DC application high schools - by the numbers
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
|
I was intrigued by the discussion on the waitlist thread about the low waitlists for application high schools. A poster on that thread estimated that there were about 1,300 7th graders in DC who got 4s or 5s on PARCC and would have been eligible to apply for these schools (all but Ellington now include PARCC + GPA as admission criteria). Since 7th graders may take different math tests, I calculated the number of 7th graders at DC schools with a 4 or 5 on the PARCC ELA and multiplied that by .75 (estimating that 75% of kids who got a 4 or 5 on PARCC ELA also had qualifying math and GPA scores).
Here are the results, for all schools with 20 or more "eligible" kids. The total number of eligible kids across the city is around 1,360: Deal: 306 KIPP: 53 DCI: 73 Basis: 70 Hardy: 58 DC Prep: 55 Friendship: 50 Stuart-Hobson: 49 Latin: 46 Center City: 39 Oyster-Adams: 36 Jefferson: 32 EL Haynes: 27 Chavez: 26 Capital City: 23 Kelly Miller: 20 CHEC: 20 Many of these kids are in a feeder pattern where they might stay and continue high school - I'd estimate about 600 out of the 1,360 would choose to stay in their feeder track. That leaves 760 kids with qualifying scores in the pool for application high schools, which offered 670 seats as follows: School Without Walls: 140 Banneker: 170 McKinley: 220 Phelps: 140 Based on these rough estimates, I think it's reasonable to assume that all kids who meet the criteria (at least currently) can get a seat at an application high school. I'd be interested to know if the matching algorithm might allow a kid to match to Banneker if they are on the SWW waitlist - I know the algorithm works differently for these schools. |
Anonymous
| Ugh, of course there's a mistake in the data - KIPP has double that # of qualifying kids - 107. |
Anonymous
| Half of your list are middle schools. None of which are application. |
Anonymous
Never mind. #I'mStupidToday. |
Anonymous
| I don't think that the estimate on the number in a feeder pattern is strictly relevant. In almost all places, application and magnet/test-in schools are intended for only a subset of students. What this shows for DC is that we probably have a higher availability of application/specialized opportunities for higher performing high school kids than other places, almost 50%. |
Anonymous
| What about Duke Ellington? That's another 130, right? |
Anonymous
Yes that is true "in almost all places." But here, more than 500 of the eligible kids are in a feeder for Wilson or have already self-selected into the feeder track of Latin or Basis. Might some of them choose an application high school? Sure. But the majority? Probably not. |
Anonymous
| You also left out Bard, which has admission requirements too. With it included, and with some kids getting 4s and 5s choosing private school or Ellington, it seems there really is no shortage of seats in high schools with large cohorts of high-performing peers. Which is wonderful! Now if we can get more middle schoolers getting 4s and 5s on PARCC we may need to expand these seats, but we're probably a few years from there (and Banneker's planned expansion plus Coolidge's early college should help). |
Anonymous
| Ah, interesting. Looks like Bard (165 seats) doesn't require the PARCC scores but Coolidge Early College (110 seats) does. So yeah, the gap is effectively 0. |
Anonymous
No. If the student applied to both SWW and Banneker (or SWW, Banneker, Ellington and McKinley) and all schools deemed the student 'admitted' the student would only be matched with teh school they ranked the highest. The student would never know their results for the other 3, and the student would not appear on the WLs. Many students apply to multip,e application schools. When touring SWW in 2017 we met enrolled students who said they tried for Ellington and SWW (SWW was ranked first), and one who applied to Banneker and Walls (ranked Banneker highest but was only admitted to Walls) |
Anonymous
Yes -- although Ellington doesn't require a 4 or 5 on PARCC, just a minimum GPA, Essay and audition. OP also forgot Phelps, which requires a 4 or 5 and is an application school and offers 140 seats. The other unknowable is how many students enter private at 9th or who leae the city. |
Anonymous
|
Phelps is in the OP. Bard was left out.
Agreed that some kids leave DC publics for HS (either to move or go private) but some kids move into the city or leave private schools (certainly I know kids at St. Peter's and CHDS who go to SWW and other public HS). |
Anonymous
| You know private schools' students also apply to SWW and some others, right? |
Anonymous
Sure, but the reverse also happens and the inflow and outflow likely don't have huge systemic impacts. Interestingly, digging into the DCPS data, both McKinley (matched 159) and Phelps (matched 67) significantly undermatched their available seats. DCPS didn't release data for Coolidge early college. |
Anonymous
I would imagine this is due to both limited applicant pool as well as students matching at another school they ranked higher. Washington Leadership Academy PCS should also be in this mix as a high-quality option. They start at 9th and have a pretty strong cohort of students who score 4 and 5 on PARCC, which suggests that some of their students were probably in that 7th-grade pool as well. They offer 110 seats per grade. I happen to know 3 students who lotteried for WLA + SWW and ranked WLA higher, so thus aren't showing up on a SWW WL. |