2020 National Merit semifinalists in DC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well the top independent schools have become far more competitive to get accepted to since 2013 and a lot of these students are coming from MD and VA. There is increasing disgruntlement (among some parents) with Mont Co and Virginia schools over the past 5 years. My guess is that the quality of student at the top independents has gone up. They used to be places where just the wealthy of Washington would send their kids. Now they draw primarily from the greater DMV and not just upper NW. If anything the quality of experience at Wilson (at least for the cohort that are now seniors) has gone up. If there is a shift in the amount of kids being national merit semi finalists from private vs public in DC, I think you need to look to the privates and not to a problem with the publics for your answer.

OK, but the number of NMSFs in the DC burbs hasn't dropped in the last decade. More than one-quarter of TJ students, from Fairfax and Arlington, clear the bar annually then as now. More MoCo and VA parents may indeed be dissatisfied with their local schools than six or eight years ago, but their unhappiness hasn't been reflected in PSAT results.

When you run your schools system without formal GT programs, as the District does, leaving school PTAs to pay for much of the enrichment for high performers down the chain, you're asking for crappy NMSF results. There is absolutely a problem with DC public schools failing to push and support the best and brightest, particularly at the ES and MS levels. The support for high performers is too little, too late, with affluent parents stepping in to provide too much of the enrichment for their own children. The arrangement hurts the most capable low SES students most. Honors for All at Wilson is emblematic of this serious problem.

If you think the suburban kids are excelling at the PSAT because of what they're being taught in school I have a bridge or 3 to sell you. those kids are prepping outside of school. There are dozens of test prep centers in Mont. Co and Northern VA that promise success on the PSAT. Those kids are studying long and hard for many weekends. Go out to suburbia and head to almost any strip mall. You will see the kids filling in to do their week math and test prep classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think NMSF is a measure of school quality. I think it's a measure of student quality -- it is just reported based on where those students attend school.

5-6 years ago students from across the city still had a shot at getting into Wilson OOB. Latin and BASIS didn't even exist.

Latin started in 2006, Basis in 2012.

Wilson started getting hard to get into around 2012.

I thought BASIS had more than two years on DCI in terms of operation, but I see that I was wrong as DCI started 2014.

I'm wondering about how many senior classes each school has graduated.

When did Latin and BASIS graduate their first senior class? I tried Googling but I can't seem to find it.

DCI is graduating its first senior class in 2020.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think NMSF is a measure of school quality. I think it's a measure of student quality -- it is just reported based on where those students attend school.

5-6 years ago students from across the city still had a shot at getting into Wilson OOB. Latin and BASIS didn't even exist.

Latin started in 2006, Basis in 2012.

Wilson started getting hard to get into around 2012.

I thought BASIS had more than two years on DCI in terms of operation, but I see that I was wrong as DCI started 2014.

I'm wondering about how many senior classes each school has graduated.



I think Latin is on its 7th or 8th graduating class. They opened in 2006.

When did Latin and BASIS graduate their first senior class? I tried Googling but I can't seem to find it.

DCI is graduating its first senior class in 2020.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think NMSF is a measure of school quality. I think it's a measure of student quality -- it is just reported based on where those students attend school.

5-6 years ago students from across the city still had a shot at getting into Wilson OOB. Latin and BASIS didn't even exist.

Latin started in 2006, Basis in 2012.

Wilson started getting hard to get into around 2012.

I thought BASIS had more than two years on DCI in terms of operation, but I see that I was wrong as DCI started 2014.

I'm wondering about how many senior classes each school has graduated.

When did Latin and BASIS graduate their first senior class? I tried Googling but I can't seem to find it.

DCI is graduating its first senior class in 2020.

2017 was the first year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think NMSF is a measure of school quality. I think it's a measure of student quality -- it is just reported based on where those students attend school.

5-6 years ago students from across the city still had a shot at getting into Wilson OOB. Latin and BASIS didn't even exist.

Latin started in 2006, Basis in 2012.

Wilson started getting hard to get into around 2012.

I thought BASIS had more than two years on DCI in terms of operation, but I see that I was wrong as DCI started 2014.

I'm wondering about how many senior classes each school has graduated.

When did Latin and BASIS graduate their first senior class? I tried Googling but I can't seem to find it.

DCI is graduating its first senior class in 2020.

I think Latin is on its 7th or 8th graduating class. They opened in 2006.

[Anonymous]

Those who judge the caliber of a school by the number of kids who independently prep to ace the PSAT are tiresome to read.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well the top independent schools have become far more competitive to get accepted to since 2013 and a lot of these students are coming from MD and VA. There is increasing disgruntlement (among some parents) with Mont Co and Virginia schools over the past 5 years. My guess is that the quality of student at the top independents has gone up. They used to be places where just the wealthy of Washington would send their kids. Now they draw primarily from the greater DMV and not just upper NW. If anything the quality of experience at Wilson (at least for the cohort that are now seniors) has gone up. If there is a shift in the amount of kids being national merit semi finalists from private vs public in DC, I think you need to look to the privates and not to a problem with the publics for your answer.

OK, but the number of NMSFs in the DC burbs hasn't dropped in the last decade. More than one-quarter of TJ students, from Fairfax and Arlington, clear the bar annually then as now. More MoCo and VA parents may indeed be dissatisfied with their local schools than six or eight years ago, but their unhappiness hasn't been reflected in PSAT results.

When you run your schools system without formal GT programs, as the District does, leaving school PTAs to pay for much of the enrichment for high performers down the chain, you're asking for crappy NMSF results. There is absolutely a problem with DC public schools failing to push and support the best and brightest, particularly at the ES and MS levels. The support for high performers is too little, too late, with affluent parents stepping in to provide too much of the enrichment for their own children. The arrangement hurts the most capable low SES students most. Honors for All at Wilson is emblematic of this serious problem.

If you think the suburban kids are excelling at the PSAT because of what they're being taught in school I have a bridge or 3 to sell you. those kids are prepping outside of school. There are dozens of test prep centers in Mont. Co and Northern VA that promise success on the PSAT. Those kids are studying long and hard for many weekends. Go out to suburbia and head to almost any strip mall. You will see the kids filling in to do their week math and test prep classes.

Nonsense. The very best way to prep for the PSAT, beyond familiarizing oneself with the format, is to read a great deal of good lit for pleasure from a young age. The math tested is simple geometry and algebra, nothing more.

If DC public schools were producing NMSFs in the double digits, you bet the parent boosters here would be giving ed reformers in the District most of the credit!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Those who judge the caliber of a school by the number of kids who independently prep to ace the PSAT are tiresome to read.

My no name high school out in flyover country had 5 NM semifinalist the year I graduated and this was at a time when no one prepped for the PSATs. The fact that there are so few when kids do prep is pathetic. Yeah, people are going to judge...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those who judge the caliber of a school by the number of kids who independently prep to ace the PSAT are tiresome to read.

My no name high school out in flyover country had 5 NM semifinalist the year I graduated and this was at a time when no one prepped for the PSATs. The fact that there are so few when kids do prep is pathetic. Yeah, people are going to judge...

DC has the highest cut score. In my friends's private school 1/3 of the seniors are Commended, but only one NMSF.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those who judge the caliber of a school by the number of kids who independently prep to ace the PSAT are tiresome to read.

My no name high school out in flyover country had 5 NM semifinalist the year I graduated and this was at a time when no one prepped for the PSATs. The fact that there are so few when kids do prep is pathetic. Yeah, people are going to judge...

DC has the highest cut score. In my friends's private school 1/3 of the seniors are Commended, but only one NMSF.

So? It’s harder than most other areas but as people on DCUM love to say, this area has very well educated professional/above avg parents with gifted/above avg kids... keep making excuses.

[Anonymous]

Some are data. Not all kids are focused on or give a damn another the PSAT. Mine charter school student wasn’t.

Took it in 10th with a very meh score was and didn’t study before PSAT in fall of 11th. He decided only the SAT counted and he began prepping for it over winter break of 11th.

Scored a 1560 that spring with help of an SAT book (no tutor, no class). Clearly had he decided to study for NMSQT he could probably have been close to the cutoff. I don’t think he is unique.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some are data. Not all kids are focused on or give a damn another the PSAT. Mine charter school student wasn’t.

Took it in 10th with a very meh score was and didn’t study before PSAT in fall of 11th. He decided only the SAT counted and he began prepping for it over winter break of 11th.

Scored a 1560 that spring with help of an SAT book (no tutor, no class). Clearly had he decided to study for NMSQT he could probably have been close to the cutoff. I don’t think he is unique.

And it's a...good thing that the kid and the charter didn't give a damn? Becoming a NMSQT semifinalist is a certain boon when applying to competitive colleges. The modest award money doesn't hurt either. The veteran college counselors at TJ in VA understand this, helping explain why more than a quarter of that program's juniors bother to clear the bar. PSAT and SAT prep just aren't different enough to blow off the former and focus on the latter. I'm a college counselor, and I could have told your student that.

You don't know how close he would have been to the cutoff - he didn't get around to taking the PSAT. This is akin to saying, you know, he could have gone to Harvard IF I'd he's seen point of applying.

What else shall we excuse in DC public - middling SAT scores for various demographics, few Ivy League, US Military Academy and top 10 liberal arts colleges acceptances, no Westinghouse prize winners year in and year out? If every tried and tested academic standard for 17-18 year olds is made meaningless in the District, our enthusiasm for excuses for lackluster performance doesn't benefit our best and brightest high school students.

[Anonymous]

Kids mature at different ages and you can’t force motivation on them. I hardly think my kid was the only 16 yo in that spot. Good for the ones who apply themselves or who hit the top 1% without effort.

It isn’t a race and I don’t think that NMSF is a valid way to compare schools. The high schools with the fewest at-risk students in the city had students who qualified. Shocking! (Not )

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those who judge the caliber of a school by the number of kids who independently prep to ace the PSAT are tiresome to read.

My no name high school out in flyover country had 5 NM semifinalist the year I graduated and this was at a time when no one prepped for the PSATs. The fact that there are so few when kids do prep is pathetic. Yeah, people are going to judge...

DC has the highest cut score. In my friends's private school 1/3 of the seniors are Commended, but only one NMSF.

So? It’s harder than most other areas but as people on DCUM love to say, this area has very well educated professional/above avg parents with gifted/above avg kids... keep making excuses.

You absolutely should choose the school that has the most NMSF. Clearly no other school can teach your child a darn thing.

[Anonymous]

Have a good time at Sidwell or Whitman!