How things change in a decade!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My prediction: The list of the best schools in the city, at every level, will be increasingly dominated by charters.

Only for middle school.

DCPS is by far the leader for elementary. High School is split.

No for elementary EOTP. It’s the immersion charters. Families that don’t get in then settle for DCPS.

Nope. Definitely not true on Capitol Hill.

OK, CH may be the exception but it is a very, very small part of EOTP.

Some CH families do choose immersion over DCPS but not majority.

No, it's actually you who are focusing on one specific slice of EOTP. Other parts -- CH included -- have different stories, but few of them are immersion charter-focused. Shepherd, Ross, Reed, Bancroft, Maury, Brent, Ludlow-Taylor, Chisholm, Payne, Watkins and Van Ness are all schools where DCPSes are the preferred destinations (either the IB itself or a nearby one). EOTR few kids are in immersion and the ones that are are mostly in/hoping for Chisholm.

Folks in Brookland, Eckington, Brentwood, Edgewood are heading to immersion (and other, e.g., Lee) charters because they're the closest good options. The charters that folks EOTR attend are not immersion, but they choose them for the same reason. For anyone close enough to Capitol Hill or WOTP, those DCPSes are typically the closest good options and so the first choice. As CH has gentrified, there are now many more CH ESes on the list and so more good spots for OOBers; same thing with the DCPS ESes along the North Cap corridor.

As a general matter, I think most people think -- and the test scores certainly bear out -- that DPCSes are the best-performing ESes.

Yeah agree. I know US News is somehow debatable, but all 10 of the top elementary schools are DCPS, with 6 WOTP and 4 EOTP (Ross, Shepherd, Maury, Brent).

And if anyone looked at that "who is beating 3rd grade expectations" chart, charter schools like Yu Ying and LAMB that have very low poverty rates have startling low 3rd grade reading scores -- they are underperforming relative to demographics.


Middle school is a different story, because DCPS really doesn't seem to have that figured out, curricularly.

But they come back in high school, with many DCPS schools offering sufficient challenge (Walls, Banneker, JR, MacArthur and McKinley Tech)

Ok, well kids at those immersion schools are learning everything via a second language. When the teacher is teaching them about ecosystems or conjunctions or Native American history or whatever, the teacher is not doing it in English.

Former LAMB employee. The kids don't speak Spanish. Almost none of them. Teachers may speak in Spanish but everyone responds in English. Try talking to one of these students in Spanish for longer than 2 seconds and they'll look at you like you have lobsters crawling out of your ears.

Pro-tip: If you're going to lie about a school, it should at least be a little bit believable. This is like claiming kids at BASIS don't know how to add or subtract.

I actually don’t think this is made up. My neighbors go there and they are in upper grades and barely speak Spanish and their friends don’t either. I’m a native speaker. My kids go to another bilingual chapter and it’s the same. There are so many kids in 5th grade who barely speak Spanish.

It's completely made up and totally ridiculous. The lie isn't even internally consistent. This person says that you speak to the kids in Spanish, "they'll look at you like you have lobsters crawling out of your ears?" But they also say the kids understand the teachers speaking to them in Spanish "but everyone responds in English"? Wait, I though the couldn't understand more than two seconds of Spanish? Good grief. Who even goes online to trash elementary schools? Pathetic. My kids went to LAMB and I wasn't aware of any child there who wasn't fluent. Kids pick up languages quickly, especially when their first few years there are 100 percent in Spanish. LAMB has problems, but teaching kids Spanish is definitely not one of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As the OP of this thread pointed out, times are changing.

Here are the 9th-to-10th grade retention rates for Banneker over the past decade or so, based on OSSE data. (https://osse.dc.gov/enrollment)

* Class of 2016, 88/108, 81%
* Class of 2017, 114/142, 80%
* Class of 2018, 128/167, 77%
* Class of 2019, 133/155, 86%
* Class of 2020, 115/135, 85%
* Class of 2021, 125/142, 88%
* Class of 2022, 135/151, 89%
* Class of 2023, 157/187, 89%
* Class of 2024, 139/161, 86%
* Class of 2025, 135/145, 93%
* Class of 2026, 162/168, 96%
* Class of 2027, 232/245, 95%
* Class of 2028, 179/188, 95%

Note the gradual rise from the Classes of 2016-18, when only 4 out of every 5 students returned for sophomore year, to the Classes of 21-23, when nearly 9 in 10 returned, and then the final jump to the current period, when we have 19 out of 20 returning. Old timers who remember “counseling out” as a major feature at Banneker aren’t lying, but they are out of date. Current families aren’t noticing the phenomenon because it isn’t happening anymore.

Some other indications of change at Banneker:

GPA. My recollection is that when my student started at Banneker, there was a minimum GPA required to return. I went looking for it and couldn’t find it in the current handbook. But I did find evidence that the average GPA at Banneker is rising. The GPA cutoff for NHS used to be 3.2 (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/m/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=261782&type=d). It’s currently 3.7. For the Class of 2029, it’s going up to 3.9 (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/m/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=382211&type=d) (page 10).

SAT scores. Banneker is reporting that the average SAT for the Class of 2025 was 1127 (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/ourpages/auto/2025/10/21/27554456/25-26%20Banneker%20Information%20Resources.pdf?rnd=1761072180399), up 20 points from even the 23-24 number reported by DCPS (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/dcps-data-set-sat).

AP scores. Similarly, Banneker is reporting that the AP pass rate for the 24-25 school year was 70% (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/ourpages/auto/2025/10/21/27554456/25-26%20Banneker%20Information%20Resources.pdf?rnd=1761072180399), up from the 23-24 figure of 57% (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/ap-score-data-sets).

That’s FOUR discrepancies in the data, all tied to the Class of 2025 and subsequent classes: increased retention, increased GPA, increased average SAT score, and increased AP pass rate.

The Class of 2025 was also the first class admitted to high school after Walls dropped the exam. It looks to me like the most banal and predictable result possible: Walls used to use an exam to cherry pick students who are good at taking exams. Take away that exam, and more of those students wind up at Banneker (some because Walls is rejecting a lot of high-scoring students these days, and others because, knowing that Walls now rejects a lot of high-scoring students, they cast a broader net and decide they prefer Banneker). And the result is that the student body at Banneker is performing better on a variety of metrics than it was in the past.

Very informative. Thank you for this. That link also lists all the college destinations, which readers might be interested in.

And for a PP who asked, Walls' AP pass rate was 91 percent for the past two years that DCPS reported.

Oof. The DCPS AP pass rate definition is very soft-bigotry-of-low-expectations. Students with at least one pass score over students who did APs. So if you took 7 APs and passed 1, you count in the numerator. Unless I completely misinterpreted it.

The other factor, though, is that DC schools often require you to take AP classes and the exam as part of that class, so far more students are taking the exam than in some other states.

USNews profiles have the more rigorous stat of % of AP exams taken with a score of 3 or higher. SWW is at 86% and Banneker is 45%. Jackson-Reed is at 56%.

Wow that is really low for Banneker. 3 is a low bar too. It is more informative % of 4 and 5.

This is so tiresome. If Banneker is not good enough for your child, then don’t apply and be quiet. The school has been pumping out successful graduates for decades now and does not need a bunch of entitled white parents who think their mere presence of their children improves things. If you feel like a 1450 average SAT is what your kid needs to be around, then best of luck to you with your Walls and Cathedral school apps.

[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:My prediction: The list of the best schools in the city, at every level, will be increasingly dominated by charters.

Only for middle school.

DCPS is by far the leader for elementary. High School is split.

No for elementary EOTP. It’s the immersion charters. Families that don’t get in then settle for DCPS.

Nope. Definitely not true on Capitol Hill.

OK, CH may be the exception but it is a very, very small part of EOTP.

Some CH families do choose immersion over DCPS but not majority.

No, it's actually you who are focusing on one specific slice of EOTP. Other parts -- CH included -- have different stories, but few of them are immersion charter-focused. Shepherd, Ross, Reed, Bancroft, Maury, Brent, Ludlow-Taylor, Chisholm, Payne, Watkins and Van Ness are all schools where DCPSes are the preferred destinations (either the IB itself or a nearby one). EOTR few kids are in immersion and the ones that are are mostly in/hoping for Chisholm.

Folks in Brookland, Eckington, Brentwood, Edgewood are heading to immersion (and other, e.g., Lee) charters because they're the closest good options. The charters that folks EOTR attend are not immersion, but they choose them for the same reason. For anyone close enough to Capitol Hill or WOTP, those DCPSes are typically the closest good options and so the first choice. As CH has gentrified, there are now many more CH ESes on the list and so more good spots for OOBers; same thing with the DCPS ESes along the North Cap corridor.

As a general matter, I think most people think -- and the test scores certainly bear out -- that DPCSes are the best-performing ESes.

Yeah agree. I know US News is somehow debatable, but all 10 of the top elementary schools are DCPS, with 6 WOTP and 4 EOTP (Ross, Shepherd, Maury, Brent).

And if anyone looked at that "who is beating 3rd grade expectations" chart, charter schools like Yu Ying and LAMB that have very low poverty rates have startling low 3rd grade reading scores -- they are underperforming relative to demographics.


Middle school is a different story, because DCPS really doesn't seem to have that figured out, curricularly.

But they come back in high school, with many DCPS schools offering sufficient challenge (Walls, Banneker, JR, MacArthur and McKinley Tech)

Ok, well kids at those immersion schools are learning everything via a second language. When the teacher is teaching them about ecosystems or conjunctions or Native American history or whatever, the teacher is not doing it in English.

Former LAMB employee. The kids don't speak Spanish. Almost none of them. Teachers may speak in Spanish but everyone responds in English. Try talking to one of these students in Spanish for longer than 2 seconds and they'll look at you like you have lobsters crawling out of your ears.

Pro-tip: If you're going to lie about a school, it should at least be a little bit believable. This is like claiming kids at BASIS don't know how to add or subtract.

I actually don’t think this is made up. My neighbors go there and they are in upper grades and barely speak Spanish and their friends don’t either. I’m a native speaker. My kids go to another bilingual chapter and it’s the same. There are so many kids in 5th grade who barely speak Spanish.

It's completely made up and totally ridiculous. The lie isn't even internally consistent. This person says that you speak to the kids in Spanish, "they'll look at you like you have lobsters crawling out of your ears?" But they also say the kids understand the teachers speaking to them in Spanish "but everyone responds in English"? Wait, I though the couldn't understand more than two seconds of Spanish? Good grief. Who even goes online to trash elementary schools? Pathetic. My kids went to LAMB and I wasn't aware of any child there who wasn't fluent. Kids pick up languages quickly, especially when their first few years there are 100 percent in Spanish. LAMB has problems, but teaching kids Spanish is definitely not one of them.

I don’t think anyone is trashing the school, but it would be nice to have concrete numbers to support assertions. Language proficiency encompasses reading, writing, listening and speaking. You can have a high level of proficiency in one area and not in others. To be fluent you need to demonstrate mastery in all areas. You say kids at LAMB are fluent, but how are you judging that? What metrics is LAMB using? I don’t write off PP because my kids go to another bilingual charter and we don’t get info on this. I am a native speaker and probably have a higher standard so it irritates me that this isn’t more transparent at a bilingual school.

[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:My prediction: The list of the best schools in the city, at every level, will be increasingly dominated by charters.

Only for middle school.

DCPS is by far the leader for elementary. High School is split.

No for elementary EOTP. It’s the immersion charters. Families that don’t get in then settle for DCPS.

Nope. Definitely not true on Capitol Hill.

OK, CH may be the exception but it is a very, very small part of EOTP.

Some CH families do choose immersion over DCPS but not majority.

No, it's actually you who are focusing on one specific slice of EOTP. Other parts -- CH included -- have different stories, but few of them are immersion charter-focused. Shepherd, Ross, Reed, Bancroft, Maury, Brent, Ludlow-Taylor, Chisholm, Payne, Watkins and Van Ness are all schools where DCPSes are the preferred destinations (either the IB itself or a nearby one). EOTR few kids are in immersion and the ones that are are mostly in/hoping for Chisholm.

Folks in Brookland, Eckington, Brentwood, Edgewood are heading to immersion (and other, e.g., Lee) charters because they're the closest good options. The charters that folks EOTR attend are not immersion, but they choose them for the same reason. For anyone close enough to Capitol Hill or WOTP, those DCPSes are typically the closest good options and so the first choice. As CH has gentrified, there are now many more CH ESes on the list and so more good spots for OOBers; same thing with the DCPS ESes along the North Cap corridor.

As a general matter, I think most people think -- and the test scores certainly bear out -- that DPCSes are the best-performing ESes.

Yeah agree. I know US News is somehow debatable, but all 10 of the top elementary schools are DCPS, with 6 WOTP and 4 EOTP (Ross, Shepherd, Maury, Brent).

And if anyone looked at that "who is beating 3rd grade expectations" chart, charter schools like Yu Ying and LAMB that have very low poverty rates have startling low 3rd grade reading scores -- they are underperforming relative to demographics.


Middle school is a different story, because DCPS really doesn't seem to have that figured out, curricularly.

But they come back in high school, with many DCPS schools offering sufficient challenge (Walls, Banneker, JR, MacArthur and McKinley Tech)

Ok, well kids at those immersion schools are learning everything via a second language. When the teacher is teaching them about ecosystems or conjunctions or Native American history or whatever, the teacher is not doing it in English.

Former LAMB employee. The kids don't speak Spanish. Almost none of them. Teachers may speak in Spanish but everyone responds in English. Try talking to one of these students in Spanish for longer than 2 seconds and they'll look at you like you have lobsters crawling out of your ears.

Pro-tip: If you're going to lie about a school, it should at least be a little bit believable. This is like claiming kids at BASIS don't know how to add or subtract.

I actually don’t think this is made up. My neighbors go there and they are in upper grades and barely speak Spanish and their friends don’t either. I’m a native speaker. My kids go to another bilingual chapter and it’s the same. There are so many kids in 5th grade who barely speak Spanish.

It's completely made up and totally ridiculous. The lie isn't even internally consistent. This person says that you speak to the kids in Spanish, "they'll look at you like you have lobsters crawling out of your ears?" But they also say the kids understand the teachers speaking to them in Spanish "but everyone responds in English"? Wait, I though the couldn't understand more than two seconds of Spanish? Good grief. Who even goes online to trash elementary schools? Pathetic. My kids went to LAMB and I wasn't aware of any child there who wasn't fluent. Kids pick up languages quickly, especially when their first few years there are 100 percent in Spanish. LAMB has problems, but teaching kids Spanish is definitely not one of them.

I don’t think anyone is trashing the school, but it would be nice to have concrete numbers to support assertions. Language proficiency encompasses reading, writing, listening and speaking. You can have a high level of proficiency in one area and not in others. To be fluent you need to demonstrate mastery in all areas. You say kids at LAMB are fluent, but how are you judging that? What metrics is LAMB using? I don’t write off PP because my kids go to another bilingual charter and we don’t get info on this. I am a native speaker and probably have a higher standard so it irritates me that this isn’t more transparent at a bilingual school.

NP. The stamp test does test for all these categories - reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Kids take it in 5th before coming to DCI. It helps them place kids in the appropriate language level.

Can’t speak to other schools but my kid was at MV and tested intermediate in all categories in 5th. We don’t speak any spanish. The kids are definitely not speaking english in spanish class at MV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As the OP of this thread pointed out, times are changing.

Here are the 9th-to-10th grade retention rates for Banneker over the past decade or so, based on OSSE data. (https://osse.dc.gov/enrollment)

* Class of 2016, 88/108, 81%
* Class of 2017, 114/142, 80%
* Class of 2018, 128/167, 77%
* Class of 2019, 133/155, 86%
* Class of 2020, 115/135, 85%
* Class of 2021, 125/142, 88%
* Class of 2022, 135/151, 89%
* Class of 2023, 157/187, 89%
* Class of 2024, 139/161, 86%
* Class of 2025, 135/145, 93%
* Class of 2026, 162/168, 96%
* Class of 2027, 232/245, 95%
* Class of 2028, 179/188, 95%

Note the gradual rise from the Classes of 2016-18, when only 4 out of every 5 students returned for sophomore year, to the Classes of 21-23, when nearly 9 in 10 returned, and then the final jump to the current period, when we have 19 out of 20 returning. Old timers who remember “counseling out” as a major feature at Banneker aren’t lying, but they are out of date. Current families aren’t noticing the phenomenon because it isn’t happening anymore.

Some other indications of change at Banneker:

GPA. My recollection is that when my student started at Banneker, there was a minimum GPA required to return. I went looking for it and couldn’t find it in the current handbook. But I did find evidence that the average GPA at Banneker is rising. The GPA cutoff for NHS used to be 3.2 (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/m/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=261782&type=d). It’s currently 3.7. For the Class of 2029, it’s going up to 3.9 (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/m/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=382211&type=d) (page 10).

SAT scores. Banneker is reporting that the average SAT for the Class of 2025 was 1127 (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/ourpages/auto/2025/10/21/27554456/25-26%20Banneker%20Information%20Resources.pdf?rnd=1761072180399), up 20 points from even the 23-24 number reported by DCPS (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/dcps-data-set-sat).

AP scores. Similarly, Banneker is reporting that the AP pass rate for the 24-25 school year was 70% (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/ourpages/auto/2025/10/21/27554456/25-26%20Banneker%20Information%20Resources.pdf?rnd=1761072180399), up from the 23-24 figure of 57% (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/ap-score-data-sets).

That’s FOUR discrepancies in the data, all tied to the Class of 2025 and subsequent classes: increased retention, increased GPA, increased average SAT score, and increased AP pass rate.

The Class of 2025 was also the first class admitted to high school after Walls dropped the exam. It looks to me like the most banal and predictable result possible: Walls used to use an exam to cherry pick students who are good at taking exams. Take away that exam, and more of those students wind up at Banneker (some because Walls is rejecting a lot of high-scoring students these days, and others because, knowing that Walls now rejects a lot of high-scoring students, they cast a broader net and decide they prefer Banneker). And the result is that the student body at Banneker is performing better on a variety of metrics than it was in the past.

Very informative. Thank you for this. That link also lists all the college destinations, which readers might be interested in.

And for a PP who asked, Walls' AP pass rate was 91 percent for the past two years that DCPS reported.

Oof. The DCPS AP pass rate definition is very soft-bigotry-of-low-expectations. Students with at least one pass score over students who did APs. So if you took 7 APs and passed 1, you count in the numerator. Unless I completely misinterpreted it.

The other factor, though, is that DC schools often require you to take AP classes and the exam as part of that class, so far more students are taking the exam than in some other states.

USNews profiles have the more rigorous stat of % of AP exams taken with a score of 3 or higher. SWW is at 86% and Banneker is 45%. Jackson-Reed is at 56%.

Wow that is really low for Banneker. 3 is a low bar too. It is more informative % of 4 and 5.

This is so tiresome. If Banneker is not good enough for your child, then don’t apply and be quiet. The school has been pumping out successful graduates for decades now and does not need a bunch of entitled white parents who think their mere presence of their children improves things. If you feel like a 1450 average SAT is what your kid needs to be around, then best of luck to you with your Walls and Cathedral school apps.

Someone cites stats and you rage bait them as an “entitled white parent” ….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As the OP of this thread pointed out, times are changing.

Here are the 9th-to-10th grade retention rates for Banneker over the past decade or so, based on OSSE data. (https://osse.dc.gov/enrollment)

* Class of 2016, 88/108, 81%
* Class of 2017, 114/142, 80%
* Class of 2018, 128/167, 77%
* Class of 2019, 133/155, 86%
* Class of 2020, 115/135, 85%
* Class of 2021, 125/142, 88%
* Class of 2022, 135/151, 89%
* Class of 2023, 157/187, 89%
* Class of 2024, 139/161, 86%
* Class of 2025, 135/145, 93%
* Class of 2026, 162/168, 96%
* Class of 2027, 232/245, 95%
* Class of 2028, 179/188, 95%

Note the gradual rise from the Classes of 2016-18, when only 4 out of every 5 students returned for sophomore year, to the Classes of 21-23, when nearly 9 in 10 returned, and then the final jump to the current period, when we have 19 out of 20 returning. Old timers who remember “counseling out” as a major feature at Banneker aren’t lying, but they are out of date. Current families aren’t noticing the phenomenon because it isn’t happening anymore.

Some other indications of change at Banneker:

GPA. My recollection is that when my student started at Banneker, there was a minimum GPA required to return. I went looking for it and couldn’t find it in the current handbook. But I did find evidence that the average GPA at Banneker is rising. The GPA cutoff for NHS used to be 3.2 (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/m/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=261782&type=d). It’s currently 3.7. For the Class of 2029, it’s going up to 3.9 (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/m/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=382211&type=d) (page 10).

SAT scores. Banneker is reporting that the average SAT for the Class of 2025 was 1127 (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/ourpages/auto/2025/10/21/27554456/25-26%20Banneker%20Information%20Resources.pdf?rnd=1761072180399), up 20 points from even the 23-24 number reported by DCPS (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/dcps-data-set-sat).

AP scores. Similarly, Banneker is reporting that the AP pass rate for the 24-25 school year was 70% (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/ourpages/auto/2025/10/21/27554456/25-26%20Banneker%20Information%20Resources.pdf?rnd=1761072180399), up from the 23-24 figure of 57% (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/ap-score-data-sets).

That’s FOUR discrepancies in the data, all tied to the Class of 2025 and subsequent classes: increased retention, increased GPA, increased average SAT score, and increased AP pass rate.

The Class of 2025 was also the first class admitted to high school after Walls dropped the exam. It looks to me like the most banal and predictable result possible: Walls used to use an exam to cherry pick students who are good at taking exams. Take away that exam, and more of those students wind up at Banneker (some because Walls is rejecting a lot of high-scoring students these days, and others because, knowing that Walls now rejects a lot of high-scoring students, they cast a broader net and decide they prefer Banneker). And the result is that the student body at Banneker is performing better on a variety of metrics than it was in the past.

Very informative. Thank you for this. That link also lists all the college destinations, which readers might be interested in.

And for a PP who asked, Walls' AP pass rate was 91 percent for the past two years that DCPS reported.

Oof. The DCPS AP pass rate definition is very soft-bigotry-of-low-expectations. Students with at least one pass score over students who did APs. So if you took 7 APs and passed 1, you count in the numerator. Unless I completely misinterpreted it.

The other factor, though, is that DC schools often require you to take AP classes and the exam as part of that class, so far more students are taking the exam than in some other states.

USNews profiles have the more rigorous stat of % of AP exams taken with a score of 3 or higher. SWW is at 86% and Banneker is 45%. Jackson-Reed is at 56%.

Wow that is really low for Banneker. 3 is a low bar too. It is more informative % of 4 and 5.

This is so tiresome. If Banneker is not good enough for your child, then don’t apply and be quiet. The school has been pumping out successful graduates for decades now and does not need a bunch of entitled white parents who think their mere presence of their children improves things. If you feel like a 1450 average SAT is what your kid needs to be around, then best of luck to you with your Walls and Cathedral school apps.

Someone cites stats and you rage bait them as an “entitled white parent” ….

Well I wonder if this speaks to a tension in the school. Clearly many parents, students, teachers and city leadership think of Banneker as the high school version of an HBCU. So what happens when more and more white students start attending?

[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:My prediction: The list of the best schools in the city, at every level, will be increasingly dominated by charters.

Only for middle school.

DCPS is by far the leader for elementary. High School is split.

No for elementary EOTP. It’s the immersion charters. Families that don’t get in then settle for DCPS.

Nope. Definitely not true on Capitol Hill.

OK, CH may be the exception but it is a very, very small part of EOTP.

Some CH families do choose immersion over DCPS but not majority.

No, it's actually you who are focusing on one specific slice of EOTP. Other parts -- CH included -- have different stories, but few of them are immersion charter-focused. Shepherd, Ross, Reed, Bancroft, Maury, Brent, Ludlow-Taylor, Chisholm, Payne, Watkins and Van Ness are all schools where DCPSes are the preferred destinations (either the IB itself or a nearby one). EOTR few kids are in immersion and the ones that are are mostly in/hoping for Chisholm.

Folks in Brookland, Eckington, Brentwood, Edgewood are heading to immersion (and other, e.g., Lee) charters because they're the closest good options. The charters that folks EOTR attend are not immersion, but they choose them for the same reason. For anyone close enough to Capitol Hill or WOTP, those DCPSes are typically the closest good options and so the first choice. As CH has gentrified, there are now many more CH ESes on the list and so more good spots for OOBers; same thing with the DCPS ESes along the North Cap corridor.

As a general matter, I think most people think -- and the test scores certainly bear out -- that DPCSes are the best-performing ESes.

Yeah agree. I know US News is somehow debatable, but all 10 of the top elementary schools are DCPS, with 6 WOTP and 4 EOTP (Ross, Shepherd, Maury, Brent).

And if anyone looked at that "who is beating 3rd grade expectations" chart, charter schools like Yu Ying and LAMB that have very low poverty rates have startling low 3rd grade reading scores -- they are underperforming relative to demographics.


Middle school is a different story, because DCPS really doesn't seem to have that figured out, curricularly.

But they come back in high school, with many DCPS schools offering sufficient challenge (Walls, Banneker, JR, MacArthur and McKinley Tech)

Ok, well kids at those immersion schools are learning everything via a second language. When the teacher is teaching them about ecosystems or conjunctions or Native American history or whatever, the teacher is not doing it in English.

Former LAMB employee. The kids don't speak Spanish. Almost none of them. Teachers may speak in Spanish but everyone responds in English. Try talking to one of these students in Spanish for longer than 2 seconds and they'll look at you like you have lobsters crawling out of your ears.

Pro-tip: If you're going to lie about a school, it should at least be a little bit believable. This is like claiming kids at BASIS don't know how to add or subtract.

I actually don’t think this is made up. My neighbors go there and they are in upper grades and barely speak Spanish and their friends don’t either. I’m a native speaker. My kids go to another bilingual chapter and it’s the same. There are so many kids in 5th grade who barely speak Spanish.

It's completely made up and totally ridiculous. The lie isn't even internally consistent. This person says that you speak to the kids in Spanish, "they'll look at you like you have lobsters crawling out of your ears?" But they also say the kids understand the teachers speaking to them in Spanish "but everyone responds in English"? Wait, I though the couldn't understand more than two seconds of Spanish? Good grief. Who even goes online to trash elementary schools? Pathetic. My kids went to LAMB and I wasn't aware of any child there who wasn't fluent. Kids pick up languages quickly, especially when their first few years there are 100 percent in Spanish. LAMB has problems, but teaching kids Spanish is definitely not one of them.

I don’t think anyone is trashing the school, but it would be nice to have concrete numbers to support assertions. Language proficiency encompasses reading, writing, listening and speaking. You can have a high level of proficiency in one area and not in others. To be fluent you need to demonstrate mastery in all areas. You say kids at LAMB are fluent, but how are you judging that? What metrics is LAMB using? I don’t write off PP because my kids go to another bilingual charter and we don’t get info on this. I am a native speaker and probably have a higher standard so it irritates me that this isn’t more transparent at a bilingual school.

LAMB parent here. I've never heard of even a single instance of a parent complaining their kid wasn't learning Spanish. A large percentage of LAMB parents themselves speak Spanish so it's not like they wouldn't notice. Even if you don't speak, every parent is throwing away hundreds of pages of classwork written entirely in Spanish. The kids take proficiency tests too. Honestly, nothing at LAMB would work if the kids didn't speak. Many of the teachers barely speak English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As the OP of this thread pointed out, times are changing.

Here are the 9th-to-10th grade retention rates for Banneker over the past decade or so, based on OSSE data. (https://osse.dc.gov/enrollment)

* Class of 2016, 88/108, 81%
* Class of 2017, 114/142, 80%
* Class of 2018, 128/167, 77%
* Class of 2019, 133/155, 86%
* Class of 2020, 115/135, 85%
* Class of 2021, 125/142, 88%
* Class of 2022, 135/151, 89%
* Class of 2023, 157/187, 89%
* Class of 2024, 139/161, 86%
* Class of 2025, 135/145, 93%
* Class of 2026, 162/168, 96%
* Class of 2027, 232/245, 95%
* Class of 2028, 179/188, 95%

Note the gradual rise from the Classes of 2016-18, when only 4 out of every 5 students returned for sophomore year, to the Classes of 21-23, when nearly 9 in 10 returned, and then the final jump to the current period, when we have 19 out of 20 returning. Old timers who remember “counseling out” as a major feature at Banneker aren’t lying, but they are out of date. Current families aren’t noticing the phenomenon because it isn’t happening anymore.

Some other indications of change at Banneker:

GPA. My recollection is that when my student started at Banneker, there was a minimum GPA required to return. I went looking for it and couldn’t find it in the current handbook. But I did find evidence that the average GPA at Banneker is rising. The GPA cutoff for NHS used to be 3.2 (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/m/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=261782&type=d). It’s currently 3.7. For the Class of 2029, it’s going up to 3.9 (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/m/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=382211&type=d) (page 10).

SAT scores. Banneker is reporting that the average SAT for the Class of 2025 was 1127 (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/ourpages/auto/2025/10/21/27554456/25-26%20Banneker%20Information%20Resources.pdf?rnd=1761072180399), up 20 points from even the 23-24 number reported by DCPS (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/dcps-data-set-sat).

AP scores. Similarly, Banneker is reporting that the AP pass rate for the 24-25 school year was 70% (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/ourpages/auto/2025/10/21/27554456/25-26%20Banneker%20Information%20Resources.pdf?rnd=1761072180399), up from the 23-24 figure of 57% (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/ap-score-data-sets).

That’s FOUR discrepancies in the data, all tied to the Class of 2025 and subsequent classes: increased retention, increased GPA, increased average SAT score, and increased AP pass rate.

The Class of 2025 was also the first class admitted to high school after Walls dropped the exam. It looks to me like the most banal and predictable result possible: Walls used to use an exam to cherry pick students who are good at taking exams. Take away that exam, and more of those students wind up at Banneker (some because Walls is rejecting a lot of high-scoring students these days, and others because, knowing that Walls now rejects a lot of high-scoring students, they cast a broader net and decide they prefer Banneker). And the result is that the student body at Banneker is performing better on a variety of metrics than it was in the past.

Very informative. Thank you for this. That link also lists all the college destinations, which readers might be interested in.

And for a PP who asked, Walls' AP pass rate was 91 percent for the past two years that DCPS reported.

Oof. The DCPS AP pass rate definition is very soft-bigotry-of-low-expectations. Students with at least one pass score over students who did APs. So if you took 7 APs and passed 1, you count in the numerator. Unless I completely misinterpreted it.

The other factor, though, is that DC schools often require you to take AP classes and the exam as part of that class, so far more students are taking the exam than in some other states.

USNews profiles have the more rigorous stat of % of AP exams taken with a score of 3 or higher. SWW is at 86% and Banneker is 45%. Jackson-Reed is at 56%.

Wow that is really low for Banneker. 3 is a low bar too. It is more informative % of 4 and 5.

This is so tiresome. If Banneker is not good enough for your child, then don’t apply and be quiet. The school has been pumping out successful graduates for decades now and does not need a bunch of entitled white parents who think their mere presence of their children improves things. If you feel like a 1450 average SAT is what your kid needs to be around, then best of luck to you with your Walls and Cathedral school apps.

Someone cites stats and you rage bait them as an “entitled white parent” ….

This. It helps no one when you don’t acknowledge the data and low standards of DCPS. One of the best and most selective school in the city has an average SAT of 1100 and less than 50% pass rate of 3 or higher.

I’m sure many of these kids potentially could score much higher and get higher AP scores. But they can only do so much in 2-3 years to try to make up the large deficit of content knowledge and analysis, even when pushing kids academically at the cost of EC, etc.. It is too late to catch up by high school. The scores reflect this.

What you need is to identify these kids in elementary, put them in G & T and track them in middle school. Then go to Banneker and you will see higher stats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cool! From last year’s Banneker graduating class alone, students enrolled at MIT, Princeton, Cornell, Berkeley, UVA, Duke, Emory and Hopkins, among many others.

Truly great results for Banneker!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As the OP of this thread pointed out, times are changing.

Here are the 9th-to-10th grade retention rates for Banneker over the past decade or so, based on OSSE data. (https://osse.dc.gov/enrollment)

* Class of 2016, 88/108, 81%
* Class of 2017, 114/142, 80%
* Class of 2018, 128/167, 77%
* Class of 2019, 133/155, 86%
* Class of 2020, 115/135, 85%
* Class of 2021, 125/142, 88%
* Class of 2022, 135/151, 89%
* Class of 2023, 157/187, 89%
* Class of 2024, 139/161, 86%
* Class of 2025, 135/145, 93%
* Class of 2026, 162/168, 96%
* Class of 2027, 232/245, 95%
* Class of 2028, 179/188, 95%

Note the gradual rise from the Classes of 2016-18, when only 4 out of every 5 students returned for sophomore year, to the Classes of 21-23, when nearly 9 in 10 returned, and then the final jump to the current period, when we have 19 out of 20 returning. Old timers who remember “counseling out” as a major feature at Banneker aren’t lying, but they are out of date. Current families aren’t noticing the phenomenon because it isn’t happening anymore.

Some other indications of change at Banneker:

GPA. My recollection is that when my student started at Banneker, there was a minimum GPA required to return. I went looking for it and couldn’t find it in the current handbook. But I did find evidence that the average GPA at Banneker is rising. The GPA cutoff for NHS used to be 3.2 (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/m/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=261782&type=d). It’s currently 3.7. For the Class of 2029, it’s going up to 3.9 (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/m/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=382211&type=d) (page 10).

SAT scores. Banneker is reporting that the average SAT for the Class of 2025 was 1127 (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/ourpages/auto/2025/10/21/27554456/25-26%20Banneker%20Information%20Resources.pdf?rnd=1761072180399), up 20 points from even the 23-24 number reported by DCPS (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/dcps-data-set-sat).

AP scores. Similarly, Banneker is reporting that the AP pass rate for the 24-25 school year was 70% (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/ourpages/auto/2025/10/21/27554456/25-26%20Banneker%20Information%20Resources.pdf?rnd=1761072180399), up from the 23-24 figure of 57% (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/ap-score-data-sets).

That’s FOUR discrepancies in the data, all tied to the Class of 2025 and subsequent classes: increased retention, increased GPA, increased average SAT score, and increased AP pass rate.

The Class of 2025 was also the first class admitted to high school after Walls dropped the exam. It looks to me like the most banal and predictable result possible: Walls used to use an exam to cherry pick students who are good at taking exams. Take away that exam, and more of those students wind up at Banneker (some because Walls is rejecting a lot of high-scoring students these days, and others because, knowing that Walls now rejects a lot of high-scoring students, they cast a broader net and decide they prefer Banneker). And the result is that the student body at Banneker is performing better on a variety of metrics than it was in the past.

Very informative. Thank you for this. That link also lists all the college destinations, which readers might be interested in.

And for a PP who asked, Walls' AP pass rate was 91 percent for the past two years that DCPS reported.

Oof. The DCPS AP pass rate definition is very soft-bigotry-of-low-expectations. Students with at least one pass score over students who did APs. So if you took 7 APs and passed 1, you count in the numerator. Unless I completely misinterpreted it.

The other factor, though, is that DC schools often require you to take AP classes and the exam as part of that class, so far more students are taking the exam than in some other states.

USNews profiles have the more rigorous stat of % of AP exams taken with a score of 3 or higher. SWW is at 86% and Banneker is 45%. Jackson-Reed is at 56%.

Wow that is really low for Banneker. 3 is a low bar too. It is more informative % of 4 and 5.

This is so tiresome. If Banneker is not good enough for your child, then don’t apply and be quiet. The school has been pumping out successful graduates for decades now and does not need a bunch of entitled white parents who think their mere presence of their children improves things. If you feel like a 1450 average SAT is what your kid needs to be around, then best of luck to you with your Walls and Cathedral school apps.

Someone cites stats and you rage bait them as an “entitled white parent” ….

Could someone please post a link to these supposed stats? I went to the USNWR website and didn’t see that number for Banneker.

I did, however, see that Banneker is the #3 ranked high school in DC, behind only SWW and Basis.

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/district-of-columbia

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As the OP of this thread pointed out, times are changing.

Here are the 9th-to-10th grade retention rates for Banneker over the past decade or so, based on OSSE data. (https://osse.dc.gov/enrollment)

* Class of 2016, 88/108, 81%
* Class of 2017, 114/142, 80%
* Class of 2018, 128/167, 77%
* Class of 2019, 133/155, 86%
* Class of 2020, 115/135, 85%
* Class of 2021, 125/142, 88%
* Class of 2022, 135/151, 89%
* Class of 2023, 157/187, 89%
* Class of 2024, 139/161, 86%
* Class of 2025, 135/145, 93%
* Class of 2026, 162/168, 96%
* Class of 2027, 232/245, 95%
* Class of 2028, 179/188, 95%

Note the gradual rise from the Classes of 2016-18, when only 4 out of every 5 students returned for sophomore year, to the Classes of 21-23, when nearly 9 in 10 returned, and then the final jump to the current period, when we have 19 out of 20 returning. Old timers who remember “counseling out” as a major feature at Banneker aren’t lying, but they are out of date. Current families aren’t noticing the phenomenon because it isn’t happening anymore.

Some other indications of change at Banneker:

GPA. My recollection is that when my student started at Banneker, there was a minimum GPA required to return. I went looking for it and couldn’t find it in the current handbook. But I did find evidence that the average GPA at Banneker is rising. The GPA cutoff for NHS used to be 3.2 (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/m/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=261782&type=d). It’s currently 3.7. For the Class of 2029, it’s going up to 3.9 (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/m/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=382211&type=d) (page 10).

SAT scores. Banneker is reporting that the average SAT for the Class of 2025 was 1127 (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/ourpages/auto/2025/10/21/27554456/25-26%20Banneker%20Information%20Resources.pdf?rnd=1761072180399), up 20 points from even the 23-24 number reported by DCPS (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/dcps-data-set-sat).

AP scores. Similarly, Banneker is reporting that the AP pass rate for the 24-25 school year was 70% (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/ourpages/auto/2025/10/21/27554456/25-26%20Banneker%20Information%20Resources.pdf?rnd=1761072180399), up from the 23-24 figure of 57% (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/ap-score-data-sets).

That’s FOUR discrepancies in the data, all tied to the Class of 2025 and subsequent classes: increased retention, increased GPA, increased average SAT score, and increased AP pass rate.

The Class of 2025 was also the first class admitted to high school after Walls dropped the exam. It looks to me like the most banal and predictable result possible: Walls used to use an exam to cherry pick students who are good at taking exams. Take away that exam, and more of those students wind up at Banneker (some because Walls is rejecting a lot of high-scoring students these days, and others because, knowing that Walls now rejects a lot of high-scoring students, they cast a broader net and decide they prefer Banneker). And the result is that the student body at Banneker is performing better on a variety of metrics than it was in the past.

Very informative. Thank you for this. That link also lists all the college destinations, which readers might be interested in.

And for a PP who asked, Walls' AP pass rate was 91 percent for the past two years that DCPS reported.

Oof. The DCPS AP pass rate definition is very soft-bigotry-of-low-expectations. Students with at least one pass score over students who did APs. So if you took 7 APs and passed 1, you count in the numerator. Unless I completely misinterpreted it.

The other factor, though, is that DC schools often require you to take AP classes and the exam as part of that class, so far more students are taking the exam than in some other states.

USNews profiles have the more rigorous stat of % of AP exams taken with a score of 3 or higher. SWW is at 86% and Banneker is 45%. Jackson-Reed is at 56%.

Wow that is really low for Banneker. 3 is a low bar too. It is more informative % of 4 and 5.

This is so tiresome. If Banneker is not good enough for your child, then don’t apply and be quiet. The school has been pumping out successful graduates for decades now and does not need a bunch of entitled white parents who think their mere presence of their children improves things. If you feel like a 1450 average SAT is what your kid needs to be around, then best of luck to you with your Walls and Cathedral school apps.

Someone cites stats and you rage bait them as an “entitled white parent” ….

No, the stats cited in the longer post well above demonstrated, by several measures, that Banneker's numbers are going up as a part of a twenty year trend. Then one poster read through a thorough post and cherry picked one number that supposedly "proved" that Banneker has low stats while ignoring the point of the entire post.

The poster is clearly not really basing their opinions on their overall analysis, which demonstrates that Banneker is attracting top students and educating them well. They are simply deciding that it's an inferior school based on cherry picking statistics they probably haven't fully analyzed. The responding poster was right to point out that their analysis is imcomplete at best and faulty at worst.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As the OP of this thread pointed out, times are changing.

Here are the 9th-to-10th grade retention rates for Banneker over the past decade or so, based on OSSE data. (https://osse.dc.gov/enrollment)

* Class of 2016, 88/108, 81%
* Class of 2017, 114/142, 80%
* Class of 2018, 128/167, 77%
* Class of 2019, 133/155, 86%
* Class of 2020, 115/135, 85%
* Class of 2021, 125/142, 88%
* Class of 2022, 135/151, 89%
* Class of 2023, 157/187, 89%
* Class of 2024, 139/161, 86%
* Class of 2025, 135/145, 93%
* Class of 2026, 162/168, 96%
* Class of 2027, 232/245, 95%
* Class of 2028, 179/188, 95%

Note the gradual rise from the Classes of 2016-18, when only 4 out of every 5 students returned for sophomore year, to the Classes of 21-23, when nearly 9 in 10 returned, and then the final jump to the current period, when we have 19 out of 20 returning. Old timers who remember “counseling out” as a major feature at Banneker aren’t lying, but they are out of date. Current families aren’t noticing the phenomenon because it isn’t happening anymore.

Some other indications of change at Banneker:

GPA. My recollection is that when my student started at Banneker, there was a minimum GPA required to return. I went looking for it and couldn’t find it in the current handbook. But I did find evidence that the average GPA at Banneker is rising. The GPA cutoff for NHS used to be 3.2 (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/m/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=261782&type=d). It’s currently 3.7. For the Class of 2029, it’s going up to 3.9 (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/m/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=382211&type=d) (page 10).

SAT scores. Banneker is reporting that the average SAT for the Class of 2025 was 1127 (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/ourpages/auto/2025/10/21/27554456/25-26%20Banneker%20Information%20Resources.pdf?rnd=1761072180399), up 20 points from even the 23-24 number reported by DCPS (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/dcps-data-set-sat).

AP scores. Similarly, Banneker is reporting that the AP pass rate for the 24-25 school year was 70% (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/ourpages/auto/2025/10/21/27554456/25-26%20Banneker%20Information%20Resources.pdf?rnd=1761072180399), up from the 23-24 figure of 57% (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/ap-score-data-sets).

That’s FOUR discrepancies in the data, all tied to the Class of 2025 and subsequent classes: increased retention, increased GPA, increased average SAT score, and increased AP pass rate.

The Class of 2025 was also the first class admitted to high school after Walls dropped the exam. It looks to me like the most banal and predictable result possible: Walls used to use an exam to cherry pick students who are good at taking exams. Take away that exam, and more of those students wind up at Banneker (some because Walls is rejecting a lot of high-scoring students these days, and others because, knowing that Walls now rejects a lot of high-scoring students, they cast a broader net and decide they prefer Banneker). And the result is that the student body at Banneker is performing better on a variety of metrics than it was in the past.

Very informative. Thank you for this. That link also lists all the college destinations, which readers might be interested in.

And for a PP who asked, Walls' AP pass rate was 91 percent for the past two years that DCPS reported.

Oof. The DCPS AP pass rate definition is very soft-bigotry-of-low-expectations. Students with at least one pass score over students who did APs. So if you took 7 APs and passed 1, you count in the numerator. Unless I completely misinterpreted it.

The other factor, though, is that DC schools often require you to take AP classes and the exam as part of that class, so far more students are taking the exam than in some other states.

USNews profiles have the more rigorous stat of % of AP exams taken with a score of 3 or higher. SWW is at 86% and Banneker is 45%. Jackson-Reed is at 56%.

Wow that is really low for Banneker. 3 is a low bar too. It is more informative % of 4 and 5.

This is so tiresome. If Banneker is not good enough for your child, then don’t apply and be quiet. The school has been pumping out successful graduates for decades now and does not need a bunch of entitled white parents who think their mere presence of their children improves things. If you feel like a 1450 average SAT is what your kid needs to be around, then best of luck to you with your Walls and Cathedral school apps.

Someone cites stats and you rage bait them as an “entitled white parent” ….

This. It helps no one when you don’t acknowledge the data and low standards of DCPS. One of the best and most selective school in the city has an average SAT of 1100 and less than 50% pass rate of 3 or higher.

I’m sure many of these kids potentially could score much higher and get higher AP scores. But they can only do so much in 2-3 years to try to make up the large deficit of content knowledge and analysis, even when pushing kids academically at the cost of EC, etc.. It is too late to catch up by high school. The scores reflect this.

What you need is to identify these kids in elementary, put them in G & T and track them in middle school. Then go to Banneker and you will see higher stats.

This. If DCPS can wake up and start doing this, so many kids will benefit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As the OP of this thread pointed out, times are changing.

Here are the 9th-to-10th grade retention rates for Banneker over the past decade or so, based on OSSE data. (https://osse.dc.gov/enrollment)

* Class of 2016, 88/108, 81%
* Class of 2017, 114/142, 80%
* Class of 2018, 128/167, 77%
* Class of 2019, 133/155, 86%
* Class of 2020, 115/135, 85%
* Class of 2021, 125/142, 88%
* Class of 2022, 135/151, 89%
* Class of 2023, 157/187, 89%
* Class of 2024, 139/161, 86%
* Class of 2025, 135/145, 93%
* Class of 2026, 162/168, 96%
* Class of 2027, 232/245, 95%
* Class of 2028, 179/188, 95%

Note the gradual rise from the Classes of 2016-18, when only 4 out of every 5 students returned for sophomore year, to the Classes of 21-23, when nearly 9 in 10 returned, and then the final jump to the current period, when we have 19 out of 20 returning. Old timers who remember “counseling out” as a major feature at Banneker aren’t lying, but they are out of date. Current families aren’t noticing the phenomenon because it isn’t happening anymore.

Some other indications of change at Banneker:

GPA. My recollection is that when my student started at Banneker, there was a minimum GPA required to return. I went looking for it and couldn’t find it in the current handbook. But I did find evidence that the average GPA at Banneker is rising. The GPA cutoff for NHS used to be 3.2 (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/m/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=261782&type=d). It’s currently 3.7. For the Class of 2029, it’s going up to 3.9 (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/m/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=382211&type=d) (page 10).

SAT scores. Banneker is reporting that the average SAT for the Class of 2025 was 1127 (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/ourpages/auto/2025/10/21/27554456/25-26%20Banneker%20Information%20Resources.pdf?rnd=1761072180399), up 20 points from even the 23-24 number reported by DCPS (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/dcps-data-set-sat).

AP scores. Similarly, Banneker is reporting that the AP pass rate for the 24-25 school year was 70% (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/ourpages/auto/2025/10/21/27554456/25-26%20Banneker%20Information%20Resources.pdf?rnd=1761072180399), up from the 23-24 figure of 57% (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/ap-score-data-sets).

That’s FOUR discrepancies in the data, all tied to the Class of 2025 and subsequent classes: increased retention, increased GPA, increased average SAT score, and increased AP pass rate.

The Class of 2025 was also the first class admitted to high school after Walls dropped the exam. It looks to me like the most banal and predictable result possible: Walls used to use an exam to cherry pick students who are good at taking exams. Take away that exam, and more of those students wind up at Banneker (some because Walls is rejecting a lot of high-scoring students these days, and others because, knowing that Walls now rejects a lot of high-scoring students, they cast a broader net and decide they prefer Banneker). And the result is that the student body at Banneker is performing better on a variety of metrics than it was in the past.

Very informative. Thank you for this. That link also lists all the college destinations, which readers might be interested in.

And for a PP who asked, Walls' AP pass rate was 91 percent for the past two years that DCPS reported.

Oof. The DCPS AP pass rate definition is very soft-bigotry-of-low-expectations. Students with at least one pass score over students who did APs. So if you took 7 APs and passed 1, you count in the numerator. Unless I completely misinterpreted it.

The other factor, though, is that DC schools often require you to take AP classes and the exam as part of that class, so far more students are taking the exam than in some other states.

USNews profiles have the more rigorous stat of % of AP exams taken with a score of 3 or higher. SWW is at 86% and Banneker is 45%. Jackson-Reed is at 56%.

Wow that is really low for Banneker. 3 is a low bar too. It is more informative % of 4 and 5.

This is so tiresome. If Banneker is not good enough for your child, then don’t apply and be quiet. The school has been pumping out successful graduates for decades now and does not need a bunch of entitled white parents who think their mere presence of their children improves things. If you feel like a 1450 average SAT is what your kid needs to be around, then best of luck to you with your Walls and Cathedral school apps.

Someone cites stats and you rage bait them as an “entitled white parent” ….

Could someone please post a link to these supposed stats? I went to the USNWR website and didn’t see that number for Banneker.

I did, however, see that Banneker is the #3 ranked high school in DC, behind only SWW and Basis.

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/district-of-columbia

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/district-of-columbia/districts/district-of-columbia-public-schools/benjamin-banneker-academy-high-school-4650

Look under Advanced Placement® (AP®) Student Performance, last stat "Exam Pass Rate". Repeat for SWOW and JR.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As the OP of this thread pointed out, times are changing.

Here are the 9th-to-10th grade retention rates for Banneker over the past decade or so, based on OSSE data. (https://osse.dc.gov/enrollment)

* Class of 2016, 88/108, 81%
* Class of 2017, 114/142, 80%
* Class of 2018, 128/167, 77%
* Class of 2019, 133/155, 86%
* Class of 2020, 115/135, 85%
* Class of 2021, 125/142, 88%
* Class of 2022, 135/151, 89%
* Class of 2023, 157/187, 89%
* Class of 2024, 139/161, 86%
* Class of 2025, 135/145, 93%
* Class of 2026, 162/168, 96%
* Class of 2027, 232/245, 95%
* Class of 2028, 179/188, 95%

Note the gradual rise from the Classes of 2016-18, when only 4 out of every 5 students returned for sophomore year, to the Classes of 21-23, when nearly 9 in 10 returned, and then the final jump to the current period, when we have 19 out of 20 returning. Old timers who remember “counseling out” as a major feature at Banneker aren’t lying, but they are out of date. Current families aren’t noticing the phenomenon because it isn’t happening anymore.

Some other indications of change at Banneker:

GPA. My recollection is that when my student started at Banneker, there was a minimum GPA required to return. I went looking for it and couldn’t find it in the current handbook. But I did find evidence that the average GPA at Banneker is rising. The GPA cutoff for NHS used to be 3.2 (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/m/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=261782&type=d). It’s currently 3.7. For the Class of 2029, it’s going up to 3.9 (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/m/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=382211&type=d) (page 10).

SAT scores. Banneker is reporting that the average SAT for the Class of 2025 was 1127 (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/ourpages/auto/2025/10/21/27554456/25-26%20Banneker%20Information%20Resources.pdf?rnd=1761072180399), up 20 points from even the 23-24 number reported by DCPS (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/dcps-data-set-sat).

AP scores. Similarly, Banneker is reporting that the AP pass rate for the 24-25 school year was 70% (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/ourpages/auto/2025/10/21/27554456/25-26%20Banneker%20Information%20Resources.pdf?rnd=1761072180399), up from the 23-24 figure of 57% (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/ap-score-data-sets).

That’s FOUR discrepancies in the data, all tied to the Class of 2025 and subsequent classes: increased retention, increased GPA, increased average SAT score, and increased AP pass rate.

The Class of 2025 was also the first class admitted to high school after Walls dropped the exam. It looks to me like the most banal and predictable result possible: Walls used to use an exam to cherry pick students who are good at taking exams. Take away that exam, and more of those students wind up at Banneker (some because Walls is rejecting a lot of high-scoring students these days, and others because, knowing that Walls now rejects a lot of high-scoring students, they cast a broader net and decide they prefer Banneker). And the result is that the student body at Banneker is performing better on a variety of metrics than it was in the past.

Very informative. Thank you for this. That link also lists all the college destinations, which readers might be interested in.

And for a PP who asked, Walls' AP pass rate was 91 percent for the past two years that DCPS reported.

Oof. The DCPS AP pass rate definition is very soft-bigotry-of-low-expectations. Students with at least one pass score over students who did APs. So if you took 7 APs and passed 1, you count in the numerator. Unless I completely misinterpreted it.

The other factor, though, is that DC schools often require you to take AP classes and the exam as part of that class, so far more students are taking the exam than in some other states.

USNews profiles have the more rigorous stat of % of AP exams taken with a score of 3 or higher. SWW is at 86% and Banneker is 45%. Jackson-Reed is at 56%.

Wow that is really low for Banneker. 3 is a low bar too. It is more informative % of 4 and 5.

This is so tiresome. If Banneker is not good enough for your child, then don’t apply and be quiet. The school has been pumping out successful graduates for decades now and does not need a bunch of entitled white parents who think their mere presence of their children improves things. If you feel like a 1450 average SAT is what your kid needs to be around, then best of luck to you with your Walls and Cathedral school apps.

Someone cites stats and you rage bait them as an “entitled white parent” ….

No, the stats cited in the longer post well above demonstrated, by several measures, that Banneker's numbers are going up as a part of a twenty year trend. Then one poster read through a thorough post and cherry picked one number that supposedly "proved" that Banneker has low stats while ignoring the point of the entire post.

The poster is clearly not really basing their opinions on their overall analysis, which demonstrates that Banneker is attracting top students and educating them well. They are simply deciding that it's an inferior school based on cherry picking statistics they probably haven't fully analyzed. The responding poster was right to point out that their analysis is imcomplete at best and faulty at worst.

I have no dog in the fight and want multiple excellent selective school choices for DC children of all races. Objective measures show that Banneker is not doing as well as you would expect from a selective school. Being worse on AP Pass rate than a large neighborhood HS with its own significant issues is something to hold school administration accountable for. It's disappointing parents are defensive about this rather than talk about what the school is doing to change this and not on a 20-year time scale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As the OP of this thread pointed out, times are changing.

Here are the 9th-to-10th grade retention rates for Banneker over the past decade or so, based on OSSE data. (https://osse.dc.gov/enrollment)

* Class of 2016, 88/108, 81%
* Class of 2017, 114/142, 80%
* Class of 2018, 128/167, 77%
* Class of 2019, 133/155, 86%
* Class of 2020, 115/135, 85%
* Class of 2021, 125/142, 88%
* Class of 2022, 135/151, 89%
* Class of 2023, 157/187, 89%
* Class of 2024, 139/161, 86%
* Class of 2025, 135/145, 93%
* Class of 2026, 162/168, 96%
* Class of 2027, 232/245, 95%
* Class of 2028, 179/188, 95%

Note the gradual rise from the Classes of 2016-18, when only 4 out of every 5 students returned for sophomore year, to the Classes of 21-23, when nearly 9 in 10 returned, and then the final jump to the current period, when we have 19 out of 20 returning. Old timers who remember “counseling out” as a major feature at Banneker aren’t lying, but they are out of date. Current families aren’t noticing the phenomenon because it isn’t happening anymore.

Some other indications of change at Banneker:

GPA. My recollection is that when my student started at Banneker, there was a minimum GPA required to return. I went looking for it and couldn’t find it in the current handbook. But I did find evidence that the average GPA at Banneker is rising. The GPA cutoff for NHS used to be 3.2 (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/m/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=261782&type=d). It’s currently 3.7. For the Class of 2029, it’s going up to 3.9 (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/m/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=382211&type=d) (page 10).

SAT scores. Banneker is reporting that the average SAT for the Class of 2025 was 1127 (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/ourpages/auto/2025/10/21/27554456/25-26%20Banneker%20Information%20Resources.pdf?rnd=1761072180399), up 20 points from even the 23-24 number reported by DCPS (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/dcps-data-set-sat).

AP scores. Similarly, Banneker is reporting that the AP pass rate for the 24-25 school year was 70% (https://www.benjaminbanneker.org/ourpages/auto/2025/10/21/27554456/25-26%20Banneker%20Information%20Resources.pdf?rnd=1761072180399), up from the 23-24 figure of 57% (https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/ap-score-data-sets).

That’s FOUR discrepancies in the data, all tied to the Class of 2025 and subsequent classes: increased retention, increased GPA, increased average SAT score, and increased AP pass rate.

The Class of 2025 was also the first class admitted to high school after Walls dropped the exam. It looks to me like the most banal and predictable result possible: Walls used to use an exam to cherry pick students who are good at taking exams. Take away that exam, and more of those students wind up at Banneker (some because Walls is rejecting a lot of high-scoring students these days, and others because, knowing that Walls now rejects a lot of high-scoring students, they cast a broader net and decide they prefer Banneker). And the result is that the student body at Banneker is performing better on a variety of metrics than it was in the past.

Very informative. Thank you for this. That link also lists all the college destinations, which readers might be interested in.

And for a PP who asked, Walls' AP pass rate was 91 percent for the past two years that DCPS reported.

Oof. The DCPS AP pass rate definition is very soft-bigotry-of-low-expectations. Students with at least one pass score over students who did APs. So if you took 7 APs and passed 1, you count in the numerator. Unless I completely misinterpreted it.

The other factor, though, is that DC schools often require you to take AP classes and the exam as part of that class, so far more students are taking the exam than in some other states.

USNews profiles have the more rigorous stat of % of AP exams taken with a score of 3 or higher. SWW is at 86% and Banneker is 45%. Jackson-Reed is at 56%.

Wow that is really low for Banneker. 3 is a low bar too. It is more informative % of 4 and 5.

This is so tiresome. If Banneker is not good enough for your child, then don’t apply and be quiet. The school has been pumping out successful graduates for decades now and does not need a bunch of entitled white parents who think their mere presence of their children improves things. If you feel like a 1450 average SAT is what your kid needs to be around, then best of luck to you with your Walls and Cathedral school apps.

Someone cites stats and you rage bait them as an “entitled white parent” ….

This. It helps no one when you don’t acknowledge the data and low standards of DCPS. One of the best and most selective school in the city has an average SAT of 1100 and less than 50% pass rate of 3 or higher.

I’m sure many of these kids potentially could score much higher and get higher AP scores. But they can only do so much in 2-3 years to try to make up the large deficit of content knowledge and analysis, even when pushing kids academically at the cost of EC, etc.. It is too late to catch up by high school. The scores reflect this.

What you need is to identify these kids in elementary, put them in G & T and track them in middle school. Then go to Banneker and you will see higher stats.

That's because no DCPS high school is that selective. Including Walls, which doesn't even have an entrance exam anymore. These schools are selective in the sense you have to apply and not everyone gets in. But they aren't selective in the way TJ is, or the way Stuyvesant is in NYC. They are simply more selective than DCPS's non-application schools at all, which isn't hard because those are boundary schools and not selective at all. Walls and Banneker do not select students based on consistent metrics across the city. Selection is based on grades, teacher recs, and interviews. The process is *designed* to ensure that kids from the poorer parts of the city who are less likely to have high-SES or college grad parents have a shot at getting spots. There is some self-selection (and geographic selection) between Walls and Banneker that leads to Walls having more kids from higher income and more highly educated parents, which leads to a population that tests better. But the schools are not using a system for selection that would lead to populations of very high scoring kids. They could, they choose not to, because it would result in both schools nearly eliminating their at risk populations (and Walls already has a tiny at risk population, again due largely to self-selection and geography because I can guarantee you there is a great deal of effort at Wall in ensuring they are giving spots to at risk kids whenever possible).

If this bothers you, public school in DC is probably not for you. Most DCPS parents are fine with it even when it means the average test scores of their schools are lower than they would be otherwise. If they weren't, the system would be different. The people who are really bothered by it tend to leave the district, for private or for suburbs.