Banneker versus School Without Walls

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OK, so have you opted your kid(s) our of the PARCC in DCPS? I do so every year, because PARCC is a poorly written, unnecessarily lengthy, widely discredited corporate 10-hour test given to 8 year-olds, crafted and graded by a British company vs. an American one.

The SAT has been around since 1926, helping tens of millions of low and moderate-income students prove their value to elite colleges through four or five generations. You can throw the baby out with the bathwater because Banneker students don't get the prep to collectively shine on the SAT, or you can see the forest for the trees.

Test optional doesn't mean that the SAT, or ACT, has been rejected by academe. It means a decent score can only enhance an application. I don't know of any colleges that won't permit an applicant to submit a favorable SAT score with an application, do you?

I am not anti SAT and I agree with a lot of what you said.

That said, all CA state universities (UC and Cal State) will not accept or look at test scores. A number of private colleges are taking the same stance so yes, there are schools that will not permit the submission of SAT or ACT scores to enhance an application.

[Anonymous]

This post deserves a huge eyeroll... especially to those who claimed to have volunteered at Banneker ... which would have been no less than 3-4 years ago, pre-pandemic.

Give the schools (and the kids) a freaking break.

[Anonymous]

Eyeroll over an average math SAT of 480? If the Banneker kids get a bigger break, they might as well go to Eastern, Dunbar or Ballou. No wonder some many AA parents run to BASIS or Latin for 5th and stay until 12th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The new TOEFL emphasizes speaking and comprehensive more than previous versions did, while the 2019 incarnation of the SAT emphasizes chart and graph reading, bringing it more up to date. Standardized tests given by the College Board tend to improve over time.

The problem with rejecting the SAT out of hand as a waste of time, PP, is that, as has been noted, it's just not a difficult test for high school students who are remotely prepared to handle any kind of college rigor. If a HS junior or senior can't score at least in the 500s on the SATs for both reading and math after a couple of tries, s/he pretty clearly isn't prepared to enroll in any type of credible BA program anywhere.

If the new SAT was too difficult for the college-bound, my 7th grader, who isn't a top student at his DCPS middle school, couldn't possibly have scored more than 600 in both reading and math. He did no test prep beyond a few hours on Khan Academy SAT prep videos. He had to take the SAT to meet a cut-off to attend an academic summer camp.

There's just no denying that Banneker's weak SAT scores are indicative that something is very wrong with the program, and the middle and elementary schools feeding into it.

You sound like you do PR for the College Board. I bombed my SATs (and GREs) but graduated college with honors. Universities are moving away from requiring them. I applaud that move! Complete waste of time and money.

These comments are so dumb. This is like saying you are anti-vax because your cousin posted on Facebook that his testicles swelled up after getting the Pfizer shot.

Your personal experience is important to you but no one else, and your "evidence" is nothing but an unverified personal anecdote.

Plenty of colleges still use the SAT and ACT., and lots of kids take them For example, almost 2.2 million high school students from the Class of 2020 took the SAT, up from 2.1 million in 2018.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eyeroll over an average math SAT of 480? If the Banneker kids get a bigger break, they might as well go to Eastern, Dunbar or Ballou. No wonder some many AA parents run to BASIS or Latin for 5th and stay until 12th.

Basis DC has the highest SAT scores of any public high school in DC (SWW is second).

Average SAT scores

Basis DC:

Math: 650
Verbal: 650
Total: 1300

Washington Latin:

Math: 570
Verbal: 590
Total: 1160

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eyeroll over an average math SAT of 480? If the Banneker kids get a bigger break, they might as well go to Eastern, Dunbar or Ballou. No wonder some many AA parents run to BASIS or Latin for 5th and stay until 12th.

Basis DC has the highest SAT scores of any public high school in DC (SWW is second).

Average SAT scores

Basis DC:

Math: 650
Verbal: 650
Total: 1300

Washington Latin:

Math: 570
Verbal: 590
Total: 1160

Basis? Talk about drill and kill. High SAT scores is all it has going for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OK, so have you opted your kid(s) our of the PARCC in DCPS? I do so every year, because PARCC is a poorly written, unnecessarily lengthy, widely discredited corporate 10-hour test given to 8 year-olds, crafted and graded by a British company vs. an American one.

The SAT has been around since 1926, helping tens of millions of low and moderate-income students prove their value to elite colleges through four or five generations. You can throw the baby out with the bathwater because Banneker students don't get the prep to collectively shine on the SAT, or you can see the forest for the trees.

Test optional doesn't mean that the SAT, or ACT, has been rejected by academe. It means a decent score can only enhance an application. I don't know of any colleges that won't permit an applicant to submit a favorable SAT score with an application, do you?

It’s EXTREMELY disingenuous not to acknowledge that the SAT was created by a eugenicist as a way to support only allowing white people to immigrate to the US.

https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/views/2020/08/17/history-sat-reflects-systemic-racism-opinion

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eyeroll over an average math SAT of 480? If the Banneker kids get a bigger break, they might as well go to Eastern, Dunbar or Ballou. No wonder some many AA parents run to BASIS or Latin for 5th and stay until 12th.

Basis DC has the highest SAT scores of any public high school in DC (SWW is second).

Average SAT scores

Basis DC:

Math: 650
Verbal: 650
Total: 1300

Washington Latin:

Math: 570
Verbal: 590
Total: 1160

Basis? Talk about drill and kill. High SAT scores is all it has going for it.

If this were true, most of the BASIS MS families would walk away before HS. They don't. BASIS must have many good teachers and hard-working, well-prepared students. BASIS got two to MIT in 2021 and two more in 2022. How many to MIT from Walls and Banneker in...the last 10 years. Zero?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OK, so have you opted your kid(s) our of the PARCC in DCPS? I do so every year, because PARCC is a poorly written, unnecessarily lengthy, widely discredited corporate 10-hour test given to 8 year-olds, crafted and graded by a British company vs. an American one.

The SAT has been around since 1926, helping tens of millions of low and moderate-income students prove their value to elite colleges through four or five generations. You can throw the baby out with the bathwater because Banneker students don't get the prep to collectively shine on the SAT, or you can see the forest for the trees.

Test optional doesn't mean that the SAT, or ACT, has been rejected by academe. It means a decent score can only enhance an application. I don't know of any colleges that won't permit an applicant to submit a favorable SAT score with an application, do you?

Seriously, you sound like guerrilla marketer at the College Board.

No, just somebody who attended an Ivy on a full Pell Grant coming from a rural high school ranked in the bottom third in my state. Teachers used to tell us that scoring high on standardized tests was the only possible way we could compete with better-off students attending superior high schools. My several best friends growing up also went to Ivies. Their parents were, and are, farmers.

Oh maybe that’s where we differ. I don’t care if my kids go to an Ivy, which is very important to some people and likely they place value in standardized test scores. We are in different circles on the Venn diagram of life.

I don't care if my kids go to an Ivy either, because they're already upper middle class. But I can't complain that I was able to attend a great school, coming from a working-class community. I don't get why more Banneker families don't aim higher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eyeroll over an average math SAT of 480? If the Banneker kids get a bigger break, they might as well go to Eastern, Dunbar or Ballou. No wonder some many AA parents run to BASIS or Latin for 5th and stay until 12th.

Basis DC has the highest SAT scores of any public high school in DC (SWW is second).

Average SAT scores

Basis DC:

Math: 650
Verbal: 650
Total: 1300

Washington Latin:

Math: 570
Verbal: 590
Total: 1160

Basis? Talk about drill and kill. High SAT scores is all it has going for it.

Snort. Defensive much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OK, so have you opted your kid(s) our of the PARCC in DCPS? I do so every year, because PARCC is a poorly written, unnecessarily lengthy, widely discredited corporate 10-hour test given to 8 year-olds, crafted and graded by a British company vs. an American one.

The SAT has been around since 1926, helping tens of millions of low and moderate-income students prove their value to elite colleges through four or five generations. You can throw the baby out with the bathwater because Banneker students don't get the prep to collectively shine on the SAT, or you can see the forest for the trees.

Test optional doesn't mean that the SAT, or ACT, has been rejected by academe. It means a decent score can only enhance an application. I don't know of any colleges that won't permit an applicant to submit a favorable SAT score with an application, do you?

It’s EXTREMELY disingenuous not to acknowledge that the SAT was created by a eugenicist as a way to support only allowing white people to immigrate to the US.

https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/views/2020/08/17/history-sat-reflects-systemic-racism-opinion

LOL it's EXTREMELY ahistorical and ignorant to say the SAT was about only letting white people immigrate. You know the restrictionists in the early 20th century were trying to keep out Eastern European Catholics and Jews, right? And Bruce Hammond is a hack, not a historian. Read a book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OK, so have you opted your kid(s) our of the PARCC in DCPS? I do so every year, because PARCC is a poorly written, unnecessarily lengthy, widely discredited corporate 10-hour test given to 8 year-olds, crafted and graded by a British company vs. an American one.

The SAT has been around since 1926, helping tens of millions of low and moderate-income students prove their value to elite colleges through four or five generations. You can throw the baby out with the bathwater because Banneker students don't get the prep to collectively shine on the SAT, or you can see the forest for the trees.

Test optional doesn't mean that the SAT, or ACT, has been rejected by academe. It means a decent score can only enhance an application. I don't know of any colleges that won't permit an applicant to submit a favorable SAT score with an application, do you?

It’s EXTREMELY disingenuous not to acknowledge that the SAT was created by a eugenicist as a way to support only allowing white people to immigrate to the US.

https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/views/2020/08/17/history-sat-reflects-systemic-racism-opinion

The author of that article co-wrote a book called "The Fiske Guide to Getting into the Right College," which gives advice on scoring well on the SAT....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eyeroll over an average math SAT of 480? If the Banneker kids get a bigger break, they might as well go to Eastern, Dunbar or Ballou. No wonder some many AA parents run to BASIS or Latin for 5th and stay until 12th.

Basis DC has the highest SAT scores of any public high school in DC (SWW is second).

Average SAT scores

Basis DC:

Math: 650
Verbal: 650
Total: 1300

Washington Latin:

Math: 570
Verbal: 590
Total: 1160

Basis? Talk about drill and kill. High SAT scores is all it has going for it.

If this were true, most of the BASIS MS families would walk away before HS. They don't. BASIS must have many good teachers and hard-working, well-prepared students. BASIS got two to MIT in 2021 and two more in 2022. How many to MIT from Walls and Banneker in...the last 10 years. Zero?

NP, Walls has sent kids to MIT in the past ten years. And kids have gotten in but chosen other universities like CIT. With a Gates Millenial Scholarship. But please keep putting down other schools to make your school seem stronger.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eyeroll over an average math SAT of 480? If the Banneker kids get a bigger break, they might as well go to Eastern, Dunbar or Ballou. No wonder some many AA parents run to BASIS or Latin for 5th and stay until 12th.

Basis DC has the highest SAT scores of any public high school in DC (SWW is second).

Average SAT scores

Basis DC:

Math: 650
Verbal: 650
Total: 1300

Washington Latin:

Math: 570
Verbal: 590
Total: 1160

Basis? Talk about drill and kill. High SAT scores is all it has going for it.

If this were true, most of the BASIS MS families would walk away before HS. They don't. BASIS must have many good teachers and hard-working, well-prepared students. BASIS got two to MIT in 2021 and two more in 2022. How many to MIT from Walls and Banneker in...the last 10 years. Zero?

NP, Walls has sent kids to MIT in the past ten years. And kids have gotten in but chosen other universities like CIT. With a Gates Millenial Scholarship. But please keep putting down other schools to make your school seem stronger.

I know many Banneker grads from the 90s who went to various ivy league universities. Not sure about MIT or recent matriculations but if someone can post I'm sure it would be appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OK, so have you opted your kid(s) our of the PARCC in DCPS? I do so every year, because PARCC is a poorly written, unnecessarily lengthy, widely discredited corporate 10-hour test given to 8 year-olds, crafted and graded by a British company vs. an American one.

The SAT has been around since 1926, helping tens of millions of low and moderate-income students prove their value to elite colleges through four or five generations. You can throw the baby out with the bathwater because Banneker students don't get the prep to collectively shine on the SAT, or you can see the forest for the trees.

Test optional doesn't mean that the SAT, or ACT, has been rejected by academe. It means a decent score can only enhance an application. I don't know of any colleges that won't permit an applicant to submit a favorable SAT score with an application, do you?

It’s EXTREMELY disingenuous not to acknowledge that the SAT was created by a eugenicist as a way to support only allowing white people to immigrate to the US.

https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/views/2020/08/17/history-sat-reflects-systemic-racism-opinion

LOL it's EXTREMELY ahistorical and ignorant to say the SAT was about only letting white people immigrate. You know the restrictionists in the early 20th century were trying to keep out Eastern European Catholics and Jews, right? And Bruce Hammond is a hack, not a historian. Read a book.

It's EXTREMELY disingenuous not to acknowledge that high school and college admissions tests are systematically used all over the world. This is the case because such tests are useful for identifying the academic preparedness of prospective students.