McKinley Tech - a great school

[Anonymous]

Forgive the pedantry but:
Selective schools “select” their students.
Families “self-select” into schools.
There is no such thing as a school that “self-selects” its students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, can't we be happy for a school that doubled its' pass rate from one year to the next?

Yay! A DCPS school's test scores improve markedly.

Positive thing, no?

Uh...half of the school can't even get a 3 on a single AP test.

They did better than all but four other high schools in DCPS. Banneker's pass rate was 57%. McArthur's pass rate was 45%. They are very much in the mix. Let's see how last year's kids did, but the growth trajectory is a good thing.

I’ll throw in DCI pass rates is high 60% think it was 66 or 68% and the school does not self select at all unlike McKinley or Banneker.

BASIS is 100% and they don’t self-select.

Starting in 6th, it’s a test in so does “select” in a sense

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, can't we be happy for a school that doubled its' pass rate from one year to the next?

Yay! A DCPS school's test scores improve markedly.

Positive thing, no?

Uh...half of the school can't even get a 3 on a single AP test.

They did better than all but four other high schools in DCPS. Banneker's pass rate was 57%. McArthur's pass rate was 45%. They are very much in the mix. Let's see how last year's kids did, but the growth trajectory is a good thing.

I’ll throw in DCI pass rates is high 60% think it was 66 or 68% and the school does not self select at all unlike McKinley or Banneker.

Clarification because DCI is IB and not AP. 68% of kids got college credit with their IB exam scores. Not sure if that is equivalent to an AP score of 3 and up or 4 and up.

FYI, IB exams are typically more difficult than AP exams. Some schools might give credit for 5 but it is usually 6 or 7 out of scale of 7.

So more difficult exams and more difficult point system to get college credits.

Above is a generalization but true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, can't we be happy for a school that doubled its' pass rate from one year to the next?

Yay! A DCPS school's test scores improve markedly.

Positive thing, no?

Uh...half of the school can't even get a 3 on a single AP test.

They did better than all but four other high schools in DCPS. Banneker's pass rate was 57%. McArthur's pass rate was 45%. They are very much in the mix. Let's see how last year's kids did, but the growth trajectory is a good thing.

I’ll throw in DCI pass rates is high 60% think it was 66 or 68% and the school does not self select at all unlike McKinley or Banneker.

Clarification because DCI is IB and not AP. 68% of kids got college credit with their IB exam scores. Not sure if that is equivalent to an AP score of 3 and up or 4 and up.

FYI, IB exams are typically more difficult than AP exams. Some schools might give credit for 5 but it is usually 6 or 7 out of scale of 7.

So more difficult exams and more difficult point system to get college credits.

Above is a generalization but true.

What's your basis for claiming that IB exams are more difficult than AP exams? I've taught humanities subject in a couple of international schools with IB curriculum and American test-in magnet schools with AP curriculum and haven't found this to be true.

It's true that IB humanities exams don't include multiple choice questions, which makes them harder than AP for students with weak writing skills and IB language exams emphasize speaking and listening skills more than AP. Other than that, the greater difficulty is a myth. It's no secret that the most advanced math and physics tested by IB at the Higher Level isn't as challenging as BC Calc, Physics 2 or Physics C Mechanics. You're painting with too broad a brush, PP.

[Anonymous]

My big takeaway from this DCI digression is that after 15 years of language immersion, at least 1/3 of DCI students are not getting any college credit for their language.

[Anonymous]

The reality is that college credit for HS work is no longer given at most highly competitive colleges, no matter how applicants may have scored on IB or AP exams. A student may be able to place out of intro level college classes, but that's about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The reality is that college credit for HS work is no longer given at most highly competitive colleges, no matter how applicants may have scored on IB or AP exams. A student may be able to place out of intro level college classes, but that's about it.

Misleading and irrelevant. All but 2-3 unbelievably selective schools give automatic credit for AP and IB exam scores, and no high school, not even the most elite private high school, sends a significant portion of its class to those schools.

[Anonymous]

Total BS. Few colleges admitting less than 20% of applicants give college credit for HS work anymore. Your info is dated.

[Anonymous]

I went to a highly selective school 35 years ago and even then most of my AP credits weren't accepted. Why would it be different now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to a highly selective school 35 years ago and even then most of my AP credits weren't accepted. Why would it be different now?

When Cal stopped accepting AP credits, even 5s, almost every selective public school followed. This was almost 20 years ago and was basically a shift over 2 years- I just remember it because my college counselor talked about it a lot.

Privates I applied to made it clear they didn’t accept AP credit as credit towards graduation but you could skip the prerequisites from some classes (like you could only take Math 55 if you got a 5 on BC). I don’t know when that started and if there was a leader, it was just long before I applied to schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to a highly selective school 35 years ago and even then most of my AP credits weren't accepted. Why would it be different now?

When Cal stopped accepting AP credits, even 5s, almost every selective public school followed. This was almost 20 years ago and was basically a shift over 2 years- I just remember it because my college counselor talked about it a lot.

Privates I applied to made it clear they didn’t accept AP credit as credit towards graduation but you could skip the prerequisites from some classes (like you could only take Math 55 if you got a 5 on BC). I don’t know when that started and if there was a leader, it was just long before I applied to schools.

New England privates never gave credit. They only used APs for placement.

[Anonymous]

All I can say is, anyone who believes what they read on DCUM instead of looking up the actual AP and IB policies on the college web sites is a fool.

[Anonymous]

Not sure how a post from a happy parent that simply tried to recommend McKinley as an option among other decent public high schools devolved into…all this!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to a highly selective school 35 years ago and even then most of my AP credits weren't accepted. Why would it be different now?

When Cal stopped accepting AP credits, even 5s, almost every selective public school followed. This was almost 20 years ago and was basically a shift over 2 years- I just remember it because my college counselor talked about it a lot.

Privates I applied to made it clear they didn’t accept AP credit as credit towards graduation but you could skip the prerequisites from some classes (like you could only take Math 55 if you got a 5 on BC). I don’t know when that started and if there was a leader, it was just long before I applied to schools.

WTF are you talking about? Cal accepts tons of AP credits.

https://ced.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Advanced-Placement-Exam-Credit-11-23.pdf

Every college except for 8 colleges award actual college credit for AP scores. MIT, Yale, Princeton, Stanford...thousands of others...award actual credit, though schools like Yale only take STEM and language AP scores and you need to score a 5.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to a highly selective school 35 years ago and even then most of my AP credits weren't accepted. Why would it be different now?

When Cal stopped accepting AP credits, even 5s, almost every selective public school followed. This was almost 20 years ago and was basically a shift over 2 years- I just remember it because my college counselor talked about it a lot.

Privates I applied to made it clear they didn’t accept AP credit as credit towards graduation but you could skip the prerequisites from some classes (like you could only take Math 55 if you got a 5 on BC). I don’t know when that started and if there was a leader, it was just long before I applied to schools.

WTF are you talking about? Cal accepts tons of AP credits.

https://ced.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Advanced-Placement-Exam-Credit-11-23.pdf

Every college except for 8 colleges award actual college credit for AP scores. MIT, Yale, Princeton, Stanford...thousands of others...award actual credit, though schools like Yale only take STEM and language AP scores and you need to score a 5.

Maybe a better link:

https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/admission-requirements/ap-exam-credits/ap-credits/berkeley.html