TC Williams College Matriculations This Year

[Anonymous]

Please not charter schools. Please. For every one that succeeds, 70 steal money and run a rotten to mediocre program. Of course be vigilant about getting students of color advance tracked. It does take vigilance. Students of color are frequently underestimated and overlooked. ACPS need to support more students to reach higher levels of success. For those students currently succeeding, they are getting in to good colleges. Certainly better than many FFX HSs with wide-ranging demographics. The students going to selective colleges will succeed there and have been prepared to do that. For those who are complaining the placement is bad, be specific about your complaints. No one going to P one year is meaningless. Are you saying there are dozens of straight A students with great ECs and 1500 SATs who didn’t get into selective schools? Are you saying there are B students with 1300 SATs who didn’t understand they could get tuition scholarships from VA schools? Are you saying kids who are first in their family to go to college and are working and going to NVCC are losers? Are you saying kids -particularly students of color- who could succeed Had they been given more opportunities earlier in their school careers should be better positioned for college by now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please not charter schools. Please. For every one that succeeds, 70 steal money and run a rotten to mediocre program. Of course be vigilant about getting students of color advance tracked. It does take vigilance. Students of color are frequently underestimated and overlooked. ACPS need to support more students to reach higher levels of success. For those students currently succeeding, they are getting in to good colleges. Certainly better than many FFX HSs with wide-ranging demographics. The students going to selective colleges will succeed there and have been prepared to do that. For those who are complaining the placement is bad, be specific about your complaints. No one going to P one year is meaningless. Are you saying there are dozens of straight A students with great ECs and 1500 SATs who didn’t get into selective schools? Are you saying there are B students with 1300 SATs who didn’t understand they could get tuition scholarships from VA schools? Are you saying kids who are first in their family to go to college and are working and going to NVCC are losers? Are you saying kids -particularly students of color- who could succeed Had they been given more opportunities earlier in their school careers should be better positioned for college by now?

Don't worry, Virginia law makes it virtually impossible to open a charter school unless the local school board approves it, and that's not going to happen here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please not charter schools. Please. For every one that succeeds, 70 steal money and run a rotten to mediocre program. Of course be vigilant about getting students of color advance tracked. It does take vigilance. Students of color are frequently underestimated and overlooked. ACPS need to support more students to reach higher levels of success. For those students currently succeeding, they are getting in to good colleges. Certainly better than many FFX HSs with wide-ranging demographics. The students going to selective colleges will succeed there and have been prepared to do that. For those who are complaining the placement is bad, be specific about your complaints. No one going to P one year is meaningless. Are you saying there are dozens of straight A students with great ECs and 1500 SATs who didn’t get into selective schools? Are you saying there are B students with 1300 SATs who didn’t understand they could get tuition scholarships from VA schools? Are you saying kids who are first in their family to go to college and are working and going to NVCC are losers? Are you saying kids -particularly students of color- who could succeed Had they been given more opportunities earlier in their school careers should be better positioned for college by now?

Not this bad, but close. The college results for even the top 10% of the class were simply miserable - the worst in over a decade. Many, many students and families have seen friends in other, nearby, NoVa districts do much better with materially lower objective numbers. There's no defending this year's college placement record. It was simply lousy.

[Anonymous]

I challenge you to provide college matriculation data from other high schools with similar demographics. West Potomac, for example. Your statements about “students seeing friends” is meaningless. Acceptances to the most selective colleges are down everywhere, due in part to a much larger international applicant pool and more aggressive outreach to previously untapped rural areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I challenge you to provide college matriculation data from other high schools with similar demographics. West Potomac, for example. Your statements about “students seeing friends” is meaningless. Acceptances to the most selective colleges are down everywhere, due in part to a much larger international applicant pool and more aggressive outreach to previously untapped rural areas.

PP here, although not sure the one you're addressing. Foreign enrollment in US universities is way, way down (by like 50%), just in the last two years alone. Examples of coverage are all over the place. For example, take a look at: https://qz.com/1267351/f-1-and-m-1-visa-data-show-international-students-are-turning-away-from-us-universities/ and http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/12/news/economy/international-student-visa-college/index.html and https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2018/03/02/guess-whos-not-coming-to-america-international-students/#7600887f3c3e .

So blaming non-US students doesn't really seem to cut it.

[Anonymous]

Athletes are being internationally recruited to top schools and that is probably a less significant drop. Not trying to pick a fight; genuinely interested in whether this perception that superior students didn’t get the expected offers is really different from schools with similar demographics. Is this said every year by each new cohort of families? Is this a year with a large application group? Or have colleges that were previously targeted by a narrow group of people now targeted by many? And what’s the shake out after Common app and then waitlist changes? Arguably the whole system is stacked for more advantaged kids, so compared with schools of equal wealth ratios, is there a real difference? Also, compared to schools with graduates who are first from their family to college is TC placing these kids broadly? In some Fairfax schools the focus is on graduation numbers and getting to college means reading the generic info sent in emails. Top kids and next tier down are mostly on their own.

[Anonymous]

Yes, thank you, this is the data that I'd like to see. Let's compare apples to apples.

[Anonymous]

I think charter schools in Alexandria would only benefit students in ACPS. We need something to shake up that system and competition seems like a good option. Right now there is no reason for the school system to even try to change because there is no pressure. Charter schools would provide that pressure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Athletes are being internationally recruited to top schools and that is probably a less significant drop. Not trying to pick a fight; genuinely interested in whether this perception that superior students didn’t get the expected offers is really different from schools with similar demographics. Is this said every year by each new cohort of families? Is this a year with a large application group? Or have colleges that were previously targeted by a narrow group of people now targeted by many? And what’s the shake out after Common app and then waitlist changes? Arguably the whole system is stacked for more advantaged kids, so compared with schools of equal wealth ratios, is there a real difference? Also, compared to schools with graduates who are first from their family to college is TC placing these kids broadly? In some Fairfax schools the focus is on graduation numbers and getting to college means reading the generic info sent in emails. Top kids and next tier down are mostly on their own.

The UVA and WM admission numbers are both down by 50% over two years, and the VaTech number is down by more than that. Check the TC 2015 and 2016 releases.

[Anonymous]

The problem with trying to compare the data is that it is self-reported by students and they are not required to do so. Before we can compare the lists, we need to be reasonably confident that there were no other factors that might have affected the reporting rate. Something as simple as fewer follow-up reminders this year can affect the reporting rate, and thus the data collected, significantly.

[Anonymous]

Will the new Academy for Health Sciences increase the number of matriculations to GWU from TC?


For those not in ACPS: https://smhs.gwu.edu/news/alexandria-city-public-schools-and-george-washington-university-school-medicine-and-health

[Anonymous]

The problem with trying to compare the data is that it is self-reported by students and they are not required to do so. Before we can compare the lists, we need to be reasonably confident that there were no other factors that might have affected the reporting rate. Something as simple as fewer follow-up reminders this year can affect the reporting rate, and thus the data collected, significantly.

Fine. We will accept that the data isn't perfect. I'd still like to see what was reported about West Potomac or Wakefield, for example.

[Anonymous]

West Potomac’s matriculations

https://coveringthecorridor.com/2018/06/where-west-potomacs-class-of-2018-will-be-attending-college/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:West Potomac’s matriculations

https://coveringthecorridor.com/2018/06/where-west-potomacs-class-of-2018-will-be-attending-college/

Not impressive at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will the new Academy for Health Sciences increase the number of matriculations to GWU from TC?


For those not in ACPS: https://smhs.gwu.edu/news/alexandria-city-public-schools-and-george-washington-university-school-medicine-and-health

I can’t see how a hyper glorified vo-tech program with a fancy label changes the game.