National Merit list?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The take home message from these lists is save the random and occasional blips it's a rare sighting for an important consistent presence from the D.C. area private secondary schools.

This is a posting by someone who has decided to hijack several threads recently. If you look in the stickies for the independent school thread, in the FAQ for private school admissions sticky there is a link to a chart someone put together for national merit semi finalist performance going back over a decade. The percentage totals of some of the DC private schools in particular (St. Albans, NCS, Sidwell, and GDS) are higher then any of the very well-regarded public schools in this area with the exception of the Maryland and Virginia magnets. And that makes sense, as private school admission is in large part based on standardized test scores, as is magnet school admission.

Seeing that a school such as Sidwell or St. Albans or GDS routinely has a percentage of semifinalists over 10% over the years can tell you there are very strong students admitted to that school. No surprise, of course, as this is a very well educated area and those are selective schools with good academic reputations. Regardless of national merit semi finalist numbers, however, the real question should be whether you believe your child's school is giving them a strong, challenging, yet also positive educational experience. I believe many public and private schools in this area meet that standard, and produce graduates who are extremely well prepared to excel in their future academic pursuits. Unfortunately, because NMSF numbers are one of the few "objective" metrics that are publicly available, people put outsized significance on them in trying to measure what is a "excellent" school.

[Anonymous]

This is a posting by someone who has decided to hijack several threads recently. If you look in the stickies for the independent school thread, in the FAQ for private school admissions sticky there is a link to a chart someone put together for national merit semi finalist performance going back over a decade. The percentage totals of some of the DC private schools in particular (St. Albans, NCS, Sidwell, and GDS) are higher then any of the very well-regarded public schools in this area with the exception of the Maryland and Virginia magnets. And that makes sense, as private school admission is in large part based on standardized test scores, as is magnet school admission.

Seeing that a school such as Sidwell or St. Albans or GDS routinely has a percentage of semifinalists over 10% over the years can tell you there are very strong students admitted to that school. No surprise, of course, as this is a very well educated area and those are selective schools with good academic reputations. Regardless of national merit semi finalist numbers, however, the real question should be whether you believe your child's school is giving them a strong, challenging, yet also positive educational experience. I believe many public and private schools in this area meet that standard, and produce graduates who are extremely well prepared to excel in their future academic pursuits. Unfortunately, because NMSF numbers are one of the few "objective" metrics that are publicly available, people put outsized significance on them in trying to measure what is a "excellent" school.

Mirror, mirror, on the wall who's the fairest hijacker of them all?

We think your comment is distracting and irrelevant. Get a move on!

[Anonymous]

...and much, much verbosity (bs) too!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The take home message from these lists is save the random and occasional blips it's a rare sighting for an important consistent presence from the D.C. area private secondary schools.

This is a posting by someone who has decided to hijack several threads recently. If you look in the stickies for the independent school thread, in the FAQ for private school admissions sticky there is a link to a chart someone put together for national merit semi finalist performance going back over a decade. The percentage totals of some of the DC private schools in particular (St. Albans, NCS, Sidwell, and GDS) are higher then any of the very well-regarded public schools in this area with the exception of the Maryland and Virginia magnets. And that makes sense, as private school admission is in large part based on standardized test scores, as is magnet school admission.

Seeing that a school such as Sidwell or St. Albans or GDS routinely has a percentage of semifinalists over 10% over the years can tell you there are very strong students admitted to that school. No surprise, of course, as this is a very well educated area and those are selective schools with good academic reputations. Regardless of national merit semi finalist numbers, however, the real question should be whether you believe your child's school is giving them a strong, challenging, yet also positive educational experience. I believe many public and private schools in this area meet that standard, and produce graduates who are extremely well prepared to excel in their future academic pursuits. Unfortunately, because NMSF numbers are one of the few "objective" metrics that are publicly available, people put outsized significance on them in trying to measure what is a "excellent" school.

I agree with this person. Another measure would be asking if kids from these schools are prepared for college which they are. So are kids from magnets.

[Anonymous]

I am going to call a spade a spade, but the magnets especially the top ones might as well be private schools. They are just tax-payer funded. The FARmS rate at least for TJ is lower than Langley. Also there are private schools with black kids proportionally and Latinos.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The take home message from these lists is save the random and occasional blips it's a rare sighting for an important consistent presence from the D.C. area private secondary schools.

This is a posting by someone who has decided to hijack several threads recently. If you look in the stickies for the independent school thread, in the FAQ for private school admissions sticky there is a link to a chart someone put together for national merit semi finalist performance going back over a decade. The percentage totals of some of the DC private schools in particular (St. Albans, NCS, Sidwell, and GDS) are higher then any of the very well-regarded public schools in this area with the exception of the Maryland and Virginia magnets. And that makes sense, as private school admission is in large part based on standardized test scores, as is magnet school admission.

Seeing that a school such as Sidwell or St. Albans or GDS routinely has a percentage of semifinalists over 10% over the years can tell you there are very strong students admitted to that school. No surprise, of course, as this is a very well educated area and those are selective schools with good academic reputations. Regardless of national merit semi finalist numbers, however, the real question should be whether you believe your child's school is giving them a strong, challenging, yet also positive educational experience. I believe many public and private schools in this area meet that standard, and produce graduates who are extremely well prepared to excel in their future academic pursuits. Unfortunately, because NMSF numbers are one of the few "objective" metrics that are publicly available, people put outsized significance on them in trying to measure what is a "excellent" school.

Thanks for a good post. Thoughtful, well-reasoned, and helps put this in perspective.

[Anonymous]

I agree a thousand times with the above poster. She is very smart. Go Sidwel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I am going to call a spade a spade, but the magnets especially the top ones might as well be private schools. They are just tax-payer funded. The FARmS rate at least for TJ is lower than Langley. Also there are private schools with black kids proportionally and Latinos.

The impact would be significantly larger if local DC private schools had a higher proportion of Asian Americans due the widening achievement gap/gulf between Asian Americans and European Americans. To follow the poster's theme of calling a spade a spade.

There is the tuition issue. You want to go to Sidwell/STA/Holton/GDS, you gotta find $35,000 per kid, per year.

I feel very confident that none of these independent schools practices a anti-Asian applicant bias and none limits the number of Asian admits.

[Anonymous]

There is the tuition issue. You want to go to Sidwell/STA/Holton/GDS, you gotta find $35,000 per kid, per year.

I feel very confident that none of these independent schools practices a anti-Asian applicant bias and none limits the number of Asian admits.

No poster has made that assertion. But, if there were more Asian-Americans in DC privates perhaps the usual blips on their NMF lists would become more substantial. I feel confident in advancing this hypothesis.

[Anonymous]

Here's a link to the chart of NMSF semifinalists -- good because it has absolute numbers and percentages: http://goo.gl/GgQvR

It shows a number of private schools that over a 15 year period have an average of 10-13% of their graduating class qualify as NMSF semifinalist. Although nothing close to the amazing percentage of TJ (over 30% -- really amazing!), that over 10% figure is both consistent and excellent in local and national terms.

By way of comparison, Walt Whitman HS is about 4% over the same time period; Churchill and BCC 2%. Not apples to apples, of course -- those schools don't select for admission.

But the top local independents also have a higher percentage than nationally known private schools such as Andover and Exeter, for example, which both have under 10%, as well as many other well known day schools around the country (e.g, Dalton, Chapin, Spence in NYC; Noble & Greenough in Boston). There are some private day schools in the USA with higher percentages (e.g. Collegiate in NYC) but not many.

[Anonymous]

The variance is interesting particularly the consistent and predictable >> 300 to 400 % gap between the local magnets here in the DC area and the local private schools. Of course, this is but one metric in the HYPMS sweepstakes that does not factor pedigree, legacy, social economic status, and playing sports and games.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's a link to the chart of NMSF semifinalists -- good because it has absolute numbers and percentages: http://goo.gl/GgQvR

It shows a number of private schools that over a 15 year period have an average of 10-13% of their graduating class qualify as NMSF semifinalist. Although nothing close to the amazing percentage of TJ (over 30% -- really amazing!), that over 10% figure is both consistent and excellent in local and national terms.

By way of comparison, Walt Whitman HS is about 4% over the same time period; Churchill and BCC 2%. Not apples to apples, of course -- those schools don't select for admission.

But the top local independents also have a higher percentage than nationally known private schools such as Andover and Exeter, for example, which both have under 10%, as well as many other well known day schools around the country (e.g, Dalton, Chapin, Spence in NYC; Noble & Greenough in Boston). There are some private day schools in the USA with higher percentages (e.g. Collegiate in NYC) but not many.

Thanks for the link to the chart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The variance is interesting particularly the consistent and predictable >> 300 to 400 % gap between the local magnets here in the DC area and the local private schools. Of course, this is but one metric in the HYPMS sweepstakes that does not factor pedigree, legacy, social economic status, and playing sports and games.

I think that NMSF difference is easily explained. Magnet schools admit 100% of their students as 9th graders, based almost entirely on how those kids performed on a NMSF-like test. And then those top-scoring students take the PSAT in 10th grade, and (no surprise) register top scores there too. By contrast, with private schools, most of the students are admitted at far younger ages, some as 4 year olds. So there's a lot of opportunity to misjudge kids on admission, or for smart kids to get off-track before 10th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's a link to the chart of NMSF semifinalists -- good because it has absolute numbers and percentages: http://goo.gl/GgQvR

It shows a number of private schools that over a 15 year period have an average of 10-13% of their graduating class qualify as NMSF semifinalist. Although nothing close to the amazing percentage of TJ (over 30% -- really amazing!), that over 10% figure is both consistent and excellent in local and national terms.

By way of comparison, Walt Whitman HS is about 4% over the same time period; Churchill and BCC 2%. Not apples to apples, of course -- those schools don't select for admission.

But the top local independents also have a higher percentage than nationally known private schools such as Andover and Exeter, for example, which both have under 10%, as well as many other well known day schools around the country (e.g, Dalton, Chapin, Spence in NYC; Noble & Greenough in Boston). There are some private day schools in the USA with higher percentages (e.g. Collegiate in NYC) but not many.

Try 40% for MoCo magnets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a link to the chart of NMSF semifinalists -- good because it has absolute numbers and percentages: http://goo.gl/GgQvR

It shows a number of private schools that over a 15 year period have an average of 10-13% of their graduating class qualify as NMSF semifinalist. Although nothing close to the amazing percentage of TJ (over 30% -- really amazing!), that over 10% figure is both consistent and excellent in local and national terms.

By way of comparison, Walt Whitman HS is about 4% over the same time period; Churchill and BCC 2%. Not apples to apples, of course -- those schools don't select for admission.

But the top local independents also have a higher percentage than nationally known private schools such as Andover and Exeter, for example, which both have under 10%, as well as many other well known day schools around the country (e.g, Dalton, Chapin, Spence in NYC; Noble & Greenough in Boston). There are some private day schools in the USA with higher percentages (e.g. Collegiate in NYC) but not many.

Try 40% for MoCo magnets.

Yes, amazing too.