DCPS? I used to teach AP humanities at BCC in MoCo. We can't take another year low-capacity DCPS, with Mathnasium teaching the math and a tutor teaching the writing. Good thing we applied to parochial high schools for my 8th grader. She and longtime pals, academic stars who win essays competitions and work one or two years ahead in math, have been shut out of both Banneker and Walls. The masses in DC public and the masses in MCPS, v. different things.

What's wrong with Walls' leadership? You sound bitter just because your kid didn't get admitted.

NP. I'm not bitter. My kid was admitted. The current head of Walls is dim-witted and ineffectual, period. The kids don't respect her, the parents don't respect her, the teachers don't respect her. Do you need more?

I really do since my kid is a student already. So give some concrete examples of what you "heard" or "think" you know?

If the leadership is so bad, why trust your kid in the environment?

Where exactly are you supposed to go in DC? There are not exactly a plethora of stellar choices

[Anonymous]

I’m mystified by the defensiveness of Banneker supporters on this thread. Is the school supposed to be immune to any questioning or criticism.

[Anonymous]

I think yes it's kind of defensive, but there are some questions that feel like "if you are giving 2023 instead of 2024 Banneker college acceptances, how can we extrapolate to which Ivy our kid will get into in 2029?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think yes it's kind of defensive, but there are some questions that feel like "if you are giving 2023 instead of 2024 Banneker college acceptances, how can we extrapolate to which Ivy our kid will get into in 2029?"

There were not such questions. A poster had claimed that the published list of Banneker placements for the class of 2023 was not complete, to which another poster simply asked where the complete list could be found (apparently nowhere). That was enough to trigger accusations of gentrification and suggestions that the people asking for information should leave DC.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Banneker threads always get ugly here.

Why is that? Have parents asking for recent info on where Walls graduates go to college also been branded as "gentrifiers" and/or told to move out of DC?

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.

Very well stated.

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Anonymous wrote:Look up DCPS SAT scores. I think on the DCPS site. There's a spreadsheet. You can also find AP scores. Walls is the only school that's just across the board higher. JR is obviously huge and high-variance.

Thanks. Found the SAT (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/dcps-data-set-sat) and AP (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/ap-score-data-sets) spreadsheets. The averages are indeed as you say. I would have expected Banneker to do better but I take it that there is a very long thread from a few years back on that topic.

Why do you think your child will score in line with others? I have a Banneker student who has scored 5 on APs and 1540 on SATs. You’re aware this is a Title 1 school. The kids are all very studious and bright but there are some kids who have tough home lives. If your kid doesn’t have these challenges, s/he will score high. Test score track HHI closely.

My personable Asian 8th grader who finds 10th grade math/Trigonometry easy at a DC charter, scored 600s on the SAT for admission to a Johns Hopkins CTY STEM camp and has a 3.9 GPA wasn't so much as waitlisted at Banneker. I'm left with the impression that Banneker doesn't knock itself out on the STEM achievement front. We're staying at the charter, which the kid isn't wild about, with new appreciation for it.

Banneker is a Humanities focused school so no you won't get the STEM feel you want. It's not hard to figure out. I'd look at moving if you feel like your kid needs more of a challenge. TJ would probably be great..Blair also.

Do you not understand the residency requirements that apply to public schools across the country or are you trying to make a different point about where you would like people from certain backgrounds to move to? I'm genuinely curious.

DP who referenced TJ, Blair and RMIB. No, it has nothing to do with race. Just making a point about how annoying parents are when they declare nothing is possibly good enough for their “advanced” child. Ok friend, try your hand at the VERY selective and demanding public programs just a short move away. Oh, Larlo won’t get into TJ? You don’t say …

They didn't get into Banneker. Banneker decided the kid wasn't good enough for them, not the other way around. And it wasn't because they had a long line of more academically-advanced kids trying to get in.

+1. What a joke. When a pleasant, diligent 8th grader does HS math two or three years ahead of grade level and destroyed both mandatory sections of the SAT at age 14 but can't even get waitlisted at Banneker, the system is broken. Everybody's sure that not being low SES or AA was irrelevant in the case? I'm far from convinced. I note that Banneker's average SAT scores for 17–18-year-olds are still just a little above the national average, in the low 500s.

They don't look at PARCC scores or what math class the kid is taking, much less SAT, and they're explicit about that. I think that's a huge mistake. But I don't think you need an additional explanation on top of that. It's basically random.

What an outrage. Why in the hell can't DC support a single world-class public high school with transparent admissions or an elite school-within-a-school program like other big US cities do here in 2024? High time for DC voters to demand more.

Walls, BASIS, Banneker, J-R, Latin, DCI, none of them are half as good as Boston Latin or Cambridge Rindge and Latin (although Boston and DC are very close in population size). All of our best public high schools either support middling academics, weak facilities or both. All of them essentially admit by lottery, or by real estate. None of them even aspire to be in the same league as the Blair Montgomery magnets, TJ, or Richard Montgomery or Washington-Liberty IB Diploma, here in the DMV. High time for DC to up its game.

While I agree with much of this, why is it that Walls, for example, gets a rating of 2nd best Metro-area school, after TJ? It's not any of the MoCo schools. BTW I'm a MoCo school product and don't believe I received some kind of superior education to the masses.

Walls' USNWR rating is set to drop under bad new leadership. Do you have kids in DCPS? I used to teach AP humanities at BCC in MoCo. We can't take another year low-capacity DCPS, with Mathnasium teaching the math and a tutor teaching the writing. Good thing we applied to parochial high schools for my 8th grader. She and longtime pals, academic stars who win essays competitions and work one or two years ahead in math, have been shut out of both Banneker and Walls. The masses in DC public and the masses in MCPS, v. different things.

What's wrong with Walls' leadership? You sound bitter just because your kid didn't get admitted.

NP. I'm not bitter. My kid was admitted. The current head of Walls is dim-witted and ineffectual, period. The kids don't respect her, the parents don't respect her, the teachers don't respect her. Do you need more?

I really do since my kid is a student already. So give some concrete examples of what you "heard" or "think" you know?

If the leadership is so bad, why trust your kid in the environment?

Simple. Walls is still running on the capacity built by almost two decades of competent leadership. All stakeholders didn't care for the previous head, but he was undeniably far smarter, focused and dynamic than the current lackluster principal, and that's putting it mildly. Her tenure doesn't bode well for Walls.

As for Banneker, the lady is clearly very old school, not with the times, set in her ways, particularly re curriculum.

Spoken as an outsider. If you had kids there and knew her, you would not say this.

[Anonymous]

So when will all you Crusaders show up at a DC Council meeting or join a Chancellor's Cabinet to push for the changes you deem necessary? You probably will have to enroll your kid at Banneker first. Kinda makes sense for people to take you seriously.....

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Look up
DCPS SAT scores. I think on the DCPS site. There's a spreadsheet. You can also find AP scores. Walls is the only school that's just across the board higher. JR is obviously huge and high-variance.

Thanks. Found the SAT (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/dcps-data-set-sat) and AP (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/ap-score-data-sets) spreadsheets. The averages are indeed as you say. I would have expected Banneker to do better but I take it that there is a very long thread from a few years back on that topic.

Why do you think your child will score in line with others? I have a Banneker student who has scored 5 on APs and 1540 on SATs. You’re aware this is a Title 1 school. The kids are all very studious and bright but there are some kids who have tough home lives. If your kid doesn’t have these challenges, s/he will score high. Test score track HHI closely.

My personable Asian 8th grader who finds 10th grade math/Trigonometry easy at a DC charter, scored 600s on the SAT for admission to a Johns Hopkins CTY STEM camp and has a 3.9 GPA wasn't so much as waitlisted at Banneker. I'm left with the impression that Banneker doesn't knock itself out on the STEM achievement front. We're staying at the charter, which the kid isn't wild about, with new appreciation for it.

Banneker is a Humanities focused school so no you won't get the STEM feel you want. It's not hard to figure out. I'd look at moving if you feel like your kid needs more of a challenge. TJ would probably be great..Blair also.

Do you not understand the residency requirements that apply to public schools across the country or are you trying to make a different point about where you would like people from certain backgrounds to move to? I'm genuinely curious.

DP who referenced TJ, Blair and RMIB. No, it has nothing to do with race. Just making a point about how annoying parents are when they declare nothing is possibly good enough for their “advanced” child. Ok friend, try your hand at the VERY selective and demanding public programs just a short move away. Oh, Larlo won’t get into TJ? You don’t say …

They didn't get into Banneker. Banneker decided the kid wasn't good enough for them, not the other way around. And it wasn't because they had a long line of more academically-advanced kids trying to get in.

+1. What a joke. When a pleasant, diligent 8th grader does HS math two or three years ahead of grade level and destroyed both mandatory sections of the SAT at age 14 but can't even get waitlisted at Banneker, the system is broken. Everybody's sure that not being low SES or AA was irrelevant in the case? I'm far from convinced. I note that Banneker's average SAT scores for 17–18-year-olds are still just a little above the national average, in the low 500s.

They don't look at PARCC scores or what math class the kid is taking, much less SAT, and they're explicit about that. I think that's a huge mistake. But I don't think you need an additional explanation on top of that. It's basically random.

What an outrage. Why in the hell can't DC support a single world-class public high school with transparent admissions or an elite school-within-a-school program like other big US cities do here in 2024? High time for DC voters to demand more.

Walls, BASIS, Banneker, J-R, Latin, DCI, none of them are half as good as Boston Latin or Cambridge Rindge and Latin (although Boston and DC are very close in population size). All of our best public high schools either support middling academics, weak facilities or both. All of them essentially admit by lottery, or by real estate. None of them even aspire to be in the same league as the Blair Montgomery magnets, TJ, or Richard Montgomery or Washington-Liberty IB Diploma, here in the DMV. High time for DC to up its game.

While I agree with much of this, why is it that Walls, for example, gets a rating of 2nd best Metro-area school, after TJ? It's not any of the MoCo schools. BTW I'm a MoCo school product and don't believe I received some kind of superior education to the masses.

Walls and Banneker used to have a more rigorous selection processes and have built their reputations on the student bodies they attracted as a result. As other threads attest to, those selection processes have been torn asunder in recent years by doing away with PARCC scores and testing and basing admissions decisions entirely on GPA (despite wide variation within and between DCPS schools in grading standards), subjective letters of recommendation, interviews, and an essay (application for Banneker, in-person for Walls). As a result, selection has become more akin to a lottery, which will inevitably impinge upon the preparedness of the students and the quality of learning at the schools. The proposed funding cuts to DCPS won't help matters either. Which is a long way of saying that while these DC selective schools have good reputations, they are probably heading in the wrong direction.

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).

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.

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?)

I'm not even sure how the school would be aware of one's SATs for this to even be a factor. If it was mentioned in interview, it was probably off-putting.