2020 National Merit semifinalists in DC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No need to add stress by naming kids who don't make it. It's not like the Oscars.

Do you mean by naming semifinalists? They have been announced everywhere except in DC. If my child received the honor, I would like for him to be recognized - he has worked amazingly hard as a student and is quite modest but it would be nice for someone to appreciate it, just like for athletes and other kinds of honors. Is it a policy decision not to announce for DC?

Semifinalists are based entirely on performance on one standardized test, the PSAT, so it's hardly the culmination of a career of hard work as a student. It's also a test that is highly teachable and gamable. It shows little about the quality of the education but rather what schools focus on test prep.

Signed, a NMS semifinalist.

Same and same. (w/r/t the PSAT, and w/r/t being a NMS semifinalist.)

Test-taking is a skill. It has some overlap with skills useful in the real world. But it's not the be-all and end-all.

[Anonymous]

I'd agree with you, if the PSAT weren't so easy. I was a semifinalist in the 80s in an ordinary suburban HS and thought I was hot stuff. Then I got to an elite college and struggled in an introductory writing class.

Sorry, but it's pathetic to me that what, around .05% of DC public high school juniors can clear the bar. Just not impressive, no matter what else is true in the big picture where PSAT taking goes in this Metro area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd agree with you, if the PSAT weren't so easy. I was a semifinalist in the 80s in an ordinary suburban HS and thought I was hot stuff. Then I got to an elite college and struggled in an introductory writing class.

Sorry, but it's pathetic to me that what, around .05% of DC public high school juniors can clear the bar. Just not impressive, no matter what else is true in the big picture where PSAT taking goes in this Metro area.

What state are you from? Did you make the top cut score DC requires?

[Anonymous]

MA, which typically has a slightly higher cut-off score than DC, or the same cut-off. My school was not an application HS and was in a predominantly working-class community. My siblings were also semifinalists, as was my spouse and his sibling. We all attended Ivies on full Pell Grants. No way we can be impressed with DC public's embarrassing results in this game.

[Anonymous]

Really embarrassing. We're losing faith in DCPS EotP. You can only knock your head against a wall so many times without hurting yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Really embarrassing. We're losing faith in DCPS EotP. You can only knock your head against a wall so many times without hurting yourself.

DCPS does a lot but it has ZERO focus put on students who might be National Merit Semifinalists.

It appears that the mayor and chancellor care only about “closing the achievement gap”.
That means improving kids who got a 1-3 on the PARCC. They have little interest in kids who are already doing well.

If you want to change that, tell the mayor and chancellor. Or elect a new mayor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Really embarrassing. We're losing faith in DCPS EotP. You can only knock your head against a wall so many times without hurting yourself.

DCPS does a lot but it has ZERO focus put on students who might be National Merit Semifinalists.

It appears that the mayor and chancellor care only about “closing the achievement gap”.
That means improving kids who got a 1-3 on the PARCC. They have little interest in kids who are already doing well.

If you want to change that, tell the mayor and chancellor. Or elect a new mayor.

+1 but I wouldn’t even say they have little interest in kids who are doing well. In EOTP, they have little interest in kids who are just at grade level and no interest in those above grade level.

What makes you think telling current leadership anything will change things? She has been mayor for years now, and it’s clear the city’s only agenda is closing the achievement gap. You also need to realize that if you track and challenge the higher performing kids to their full potential, it would widen the achievement gap.

Unlikely there is going to be a new mayor elected. Even if there was one, years and years before any change will make any difference.

[Anonymous]

Exactly, couldn’t agree more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Really embarrassing. We're losing faith in DCPS EotP. You can only knock your head against a wall so many times without hurting yourself.

DCPS does a lot but it has ZERO focus put on students who might be National Merit Semifinalists.

It appears that the mayor and chancellor care only about “closing the achievement gap”.
That means improving kids who got a 1-3 on the PARCC. They have little interest in kids who are already doing well.

If you want to change that, tell the mayor and chancellor. Or elect a new mayor.

+1 but I wouldn’t even say they have little interest in kids who are doing well. In EOTP, they have little interest in kids who are just at grade level and no interest in those above grade level.

What makes you think telling current leadership anything will change things? She has been mayor for years now, and it’s clear the city’s only agenda is closing the achievement gap. You also need to realize that if you track and challenge the higher performing kids to their full potential, it would widen the achievement gap.

Unlikely there is going to be a new mayor elected. Even if there was one, years and years before any change will make any difference.

The solution is a political solution.

There are already a lot of voters that don’t like the mayor.

She knows she’s in trouble as soon as a strong candidate comes out against her. That’s why she’s trying to divide the city with Trumpian BS about “fighting the gentrifiers” and unnecessarily pitting Banneker against Shaw parents, when she could have kept both happy.

Bowser fought Elissa Silverman and lost. She knows her voter base is weakening.

If you care about making DCPS a great place for all students, start telling everyone to vote against the mayor now.

[Anonymous]

Bowser has a 67% approval rating with a slight majority saying she should run for re-election. Equal percentages of black and white voters support her re-election

59% say the city is moving in the right direction (also bodes well for an incumbent)

Housing costs and crime are the top two issues for voters .

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-mayor-bowser-has-high-approval-rating-with-52-percent-saying-she-should-seek-a-third-term-post-poll-finds/2019/11/21/8388c926-0bc1-11ea-8397-a955cd542d00_story.html

[Anonymous]

You're right, Bowser's popularity probably doesn't bode well for ed reform benefiting the highest-performing DC public high school students. Institutional resistance to doing much more than closing the achievement gap, however that works, remains deeply ingrained. Then again, who knows, she might not even run for a third term.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're right, Bowser's popularity probably doesn't bode well for ed reform benefiting the highest-performing DC public high school students. Institutional resistance to doing much more than closing the achievement gap, however that works, remains deeply ingrained. Then again, who knows, she might not even run for a third term.

If people care about National Merit Semifinalists in DC, then they should be politically organizing to pressure DCPS to care about the top 50% of students.

Which the mayor and the chancellor currently do not care much about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MA, which typically has a slightly higher cut-off score than DC, or the same cut-off. My school was not an application HS and was in a predominantly working-class community. My siblings were also semifinalists, as was my spouse and his sibling. We all attended Ivies on full Pell Grants. No way we can be impressed with DC public's embarrassing results in this game.

MA can't have a higher score than DC ever because DC is automatically assigned the highest state cut score.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MA, which typically has a slightly higher cut-off score than DC, or the same cut-off. My school was not an application HS and was in a predominantly working-class community. My siblings were also semifinalists, as was my spouse and his sibling. We all attended Ivies on full Pell Grants. No way we can be impressed with DC public's embarrassing results in this game.

Same, never higher. You don't need to be impressed. You clearly come from a family of great test takers. However, your family's success on this one test however many years ago is not a benchmark for anyone.

Typically, fewer than 4% of all test takers are even commended, and about 1% are NMSF, which means that an even tinier fraction of a percentage make the top cut of DC/MA/NJ/International, so it is ridiculous of you to pretend that soooo many more kids should be achieving this score in this one city. There were only 39 finalists in the whole city this year, public or private, and there are rarely more than 50 in this city any year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're right, Bowser's popularity probably doesn't bode well for ed reform benefiting the highest-performing DC public high school students. Institutional resistance to doing much more than closing the achievement gap, however that works, remains deeply ingrained. Then again, who knows, she might not even run for a third term.

If people care about National Merit Semifinalists in DC, then they should be politically organizing to pressure DCPS to care about the top 50% of students.

Which the mayor and the chancellor currently do not care much about.

While I agree that DCPS should also focus on the top students, the NMSF cut scores are designed so that only about .05% of test takers in DC will be NMSF. Don't expect that to change.