Banneker HS - College and Score Outcomes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll push back. DC is not like many cities. It is people who are rich and educated and their children and people who are poor and uneducated and their children.

The people in the middle or the overlap essentially do not exist, at least in testing.

The children of the poor consistently fail tests here. Teachers say it is because they are dealing with problems. I won’t contradict them. The children of the higher income families - very high income by American standards (maybe not by regional standards) tend to ace the tests.

So the idea that we would build a school for the ingenious children of the poor — it is a very nice idea that caters to no actual children, and would in effect serve as another benefit to higher income families.

I love the idea that these children might be out there, family income information and testing data show that they are not in DC. Perhaps in some suburbs. But not within DCPS’ service area.

They exist in small numbers across the city and often end up at the application based schools, if encouraged to apply. And they do well there.

I hope they end up there. But how? The kid from a Ward 7 and 8 middle school who is testing at grade level goes through the same process as everyone else for the selective admissions high schools. They can't use either the fact that they're at grade level or that they need this more than anyone else. Do either of those things come through via the recommendations or interviews? Probably not. A lot of kids are getting full points on the recommendations and that's not what the interviews are trying to get at.

I can only speak on my own personal experience, but I got into SWW years ago from one of the lowest performing MSs in the city. That fall, the principal told me that my interview is what made me stand out. I suspect it's easier to do so when you're not from one of the feeders schools, which used to be Deal and Jefferson. I was one of two people from my MS applying and we both got in that year.