Why doesn't DC have a STEM school like TJ?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
| Jeff? You're really into local politics, this would be a great idea to tout really smart kids in the District and create competition. It would be a draw, and one day we could have a future Silicon Valley creative type talking about his great time at his DC public school. |
Anonymous
| This has been talked about before - will look for the link, but essentially we don't have enough students to make it work. |
Anonymous
| Banneker. |
Anonymous
| Here we go again. Yes PP is correct. We dont have the school age enrollment numbers that FFX has to make a go of something like TJ. Remember a school can only be funded by how many kids enrolled and DC would have too few to make a school like TJ viable. |
Anonymous
| Oh my god, hello, Banneker? |
Anonymous
By high school it is too late. BASIS offers advanced curriculum in math, science, AND English etc through the LEAP program, which is a school within a school. All kids take the same bio, chem and physics classes 6th and 7th grade, and then they branch out. English and the other areas branch in 8th. It assumes that some kids can take Algebra I in 5th grade. And some can. There are four 7th graders taking precalculus. You want stem, you got it. Just lottery in, and STEM to your heart's content. PS most LEAP kids graduate from high school a year early allowing them to do internships or other things that may make good college essays but also may find some co willing to pay their tuition.... |
Anonymous
| Most of TJ's graduates go off to UVA and major in the humanities. |
Anonymous
| banneker is dcps's ap/ib magnet. mckinely is a science/tech magnet |
Anonymous
| Because, if it were a test-in school, it would skew non-AA, and that would be a problem. |
Anonymous
| ^ yeah, TJ grads -if they don't major in the social sciences at UVA, they become high school teachers ~ we need the teachers. But for some reason the combination of TJ - UVA diminishes the ambitions of many students ~ especially young women. |
Anonymous
| This has been talked about in hundreds of posts. A true test in school of TJ caliber would skew so heavily white and high SES that it would never fly in DC. To make it appear more equitable, the standards would gave to be lowered for entry and well then you have Banneker, Mckninly and any other DC school. |
Anonymous
| One of the Google guys went to UMD. |
Anonymous
But they both went to Stanford. |
Anonymous
|
It would skew whites but there's not enough whites in the school system to make it viable. While heck, doesn't TJ skew many asians, so I wouldn't think that the percentage would go directly to whites.
Test-in school like TJ and STEM school are two different calibers. DCPS has designated Woodson High School as their STEM school but it is definitely not a test-in. A majority-white populated school would survive in DC but there's not anyone vested enough to be the first to start one. |
Anonymous
| It's all about critical mass. Are there enough smart kids that can test into such a school year after year to make it worth it? I don't have a definitive answer to that. We could create a smaller, test in high school similar to Dallas' TAG high school (#1 usnews fwiw), but then how would that be different from Tech, or Banneker? Perhaps we should just raise the entry standards for them? |