DCPS Selective HSs: What to know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCI has AP options in every nearly subject- English, African American history, science, and pre calc and calc. No foreign language AP for some reason. These are taken 9&10th grade and i believe placement is based on MAP test score. This is relatively new at DCI, I could be wrong.

11th and 12th grade it’s all IB.

This is for IB track. Not sure about career.

That is great to hear! I did not know this. So the high performing kids can not only take AP classes in 9th and 10th grade but also the AP tests. This will further strengthen their college applications with good AP scores to show mastery in addition to the IB courses, grades, and diploma.

It is commonly known that the IB language test is much, much harder than the AP language test so maybe if they have to take that then no need to do AP language.

Yes this is why our family did not opt to apply to Walls which seems like a good school but doesn’t offer the same level of rigorous curriculum as offered by DCI.

DCI is more rigorous than Walls? Haven’t really heard that before.

The highest track possibly so.

We can debate that forever but the fact is Walls is going downhill thanks to DCPS and DCI is on an upward trajectory by offering students more - more advance math, more AP courses earlier, more tracking and uses objective standardized testing for placement..

You can’t say that about Walls and they have taken away any objective testing.

Walls obviously doesn’t have tracks like DCI but the highest achieving kids at Walls take really challenging schedules- 5 APs junior and senior years, 2 or 3 APs sophomore year, dual enrollment classes, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCI has AP options in every nearly subject- English, African American history, science, and pre calc and calc. No foreign language AP for some reason. These are taken 9&10th grade and i believe placement is based on MAP test score. This is relatively new at DCI, I could be wrong.

11th and 12th grade it’s all IB.

This is for IB track. Not sure about career.

That is great to hear! I did not know this. So the high performing kids can not only take AP classes in 9th and 10th grade but also the AP tests. This will further strengthen their college applications with good AP scores to show mastery in addition to the IB courses, grades, and diploma.

It is commonly known that the IB language test is much, much harder than the AP language test so maybe if they have to take that then no need to do AP language.

Yes this is why our family did not opt to apply to Walls which seems like a good school but doesn’t offer the same level of rigorous curriculum as offered by DCI.

DCI is more rigorous than Walls? Haven’t really heard that before.

The highest track possibly so.

We can debate that forever but the fact is Walls is going downhill thanks to DCPS and DCI is on an upward trajectory by offering students more - more advance math, more AP courses earlier, more tracking and uses objective standardized testing for placement..

You can’t say that about Walls and they have taken away any objective testing.

Walls obviously doesn’t have tracks like DCI but the highest achieving kids at Walls take really challenging schedules- 5 APs junior and senior years, 2 or 3 APs sophomore year, dual enrollment classes, etc.

No interest in walls but dci has IB math AA and AI. The highest math track will take ap pre calculus and calculus as freshmen and sophomores. It also offers IB HL and SL in chemistry, biology, physics and environmental science. One of the reasons we felt walls was not a good fit was the lack of science offerings. Plus the related STEM clubs and extra curricular activities were not present at walls or not as popular. Walls won’t prepare children sufficiently for stem based careers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCI has AP options in every nearly subject- English, African American history, science, and pre calc and calc. No foreign language AP for some reason. These are taken 9&10th grade and i believe placement is based on MAP test score. This is relatively new at DCI, I could be wrong.

11th and 12th grade it’s all IB.

This is for IB track. Not sure about career.

That is great to hear! I did not know this. So the high performing kids can not only take AP classes in 9th and 10th grade but also the AP tests. This will further strengthen their college applications with good AP scores to show mastery in addition to the IB courses, grades, and diploma.

It is commonly known that the IB language test is much, much harder than the AP language test so maybe if they have to take that then no need to do AP language.

Yes this is why our family did not opt to apply to Walls which seems like a good school but doesn’t offer the same level of rigorous curriculum as offered by DCI.

DCI is more rigorous than Walls? Haven’t really heard that before.

The highest track possibly so.

We can debate that forever but the fact is Walls is going downhill thanks to DCPS and DCI is on an upward trajectory by offering students more - more advance math, more AP courses earlier, more tracking and uses objective standardized testing for placement..

You can’t say that about Walls and they have taken away any objective testing.

Walls obviously doesn’t have tracks like DCI but the highest achieving kids at Walls take really challenging schedules- 5 APs junior and senior years, 2 or 3 APs sophomore year, dual enrollment classes, etc.

FYI, kids like above are a dime a dozen in competitive college admissions.

You absolutely stand out in competitive college admissions with IB if you do well since it is not so common.

Now if you have a kid with a bunch of good AP scores earlier in 9th and 10th in addition to IB courses in 11th and 12th and the diploma, they would stand out even more as a superstar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCI has AP options in every nearly subject- English, African American history, science, and pre calc and calc. No foreign language AP for some reason. These are taken 9&10th grade and i believe placement is based on MAP test score. This is relatively new at DCI, I could be wrong.

11th and 12th grade it’s all IB.

This is for IB track. Not sure about career.

That is great to hear! I did not know this. So the high performing kids can not only take AP classes in 9th and 10th grade but also the AP tests. This will further strengthen their college applications with good AP scores to show mastery in addition to the IB courses, grades, and diploma.

It is commonly known that the IB language test is much, much harder than the AP language test so maybe if they have to take that then no need to do AP language.

Yes this is why our family did not opt to apply to Walls which seems like a good school but doesn’t offer the same level of rigorous curriculum as offered by DCI.

DCI is more rigorous than Walls? Haven’t really heard that before.

The highest track possibly so.

We can debate that forever but the fact is Walls is going downhill thanks to DCPS and DCI is on an upward trajectory by offering students more - more advance math, more AP courses earlier, more tracking and uses objective standardized testing for placement..

You can’t say that about Walls and they have taken away any objective testing.

Walls obviously doesn’t have tracks like DCI but the highest achieving kids at Walls take really challenging schedules- 5 APs junior and senior years, 2 or 3 APs sophomore year, dual enrollment classes, etc.

No interest in walls but dci has IB math AA and AI. The highest math track will take ap pre calculus and calculus as freshmen and sophomores. It also offers IB HL and SL in chemistry, biology, physics and environmental science. One of the reasons we felt walls was not a good fit was the lack of science offerings. Plus the related STEM clubs and extra curricular activities were not present at walls or not as popular. Walls won’t prepare children sufficiently for stem based careers.

Thanks for the response- of course you had to make an unfounded dig and claim in the last sentence, but otherwise an actually informative post. And don’t worry about those Walls kids, plenty go into stem based careers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCI has AP options in every nearly subject- English, African American history, science, and pre calc and calc. No foreign language AP for some reason. These are taken 9&10th grade and i believe placement is based on MAP test score. This is relatively new at DCI, I could be wrong.

11th and 12th grade it’s all IB.

This is for IB track. Not sure about career.

That is great to hear! I did not know this. So the high performing kids can not only take AP classes in 9th and 10th grade but also the AP tests. This will further strengthen their college applications with good AP scores to show mastery in addition to the IB courses, grades, and diploma.

It is commonly known that the IB language test is much, much harder than the AP language test so maybe if they have to take that then no need to do AP language.

Yes this is why our family did not opt to apply to Walls which seems like a good school but doesn’t offer the same level of rigorous curriculum as offered by DCI.

DCI is more rigorous than Walls? Haven’t really heard that before.

The highest track possibly so.

We can debate that forever but the fact is Walls is going downhill thanks to DCPS and DCI is on an upward trajectory by offering students more - more advance math, more AP courses earlier, more tracking and uses objective standardized testing for placement..

You can’t say that about Walls and they have taken away any objective testing.

Walls obviously doesn’t have tracks like DCI but the highest achieving kids at Walls take really challenging schedules- 5 APs junior and senior years, 2 or 3 APs sophomore year, dual enrollment classes, etc.

No interest in walls but dci has IB math AA and AI. The highest math track will take ap pre calculus and calculus as freshmen and sophomores. It also offers IB HL and SL in chemistry, biology, physics and environmental science. One of the reasons we felt walls was not a good fit was the lack of science offerings. Plus the related STEM clubs and extra curricular activities were not present at walls or not as popular. Walls won’t prepare children sufficiently for stem based careers.

Thanks for the response- of course you had to make an unfounded dig and claim in the last sentence, but otherwise an actually informative post. And don’t worry about those Walls kids, plenty go into stem based careers.

No one is saying Walks kids can’t go into STEM fields but it’s a well known fact that Walls is not strong in STEM and is more a humanities field.

Walls is not going to prepare kids as well who go into STEM. They don’t offer all AP STEM courses. They don’t offer anything past Calculus. They don’t have strong STEM clubs or robotics team, etc….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCI has AP options in every nearly subject- English, African American history, science, and pre calc and calc. No foreign language AP for some reason. These are taken 9&10th grade and i believe placement is based on MAP test score. This is relatively new at DCI, I could be wrong.

11th and 12th grade it’s all IB.

This is for IB track. Not sure about career.

That is great to hear! I did not know this. So the high performing kids can not only take AP classes in 9th and 10th grade but also the AP tests. This will further strengthen their college applications with good AP scores to show mastery in addition to the IB courses, grades, and diploma.

It is commonly known that the IB language test is much, much harder than the AP language test so maybe if they have to take that then no need to do AP language.

Yes this is why our family did not opt to apply to Walls which seems like a good school but doesn’t offer the same level of rigorous curriculum as offered by DCI.

DCI is more rigorous than Walls? Haven’t really heard that before.

The highest track possibly so.

We can debate that forever but the fact is Walls is going downhill thanks to DCPS and DCI is on an upward trajectory by offering students more - more advance math, more AP courses earlier, more tracking and uses objective standardized testing for placement..

You can’t say that about Walls and they have taken away any objective testing.

Walls obviously doesn’t have tracks like DCI but the highest achieving kids at Walls take really challenging schedules- 5 APs junior and senior years, 2 or 3 APs sophomore year, dual enrollment classes, etc.

No interest in walls but dci has IB math AA and AI. The highest math track will take ap pre calculus and calculus as freshmen and sophomores. It also offers IB HL and SL in chemistry, biology, physics and environmental science. One of the reasons we felt walls was not a good fit was the lack of science offerings. Plus the related STEM clubs and extra curricular activities were not present at walls or not as popular. Walls won’t prepare children sufficiently for stem based careers.

Thanks for the response- of course you had to make an unfounded dig and claim in the last sentence, but otherwise an actually informative post. And don’t worry about those Walls kids, plenty go into stem based careers.

No one is saying Walks kids can’t go into STEM fields but it’s a well known fact that Walls is not strong in STEM and is more a humanities field.

Walls is not going to prepare kids as well who go into STEM. They don’t offer all AP STEM courses. They don’t offer anything past Calculus. They don’t have strong STEM clubs or robotics team, etc….

So why on earth is the only Calc 3 class in DCPS located at an anti-STEM school? Maybe DCPS could move it to McKinley, so that kids who didn’t charm their 8th grade teachers but who are really really good at math could have a chance to, you know, study math!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCI has AP options in every nearly subject- English, African American history, science, and pre calc and calc. No foreign language AP for some reason. These are taken 9&10th grade and i believe placement is based on MAP test score. This is relatively new at DCI, I could be wrong.

11th and 12th grade it’s all IB.

This is for IB track. Not sure about career.

That is great to hear! I did not know this. So the high performing kids can not only take AP classes in 9th and 10th grade but also the AP tests. This will further strengthen their college applications with good AP scores to show mastery in addition to the IB courses, grades, and diploma.

It is commonly known that the IB language test is much, much harder than the AP language test so maybe if they have to take that then no need to do AP language.

Yes this is why our family did not opt to apply to Walls which seems like a good school but doesn’t offer the same level of rigorous curriculum as offered by DCI.

DCI is more rigorous than Walls? Haven’t really heard that before.

The highest track possibly so.

We can debate that forever but the fact is Walls is going downhill thanks to DCPS and DCI is on an upward trajectory by offering students more - more advance math, more AP courses earlier, more tracking and uses objective standardized testing for placement..

You can’t say that about Walls and they have taken away any objective testing.

Walls obviously doesn’t have tracks like DCI but the highest achieving kids at Walls take really challenging schedules- 5 APs junior and senior years, 2 or 3 APs sophomore year, dual enrollment classes, etc.

No interest in walls but dci has IB math AA and AI. The highest math track will take ap pre calculus and calculus as freshmen and sophomores. It also offers IB HL and SL in chemistry, biology, physics and environmental science. One of the reasons we felt walls was not a good fit was the lack of science offerings. Plus the related STEM clubs and extra curricular activities were not present at walls or not as popular. Walls won’t prepare children sufficiently for stem based careers.

Thanks for the response- of course you had to make an unfounded dig and claim in the last sentence, but otherwise an actually informative post. And don’t worry about those Walls kids, plenty go into stem based careers.

It wasn’t meant to be a dig. It’s a fact. I’m also certain that there have been wonderful and well prepared fantastic kids from walls. But the way as it is now, no the course offerings won’t adequately prepare kids for admission to college for a stem based career.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCI has AP options in every nearly subject- English, African American history, science, and pre calc and calc. No foreign language AP for some reason. These are taken 9&10th grade and i believe placement is based on MAP test score. This is relatively new at DCI, I could be wrong.

11th and 12th grade it’s all IB.

This is for IB track. Not sure about career.

That is great to hear! I did not know this. So the high performing kids can not only take AP classes in 9th and 10th grade but also the AP tests. This will further strengthen their college applications with good AP scores to show mastery in addition to the IB courses, grades, and diploma.

It is commonly known that the IB language test is much, much harder than the AP language test so maybe if they have to take that then no need to do AP language.

Yes this is why our family did not opt to apply to Walls which seems like a good school but doesn’t offer the same level of rigorous curriculum as offered by DCI.

DCI is more rigorous than Walls? Haven’t really heard that before.

The highest track possibly so.

We can debate that forever but the fact is Walls is going downhill thanks to DCPS and DCI is on an upward trajectory by offering students more - more advance math, more AP courses earlier, more tracking and uses objective standardized testing for placement..

You can’t say that about Walls and they have taken away any objective testing.

Walls obviously doesn’t have tracks like DCI but the highest achieving kids at Walls take really challenging schedules- 5 APs junior and senior years, 2 or 3 APs sophomore year, dual enrollment classes, etc.

No interest in walls but dci has IB math AA and AI. The highest math track will take ap pre calculus and calculus as freshmen and sophomores. It also offers IB HL and SL in chemistry, biology, physics and environmental science. One of the reasons we felt walls was not a good fit was the lack of science offerings. Plus the related STEM clubs and extra curricular activities were not present at walls or not as popular. Walls won’t prepare children sufficiently for stem based careers.

It is not apple to apple comparison. Walls is not a stem HS. It is a humanities HS and they are clear about that. Not sure why people keep bringing up math and other stem classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCI has AP options in every nearly subject- English, African American history, science, and pre calc and calc. No foreign language AP for some reason. These are taken 9&10th grade and i believe placement is based on MAP test score. This is relatively new at DCI, I could be wrong.

11th and 12th grade it’s all IB.

This is for IB track. Not sure about career.

That is great to hear! I did not know this. So the high performing kids can not only take AP classes in 9th and 10th grade but also the AP tests. This will further strengthen their college applications with good AP scores to show mastery in addition to the IB courses, grades, and diploma.

It is commonly known that the IB language test is much, much harder than the AP language test so maybe if they have to take that then no need to do AP language.

Yes this is why our family did not opt to apply to Walls which seems like a good school but doesn’t offer the same level of rigorous curriculum as offered by DCI.

DCI is more rigorous than Walls? Haven’t really heard that before.

The highest track possibly so.

We can debate that forever but the fact is Walls is going downhill thanks to DCPS and DCI is on an upward trajectory by offering students more - more advance math, more AP courses earlier, more tracking and uses objective standardized testing for placement..

You can’t say that about Walls and they have taken away any objective testing.

Walls obviously doesn’t have tracks like DCI but the highest achieving kids at Walls take really challenging schedules- 5 APs junior and senior years, 2 or 3 APs sophomore year, dual enrollment classes, etc.

No interest in walls but dci has IB math AA and AI. The highest math track will take ap pre calculus and calculus as freshmen and sophomores. It also offers IB HL and SL in chemistry, biology, physics and environmental science. One of the reasons we felt walls was not a good fit was the lack of science offerings. Plus the related STEM clubs and extra curricular activities were not present at walls or not as popular. Walls won’t prepare children sufficiently for stem based careers.

Thanks for the response- of course you had to make an unfounded dig and claim in the last sentence, but otherwise an actually informative post. And don’t worry about those Walls kids, plenty go into stem based careers.

No one is saying Walks kids can’t go into STEM fields but it’s a well known fact that Walls is not strong in STEM and is more a humanities field.

Walls is not going to prepare kids as well who go into STEM. They don’t offer all AP STEM courses. They don’t offer anything past Calculus. They don’t have strong STEM clubs or robotics team, etc….

So why on earth is the only Calc 3 class in DCPS located at an anti-STEM school? Maybe DCPS could move it to McKinley, so that kids who didn’t charm their 8th grade teachers but who are really really good at math could have a chance to, you know, study math!

I’m the poster whose children went to dci. We were not language people only applied to dci because of the STEM offerings. I have been asking myself the same question. WHY isn’t McKinley offering better and stronger STEM courses? Why? We were super lucky to get into DCI and are happy there, but it would have been great to have the option of McKinley.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCI has AP options in every nearly subject- English, African American history, science, and pre calc and calc. No foreign language AP for some reason. These are taken 9&10th grade and i believe placement is based on MAP test score. This is relatively new at DCI, I could be wrong.

11th and 12th grade it’s all IB.

This is for IB track. Not sure about career.

That is great to hear! I did not know this. So the high performing kids can not only take AP classes in 9th and 10th grade but also the AP tests. This will further strengthen their college applications with good AP scores to show mastery in addition to the IB courses, grades, and diploma.

It is commonly known that the IB language test is much, much harder than the AP language test so maybe if they have to take that then no need to do AP language.

Yes this is why our family did not opt to apply to Walls which seems like a good school but doesn’t offer the same level of rigorous curriculum as offered by DCI.

DCI is more rigorous than Walls? Haven’t really heard that before.

The highest track possibly so.

We can debate that forever but the fact is Walls is going downhill thanks to DCPS and DCI is on an upward trajectory by offering students more - more advance math, more AP courses earlier, more tracking and uses objective standardized testing for placement..

You can’t say that about Walls and they have taken away any objective testing.

Walls obviously doesn’t have tracks like DCI but the highest achieving kids at Walls take really challenging schedules- 5 APs junior and senior years, 2 or 3 APs sophomore year, dual enrollment classes, etc.

No interest in walls but dci has IB math AA and AI. The highest math track will take ap pre calculus and calculus as freshmen and sophomores. It also offers IB HL and SL in chemistry, biology, physics and environmental science. One of the reasons we felt walls was not a good fit was the lack of science offerings. Plus the related STEM clubs and extra curricular activities were not present at walls or not as popular. Walls won’t prepare children sufficiently for stem based careers.

It is not apple to apple comparison. Walls is not a stem HS. It is a humanities HS and they are clear about that. Not sure why people keep bringing up math and other stem classes.

I think it’s because people often cite walls as the best school in DC. It is very good. But it’s objectively not a good choice for children who are strong in STEM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCI has AP options in every nearly subject- English, African American history, science, and pre calc and calc. No foreign language AP for some reason. These are taken 9&10th grade and i believe placement is based on MAP test score. This is relatively new at DCI, I could be wrong.

11th and 12th grade it’s all IB.

This is for IB track. Not sure about career.

That is great to hear! I did not know this. So the high performing kids can not only take AP classes in 9th and 10th grade but also the AP tests. This will further strengthen their college applications with good AP scores to show mastery in addition to the IB courses, grades, and diploma.

It is commonly known that the IB language test is much, much harder than the AP language test so maybe if they have to take that then no need to do AP language.

Yes this is why our family did not opt to apply to Walls which seems like a good school but doesn’t offer the same level of rigorous curriculum as offered by DCI.

DCI is more rigorous than Walls? Haven’t really heard that before.

The highest track possibly so.

We can debate that forever but the fact is Walls is going downhill thanks to DCPS and DCI is on an upward trajectory by offering students more - more advance math, more AP courses earlier, more tracking and uses objective standardized testing for placement..

You can’t say that about Walls and they have taken away any objective testing.

Walls obviously doesn’t have tracks like DCI but the highest achieving kids at Walls take really challenging schedules- 5 APs junior and senior years, 2 or 3 APs sophomore year, dual enrollment classes, etc.

No interest in walls but dci has IB math AA and AI. The highest math track will take ap pre calculus and calculus as freshmen and sophomores. It also offers IB HL and SL in chemistry, biology, physics and environmental science. One of the reasons we felt walls was not a good fit was the lack of science offerings. Plus the related STEM clubs and extra curricular activities were not present at walls or not as popular. Walls won’t prepare children sufficiently for stem based careers.

It is not apple to apple comparison. Walls is not a stem HS. It is a humanities HS and they are clear about that. Not sure why people keep bringing up math and other stem classes.

It is quite easy to make a side by side comparison. And walls comes up short for STEM. it’s really an excellent school I assume for humanities. I think there is a lot to be said for the application model. I wish dcps would look into more application model schools and schools who track.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCI has AP options in every nearly subject- English, African American history, science, and pre calc and calc. No foreign language AP for some reason. These are taken 9&10th grade and i believe placement is based on MAP test score. This is relatively new at DCI, I could be wrong.

11th and 12th grade it’s all IB.

This is for IB track. Not sure about career.

That is great to hear! I did not know this. So the high performing kids can not only take AP classes in 9th and 10th grade but also the AP tests. This will further strengthen their college applications with good AP scores to show mastery in addition to the IB courses, grades, and diploma.

It is commonly known that the IB language test is much, much harder than the AP language test so maybe if they have to take that then no need to do AP language.

Yes this is why our family did not opt to apply to Walls which seems like a good school but doesn’t offer the same level of rigorous curriculum as offered by DCI.

🤣😂🤣

Glad your child is grounded in reality. At least they will be bilingual.

Trilingual. You can take two languages at DCI.

[Anonymous]

I don't understand people going on about Walls not being the school for STEM.

What are the options?

McKinley has great facilities, but it is not as strong academically as Walls, and, like all schools in DC, it is not equally accessible from all geographies.

BASIS is not an option if you didn't start there early, and it has imbalances in its program. Just because a kid favors STEM doesn't mean they don't care about other subjects.

Meanwhile, my STEM kid is having a great experience at Walls. Some of the science and math teachers are excellent, and there is a cohort of kids with strong interests in STEM. DC also pursues some interests outside of school.

I get Walls doens't have the scientific equipment that McKinley has, but there is more to being a successful STEM education that just having equipment. And the DCPS idea of slotting everyone into STEM or Humanities or--more specifically--an academy is fine for the people who want it. But kids heading to liberal arts colleges or top technical universities, the best preparation is strong general education -- critical thinking, logic, writing, etc.

The idea that no STEM kid should choose Walls is dumb.

[Anonymous]

Both Walls and Banneker have a lot more female students than male. My friend who just went through the process was surprised at how much Walks process seemed to favor girls (her kid was at Deal so this is based on Deal applicants)

[Anonymous]

Look you have to accept the fact that DCPS sucks in math. Period. The teachung is poor, majority of kids at majority of schools are way below grade level.

It is so bad that majority of DCPS schools don’t even offer geometry in 8th. Forget about Algebra 2.

So why would you expect strong math and STEM which requires lots of math in DCPS? They just don’t have it. They are trying to make Mckinley as a STEM school but can only do so much when kids come up the chain so, so weak.

The reality is that most kids strong in STEM leave DCPS. That is why there is such a small cohort of advance math kids at JR. That is why Walls is weak in math and STEM and more a humanities school.

If you want strong in STEM, right now it is DCI and Basis. That is it.

Maybe in 5-10 years, Mckinley might get better. But reality is by high school, it’s really late to catch up in math. You need to do better and start earlier at the late elementary level or early middle school level.