Fall 2013 DC Private School National Merit Semifinalists (Class of 2014)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Probably silly question -- but if you live in one jurisdiction, but attend school in another, are you eligible? i.e., are VA students who attend private school in DC eligible? and is it based on DC's threshold or VA's threshold?

It's definitely based on where the school is located. Doesn't matter where the student lives. Our DC school always has a few students from MD and VA every year who would have been SF if they'd gone to school in their home state, but don't hit the DC cutoff so are "only" commended students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Full multi-year list is here - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnukIDABt_JKdDdZYXlQbnFUQ0VfMHRpTFp1SUIxS2c&hl=en_US#gid=0

I have DC's school's NMSF numbers and names in front of me for the past four years and they do not match this spreadsheet at all. Not sure if it just an error with this school's data or reflects more pervasive problems with these numbers. Either way, color me skeptical of the accuracy of this data.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Full multi-year list is here - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnukIDABt_JKdDdZYXlQbnFUQ0VfMHRpTFp1SUIxS2c&hl=en_US#gid=0

I have DC's school's NMSF numbers and names in front of me for the past four years and they do not match this spreadsheet at all. Not sure if it just an error with this school's data or reflects more pervasive problems with these numbers. Either way, color me skeptical of the accuracy of this data.

What school? I'm sure my efforts to compile data have been imperfect, because I'm counting by hand in my spare time. But I'm surprised you're seeing a complete mismatch. Let me know where you see a mistake, so I can double-check my sources. I've got all the original lists stored online for recent years.

Sam2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm actually shocked that the numbers are so low (or as expensive as these schools are and how "elite" their students are supposed to be).

I'm not surprised. When you really look at the numbers and think about it, one of the reasons the numbers in DC privates is relatively high -- not low -- is that the public schools historically were not viewed as good alternatives for strong students. The Montgomery County NMSF numbers in privates tends to be lower than DC privates because of the availability of both magnets and publics that are perceived as strong options. I suspect that Charles E. Smith tends to be the highest in MoCo because more families that elect that school are doing so because they want the Judaic curriculum that is not available in public school, but if you look at other privates the numbers are lower.

The other reason the privates numbers are not higher is because the numbers validate that most DC-area privates do not pretend to really be exclusively about the best and brightest as defined by test scores (even if parents want to think otherwise). Magnet programs generally accept students based almost entirely upon test scores and/or previous grades. In MoCo, for example, I believe they are permitted to consider gender but not any other type of diversity -- at least that was the rule for the middle school magnets when I attended open houses. Moreover, I don't believe anyone has an edge at the magnets based on his/her ability to play a sport, sing opera, act, or play an instrument, or based on legacy status, high profile parents, ability to make substantial contributions to the school, etc. I am not suggesting these are necessarily bad things -- private schools can't function without revenues and you can't have a sports team or a band without a certain number of students willing and able to play -- but the magnet school and private school experiences are just very different in ways outside of the purely academic realm.

This is the type of reasonable and nuanced analysis that just gets overlooked on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many of the STA semifinalists came from Beauvoir?

No more than two.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was surprised by Richard Montgomery -- most semifinalists ever, and way above their average number of semifinalists. Must be serving brain food in the cafeteria now.

It's a magnet school.

Sure, but it was a magnet school last year and the year before too. The big jump this year was surprising. Likely an anomaly.

Not really. The year before last they had 39. One can argue last year was an anomaly to the low end. The numbers jump around quite a bit for all schools. Probably a more meaingful statistic re ability group would be to combine NMSF and commended scholars. Of course, I still don't believe these figures say much at all about the rigor of a school's academic program. If you want to use standardized tests to measure rigor, than compare results on AP tests or SAT IIs. While a few kids may self-study for them, generally those tests are probably a better indicator of what a kid actually learned in school rather than what abilities they brought with them to the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many of the STA semifinalists came from Beauvoir?

No more than two.

I guess the WPPSI testers goofed. How could virtually every child score in the 99th percentile, such BS.

[Anonymous]

I am SO proud of the finalists at my child's school. Child is not one of them.

[Anonymous]

One at Landon and two at Prep? how pathetic, my somewhat decent public school beat that growing up. I believe my class had 3/130 or so (of which I was one)

[Anonymous]

Most of the numbers make sense to me. Most public schools in the area have a little over 1% of students qualifying as NMSFs. That seems about right to me because NMSFs are generally about 1% of students nationwide, and the public schools in our area are considered better than the nationwide average. So by comparison, a private school like Maret or CESJDS with 5% NMSFs has about five times as many NMSFs as the national average, which seems pretty impressive. And when you get to the most competitive private schools with 10-15% NMSFs, they're sitting pretty far above the average (and pretty comparable to top boarding and day school programs in other cities). And at the very top of the scale you see magnets like Blair and TJ. For those, I think a big driver in their NMSF success is that they select students in 9th grade based on a test that's a lot like the PSAT, so naturally those same students will perform well when they take the actual PSAT two years later.

Does taking this 9th grade based entrance test that's "just like the PSAT" also explain why Blair and TJ have the best SAT and AP exam performance? Do they also take AP exam like tests in the 8th grade? Let' here some more defensive rationalizations and excuses please?

I've also heard these kids are simply plain smarter whether they took a PSAT-like exam or USAMO/AIME like exam in the 8th grade -- or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Most of the numbers make sense to me. Most public schools in the area have a little over 1% of students qualifying as NMSFs. That seems about right to me because NMSFs are generally about 1% of students nationwide, and the public schools in our area are considered better than the nationwide average. So by comparison, a private school like Maret or CESJDS with 5% NMSFs has about five times as many NMSFs as the national average, which seems pretty impressive. And when you get to the most competitive private schools with 10-15% NMSFs, they're sitting pretty far above the average (and pretty comparable to top boarding and day school programs in other cities). And at the very top of the scale you see magnets like Blair and TJ. For those, I think a big driver in their NMSF success is that they select students in 9th grade based on a test that's a lot like the PSAT, so naturally those same students will perform well when they take the actual PSAT two years later.

Does taking this 9th grade based entrance test that's "just like the PSAT" also explain why Blair and TJ have the best SAT and AP exam performance? Do they also take AP exam like tests in the 8th grade? Let' here some more defensive rationalizations and excuses please?

I've also heard these kids are simply plain smarter whether they took a PSAT-like exam or USAMO/AIME like exam in the 8th grade -- or not.

Nobody is saying that the kids are not smart. Each individual kid is smarter than at least 90% of their population and well for NMS I would guess smarter than 99% of the population. It's just that they would have been that smart in their home school also, if you have kids test into a program, they are going to do well on tests. They are smart, no doubt, the school chose smart kids, the school did not make them that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One at Landon and two at Prep? how pathetic, my somewhat decent public school beat that growing up. I believe my class had 3/130 or so (of which I was one)

Yea... but how many will go on to great colleges?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One at Landon and two at Prep? how pathetic, my somewhat decent public school beat that growing up. I believe my class had 3/130 or so (of which I was one)

Yea... but how many will go on to great colleges?

It depends. How many are on a lacrosse team?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One at Landon and two at Prep? how pathetic, my somewhat decent public school beat that growing up. I believe my class had 3/130 or so (of which I was one)

Yea... but how many will go on to great colleges?

It depends. How many are on a lacrosse team?

practice lacrosse or practice taking tests... chose your poison.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Most of the numbers make sense to me. Most public schools in the area have a little over 1% of students qualifying as NMSFs. That seems about right to me because NMSFs are generally about 1% of students nationwide, and the public schools in our area are considered better than the nationwide average. So by comparison, a private school like Maret or CESJDS with 5% NMSFs has about five times as many NMSFs as the national average, which seems pretty impressive. And when you get to the most competitive private schools with 10-15% NMSFs, they're sitting pretty far above the average (and pretty comparable to top boarding and day school programs in other cities). And at the very top of the scale you see magnets like Blair and TJ. For those, I think a big driver in their NMSF success is that they select students in 9th grade based on a test that's a lot like the PSAT, so naturally those same students will perform well when they take the actual PSAT two years later.

Does taking this 9th grade based entrance test that's "just like the PSAT" also explain why Blair and TJ have the best SAT and AP exam performance? Do they also take AP exam like tests in the 8th grade? Let' here some more defensive rationalizations and excuses please?

I've also heard these kids are simply plain smarter whether they took a PSAT-like exam or USAMO/AIME like exam in the 8th grade -- or not.

Those are great results, absolutely, and the kids are smart by any measure. One additional factor, where the K-12 or 4-12 independent schools are concerned, is that for ninth grade entry (as in magnet high schools) it is much easier to predict future performance based on past record and test scores. Much tougher for four year olds (see NY Times article about how NY private schools may dump the current entrance test because of a concern its predictive value is increasingly nullified by test prep). Most people will tell you that the ninth grade admits to a school like Sidwell or GDS or what have often disproportionately end up at the top of the class by high school (although of course many "lifers" do very well also).