2017 "Most Challenging" High Schools List (Wash Post/Jay Mathews) is out

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Latin had a higher AP percentage in 2013 because they offered fewer APs then. Great AP classes (and exam pass rates) develop over time-- as certain teachers get experience in "teaching to the test" for that particular AP subject matter. Latin hasn't been teaching most AP subjects long enough to have developed that type of AP "machine" even if that was an academic goal of the school-- which it really isn't. For those AP classes which Latin has been teaching for a long time, e.g. AP Latin-- they get all 4's and 5's.

Give me a break. They don't all get 4s and 5s.

Hundreds of thousands of homeschooled kids take AP tests every year in this country, with a great many earning high scores. Their families buy readily available prep materials, check them out for free at public libraries, or find them on-line (e.g. on Khan Academy). If the academic goal of the school is teaching kids to a strong classics-based humanities curriculum, ensuring that most of the kids earn decent scores on AP exams just isn't a high bar to clear in view of the school's demographics and the 5th grade entry system. At Wilson, Walls, BASIS and countless suburban schools in this Metro area, a good third of the kids breeze through half a dozen or more AP exams with high scores, let alone 1 with a passing score.

This result tells me that Latin needs to rethink its model, adding far more serious differentiation younger. However you slide it 18.8% on Jay Matthew's site is a disgrace for such a program. Period.

I'm also really surprised by the low pass rate. This means that out of a class of 100 kids (Latin is about that size, right?) fewer than 20 kids passed at least one AP exam? I went to the Latin website to look at the curriculum, but I didn't see anything concrete, just a blurb about the curriculum teaching the wisdom of the ancients. Now the website seems to have crashed and I can't poke around anymore. Is there anywhere for a prospective family to see the sequence of middle school and then high school courses? And what math curriculum do they use?

In 2016 Latin had 67 seniors. In 2017 they have 89.

I've been unable to find their course catalog online either.

So 12 kids? Wow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Banneker might also try to create -- or shall we say actively attracting or recruiting? -- some economic diversity. Its profile on the "Most Challenging" high schools list says it has literally zero economic diversity. So that's probably a strong factor affecting its lack of racial diversity, too.

Diversity is a two-way street, imo.

DCPS reports ALL Title 1 schools as being 100% economically disadvantaged. There is some other place to find the actual percentage, but data in this system is so dispersed that I can't remember where it is.

https://nces.ed.gov/

OK, got it:

https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/schoolsearch/school_detail.asp?Search=1&InstName=banneker&SchoolType=1&SchoolType=2&SchoolType=3&SchoolType=4&SpecificSchlTypes=all&IncGrade=-1&LoGrade=-1&HiGrade=-1&ID=110003000153

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because an average SAT score, GPA, and AP tests passed says nothing about how individual kids (your kid, my kid) will do at the school. If you don't want to send your kid there, fine. More spots for those of us who want them.

Which is hilarious because people in here go on and on and on about data. Until that school has above 95% minority and then "it's not good for my child".

People in this forum aren't fooling anyone. It almost always comes down to racism, even if the poster doesn't go around using racist terms out loud. The reason why more white people dont look at Banneker is racism pure and simple.

This.

Ugh quit bithching about it and careful what you wish for. Black people have something that white people dont want it boils down to racism right? But when white people decide that it is worth having and move in and displace black people that's racism too... gotcha.

What it sounds like black people really want is to finally have something that white people want but they can't just automatically take form them like everything else they have ever wanted in the history of forever. Banneker will eventually change when there simply isn't enough black people in the district to have a dedicated high school to them selves. When it progresses to 25% white, 50% white or even 60% white will you be happy then?

+1

"For themselves"?? You are a horrible person if you think shit like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As far as I can tell, they don't give Banneker a shot for the very same reasons there are few whites at historically black colleges. Even a great school like Howard attracts very few whites. Banneker's traditions are outside the orbit of whites and other races.

I think for some, it's about having more of a traditional high school experience. DS is bi-racial and would not consider Banneker because he wanted to play basketball, go to football games, play in the band, etc. Had nothing to do with race. Our friend's child, same age is white and loves Banneker.

I don't know if i buy this as a reason why, but I do agree that you do not get a traditional HS experience there. They do have sports at Banneker but the administration is not very supportive of it and it's not part of the school culture there. Banneker has very strict rules in place and everything they do is geared towards your academics. It's very different culturally than my own HS experience and it's not for everyone.

- parent of a 3rd year Banneker student who is an athlete.

[Anonymous]

I'm a white parent and I urged my Washington Latin 8th grader to consider applying to Banneker-- and to SWW and to several private schools and also our IB high school, Eastern. He refused to even look elsewhere. (We aren't IB for Wilson.) He loves Latin too much to consider anything else. To say that makes him racist is absurd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:but people here can keep convincing themselves they are progressive and "would NEVER" be racist. Eye roll.

So will you please commit here that you won't be one of the people screaming "racist gentrification!" when white families start applying to Banneker in mass, even when Banneker becomes a majority white school?

It won't. Because racism.

But like I said, most everyone here can keep trying to convince themselves.

OK, I'll mark that down as a commitment from you not to complain though if it does. I'm bookmarking this thread, because I suspect it might happen sometime in the next 5 years.

Can you explain your "racism" claim? No doubt there are many people who are consciously or subconsciously bigoted. But adding white students to Banneker doesn't take changing everyone in DC. Even if there are only a handful of white families who aren't bigoted, then that's some starting basis to apply to Banneker, right? Are you seriously contending that every white person in all of DC is so bigoted that they will refuse to apply to Banneker because it's a majority black school? Are you saying every single white person is racist? If that's your view, I'd like to hear you say it directly.

PP might not be saying "every single white person is racist" but I will. There is no way to grow up in the United State of America - with the kind of racial history we have baked into the cake of our society and not be racist. Period. I am white, have a black spouse and black children and I am racist. If I don't admit that to myself I will stop examining my bias and growing as a person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a white parent and I urged my Washington Latin 8th grader to consider applying to Banneker-- and to SWW and to several private schools and also our IB high school, Eastern. He refused to even look elsewhere. (We aren't IB for Wilson.) He loves Latin too much to consider anything else. To say that makes him racist is absurd.

Racist, no, short-sighted, possibly. Maybe we should all wake up and smell the coffee about charter high schools in this city - they can be PC fun for kids without being first-rate academically. 1 AP class with a score of 3 isn't a high bar to clear for a group of kids who've been studying the ancient and modern worlds seriously for 7 or 8 years. Not at all, yet less than 20% has been pulling it off at Latin in the past couple of years. Sounds like he should have looked at St. Anselm's, mom, whatever his skin color.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP might not be saying "every single white person is racist" but I will. There is no way to grow up in the United State of America - with the kind of racial history we have baked into the cake of our society and not be racist. Period. I am white, have a black spouse and black children and I am racist. If I don't admit that to myself I will stop examining my bias and growing as a person.

I appreciate your underlying point, but I think your definition of "racist" is so overbroad as to render the term meaningless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a white parent and I urged my Washington Latin 8th grader to consider applying to Banneker-- and to SWW and to several private schools and also our IB high school, Eastern. He refused to even look elsewhere. (We aren't IB for Wilson.) He loves Latin too much to consider anything else. To say that makes him racist is absurd.

Racist, no, short-sighted, possibly. Maybe we should all wake up and smell the coffee about charter high schools in this city - they can be PC fun for kids without being first-rate academically. 1 AP class with a score of 3 isn't a high bar to clear for a group of kids who've been studying the ancient and modern worlds seriously for 7 or 8 years. Not at all, yet less than 20% has been pulling it off at Latin in the past couple of years. Sounds like he should have looked at St. Anselm's, mom, whatever his skin color.

Catholic schools are the bottom of the barrel. Maybe the suburbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP might not be saying "every single white person is racist" but I will. There is no way to grow up in the United State of America - with the kind of racial history we have baked into the cake of our society and not be racist. Period. I am white, have a black spouse and black children and I am racist. If I don't admit that to myself I will stop examining my bias and growing as a person.

I appreciate your underlying point, but I think your definition of "racist" is so overbroad as to render the term meaningless.

(I'm not the person who wrote the first comment, but...) I think that it is only by using this person's definition of racism that we can actually see the many ways structural racism permeates our schools/neighborhoods/etc, and in doing so, try to do better.

If you are a white person uncomfortable with the idea of being racist, I'd suggest some deep reflection. We all are - overt, covert, unintentional, intentional. We are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a white parent and I urged my Washington Latin 8th grader to consider applying to Banneker-- and to SWW and to several private schools and also our IB high school, Eastern. He refused to even look elsewhere. (We aren't IB for Wilson.) He loves Latin too much to consider anything else. To say that makes him racist is absurd.

Racist, no, short-sighted, possibly. Maybe we should all wake up and smell the coffee about charter high schools in this city - they can be PC fun for kids without being first-rate academically. 1 AP class with a score of 3 isn't a high bar to clear for a group of kids who've been studying the ancient and modern worlds seriously for 7 or 8 years. Not at all, yet less than 20% has been pulling it off at Latin in the past couple of years. Sounds like he should have looked at St. Anselm's, mom, whatever his skin color.

Catholic schools are the bottom of the barrel. Maybe the suburbs.

True, St. Anselm's right down there at the bottom of the barrel with a 100% pass rate for at least 1 AP test, vs. an 18.8% rate for Latin.

One meets atheists, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Moslems etc. around town who send their boys to St. Anselm's. I get it now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a white parent and I urged my Washington Latin 8th grader to consider applying to Banneker-- and to SWW and to several private schools and also our IB high school, Eastern. He refused to even look elsewhere. (We aren't IB for Wilson.) He loves Latin too much to consider anything else. To say that makes him racist is absurd.

Racist, no, short-sighted, possibly. Maybe we should all wake up and smell the coffee about charter high schools in this city - they can be PC fun for kids without being first-rate academically. 1 AP class with a score of 3 isn't a high bar to clear for a group of kids who've been studying the ancient and modern worlds seriously for 7 or 8 years. Not at all, yet less than 20% has been pulling it off at Latin in the past couple of years. Sounds like he should have looked at St. Anselm's, mom, whatever his skin color.

Catholic schools are the bottom of the barrel. Maybe the suburbs.

True, St. Anselm's right down there at the bottom of the barrel with a 100% pass rate for at least 1 AP test, vs. an 18.8% rate for Latin.

One meets atheists, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Moslems etc. around town who send their boys to St. Anselm's. I get it now.

Alas they don't accept girls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP might not be saying "every single white person is racist" but I will. There is no way to grow up in the United State of America - with the kind of racial history we have baked into the cake of our society and not be racist. Period. I am white, have a black spouse and black children and I am racist. If I don't admit that to myself I will stop examining my bias and growing as a person.

I appreciate your underlying point, but I think your definition of "racist" is so overbroad as to render the term meaningless.

(I'm not the person who wrote the first comment, but...) I think that it is only by using this person's definition of racism that we can actually see the many ways structural racism permeates our schools/neighborhoods/etc, and in doing so, try to do better.

If you are a white person uncomfortable with the idea of being racist, I'd suggest some deep reflection. We all are - overt, covert, unintentional, intentional. We are.

Yeah, yeah, I've read the research from Banaji and other similar researchers too. No doubt every person's perceptions are colored by race, and that affects the structure of our society in many ways. But to simply level the accusation of "racist" at everyone repeatedly means the term has no power or useful meaning.

The original question posed (by me among others) was why more white families don't attend Banneker. Answering that question with the blanket statement of "racism" and accusing people who don't know everything about Banneker's policies of being racist is a poor use of the term.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP might not be saying "every single white person is racist" but I will. There is no way to grow up in the United State of America - with the kind of racial history we have baked into the cake of our society and not be racist. Period. I am white, have a black spouse and black children and I am racist. If I don't admit that to myself I will stop examining my bias and growing as a person.

I appreciate your underlying point, but I think your definition of "racist" is so overbroad as to render the term meaningless.

(I'm not the person who wrote the first comment, but...) I think that it is only by using this person's definition of racism that we can actually see the many ways structural racism permeates our schools/neighborhoods/etc, and in doing so, try to do better.

If you are a white person uncomfortable with the idea of being racist, I'd suggest some deep reflection. We all are - overt, covert, unintentional, intentional. We are.

Yeah, yeah, I've read the research from Banaji and other similar researchers too. No doubt every person's perceptions are colored by race, and that affects the structure of our society in many ways. But to simply level the accusation of "racist" at everyone repeatedly means the term has no power or useful meaning.

The original question posed (by me among others) was why more white families don't attend Banneker. Answering that question with the blanket statement of "racism" and accusing people who don't know everything about Banneker's policies of being racist is a poor use of the term.

I don't think all people that don't look at Banneker are racist, but you have to admit race is a reason there aren't any white kids at Banneker. Certainly, there are good reasons not to look at Banneker (see Latin mom above), but you'd be in deep denial not to admit that race demographics at Banneker (a school far superior to Latin) is a reason MANY white families don't look at it. No different than saying many people didn't vote for HRC because she is a woman

[Anonymous]

Interesting index that doesn't even list Sidwell Friends, St Albans, GDS....