Why doesn't DC have a competitive public high school like Stuyvesant in NYC?

[Anonymous]

I grew up in Manhattan, which had two great public high schools: Stuyvesant and Hunter. Both took students from the five boroughs, and had a competitive entrance exam: merit ruled. The schools were and remain great, possibly the best public high schools in the United States.

Why doesn't DC offer the same option to its residents?

This would seem a fast-track to getting more families to invest in the DCPS system, instead of moving to VA/MD that offer equivalent merit based high schools such as Thomas Jefferson.

Is there a DC law prohibiting the creation of such a school?

Is the city council opposed?

Has it ever been proposed?

What does Rhee (if anything) say about this idea?

I am curious as to the history of why no such high school exists in DC. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Umm, I'm aware of two well-regarded high schools in DC with competitive admissions: Banneker and School Without Walls. My DC is only 3, so I'm not up on the public high school picture, but my understanding is that there are some well-regarded public charters that also have competitive admissions.

A better question would be: Why aren't these two DC schools as good as the NYC ones that you name? Is there any chance that they are?

[Anonymous]

i am big supporter of public educationn and no, there is no chance that banneker and SWoW are anywhere near stuyvesant or hunter.

[Anonymous]

DC has, what, 600,000 residents and NYC has 8.1 million. Ithaca, NY has a population of 29,000.

Which city do you think is going to have the highest caliber student body at one competitive admission HS? Probably the one with the largest possible pool of talent.

Here are Banneker's admission requirements:
http://benjaminbanneker.k12.dc.us/admissions.html

[Anonymous]

And, of course, lots of the academically high-achieving kids in DC go to local private schools which makes the pool here even shallower.

[Anonymous]

I think Banneker and School Without Walls are both excellent high schools but they might not appeal to all high caliber students. Banneker is an IB program, the student body is mostly African-American. And School without Walls seems to be best suited for students that are self-motivated and the school enjoys a close relationship with GWU. I agree with the pp that these schools are nowhere near Stuyvesant or Hunter. Both schools are also pretty small and I wonder how many applications they receive. I think parents are hungry for more options like this, just can't see how or when it will happen. Also wonder what keeps families of other races from considering Banneker.

[Anonymous]

DC also has the Wilson Academies as well as Ellington (magnet for the arts)

[Anonymous]

To answer OP's question, it is because rewarding merit and refusing to relax standards would open DCPS up to charges of elitism. This simply isn't their priority. I agree that it should be ours as parents of high-achieving students who would like to continue to invest in DCPS. You know very well, however, that accusations of racism would fly if anyone around here instituted a truly competitive entrance exam.

My child is younger, but last I heard Walls required a minimum 3.0 for applicants. That's not a high bar, though it should screen out the very weakest students (and middle-school grades aren't everything, of course). I'm under the impression that charters are not permitted to arrange admission according to merit at all.

[Anonymous]

Charters are not allowed to selectively admit students. They can have rigorous programs which families tend to "self-select" if they're interested in a challenge and/or drop out of if they're too challenging, and some of them do (Washington Latin, Washington Yu Ying). But, they're not allowed to create admissions exams in order to directly cherry-pick their student body.

[Anonymous]

Don't know enough of the NYC schools to make a comparison but I know that Banneker has quite a demanding program. Whether it can compete with Stuyvesant and Hunter is another thing but it is not for the faint-hearted.

I think if more white families applied there, it would be better known west of the park.

[Anonymous]

Why do people from NYC constantly ask why DC doesn't do this or that? A lot of education ideas and people are being imported to DC from NYC and elsewhere. It's like asking why Mexico can't be more like Canada simply because both are in NAFTA. Do New Yorkers have ways to "fast-track" DC out of developing country rates of poverty, unemployment, violence, health problems and political disenfranchisement (pesky voting rights and taxes without reps)? Two "great" high schools for 10 million people? Uh, thanks for the tip.

[Anonymous]

Personally, I think its a void in the city. If I were the charter school board, I'd allow the creation of public charter highschools with merit admissions. I'm surprised it hasn't been done already.

[Anonymous]

Because you'd have to change the law on charters and the whole point of charters is to offer equal opportunity and alternatives to bad public or expensive private schools. Here's the official explanation from public charter school board. "According to the School Reform Act (Sec 38-1802.06), enrollment in public charter schools is open to all students who are residents of the District of Columbia, and if space is available, to non-resident students who pay tuition at the rate established by the State Education Agency. A public charter school may not limit enrollment based on student's race, color, religion, national origin, language spoken, intellectual or athletic ability." It may not make sense to some, but it is the law.

[Anonymous]

OP asked a very, very good question and some of the people who answered didn't know what they were talking about.

My husband & I struggled mightily to pay for a private school tuition for our daughter. We would have loved to have saved the money if we thought any of the DC Public High Schools were good enough. We did not think they were good enough. The standards are too low.

Over 1 million kids manage to be educated in the NYC Public Schools. Somehow the gov't officials in NY have figured it out. No one in DC can EVER figure it out. We had a general, several "saviors" and now Rhee. We have less than 50,000 kids in the DC Publics. My advice is for them to start over and let all of the DC kids go to privates or publics outside of DC with our taxpayer money.

SWW only requires a 2.5 GPA -- that is terrible. DC is afraid of excellence. I actually think it is racism for the people who run DC schools to think the black students can't manage anything more -- they can and do in other major American Cities. DC is the capital of the free world. Every single government official here -- federal, state & local should be embarassed about our schools. They are not. They don't think the black kids deserve anything more. They accept mediocrity for them. It's a crime.

[Anonymous]

Isn't there a moratorium on new charters at the moment? If not, someone with young children should try to found such a high school, as well as a Spanish-English immersion school.