test-in dcps middle school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
After spending time at the school and attending their open houses and other presentations, I don't believe this to be true. It's a mythical story that keeps getting repeated over and over again and that is a disservice to the school.

OK, you tell us why Banneker only enrolls a handful of white kids, a small number of Latinos and no Asian kids at all. Also please present evidence that the school's leadership wants a highly diverse student body enough to fight for it, and a very diverse faculty for that matter. I too have attended open houses and other presentations, coming away dismayed by how much the place resembles an historically black college. What's a disservice to the school is DCPS' being content with the status quo there when the model doesn't promote excellence.

[Anonymous]

Banneker works? Ever met a Banneker student with SATs in the 700s? Banneker is too little, too late for most of their top performers. I quit interviewing Banneker students for my Ivy a few years back, after a decade of commitment, because I wasting my time and coming away from interviews shaking my head, year after year. The most promising students obviously weren't being well served by the system, without much in the way of ES or MS offerings for advanced learners. DCPS doesn't seem to want to face the reality that the best, brightest and most motivated parents and students rarely choose programs that are overwhelmingly black, if they have appealing alternatives, because the country isn't. Sadly, Banneker's leadership, and teaching staff, doesn't seem to want a highly diverse student body, which I see as a disservice to the kids. They aren't know to lobby for change, they merely pay lip service to it occasionally. The school is a throwback to days gone by. I'm looking forward to interviewing AA BASIS seniors in a few years.

Do all ivy league grads go around saying "my ivy" all the time, or is this the same poster who posts ad nauseum about the "decade" of interviewing Wilson and Banneker students who didn't make it into his/her school. I fear that someday my kid will have to talk to this person as he/she doesn't seem very effective in advocating for his/her prospects.

[Anonymous]

Perhaps this has been suggested before, but why not a test-based school which takes the top X number of students from each ward? This would create, essentially, a quota system for race, but race as imbedded in community choice. It would make a very selective entrance for affluent kids and a less selective one for poorer kids, but would allow a mixed population of motivated, smart students. This would be the kind of diversity I would embrace for my kids, if they were smart enough to test in that is!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Banneker works? Ever met a Banneker student with SATs in the 700s? Banneker is too little, too late for most of their top performers. I quit interviewing Banneker students for my Ivy a few years back, after a decade of commitment, because I wasting my time and coming away from interviews shaking my head, year after year. The most promising students obviously weren't being well served by the system, without much in the way of ES or MS offerings for advanced learners. DCPS doesn't seem to want to face the reality that the best, brightest and most motivated parents and students rarely choose programs that are overwhelmingly black, if they have appealing alternatives, because the country isn't. Sadly, Banneker's leadership, and teaching staff, doesn't seem to want a highly diverse student body, which I see as a disservice to the kids. They aren't know to lobby for change, they merely pay lip service to it occasionally. The school is a throwback to days gone by. I'm looking forward to interviewing AA BASIS seniors in a few years.

Do all ivy league grads go around saying "my ivy" all the time, or is this the same poster who posts ad nauseum about the "decade" of interviewing Wilson and Banneker students who didn't make it into his/her school. I fear that someday my kid will have to talk to this person as he/she doesn't seem very effective in advocating for his/her prospects.

Yup pp. DCUM has given me one huge realization over the years - that when my child is applying to college she will NEVER be interviewed by a local alum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
After spending time at the school and attending their open houses and other presentations, I don't believe this to be true. It's a mythical story that keeps getting repeated over and over again and that is a disservice to the school.

OK, you tell us why Banneker only enrolls a handful of white kids, a small number of Latinos and no Asian kids at all. Also please present evidence that the school's leadership wants a highly diverse student body enough to fight for it, and a very diverse faculty for that matter. I too have attended open houses and other presentations, coming away dismayed by how much the place resembles an historically black college. What's a disservice to the school is DCPS' being content with the status quo there when the model doesn't promote excellence.

Sorry but you are way off base and have no evidence of what you're saying. BTW there's nothing wrong with HBCUs. And your last bit is just crazy talk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps this has been suggested before, but why not a test-based school which takes the top X number of students from each ward? This would create, essentially, a quota system for race, but race as imbedded in community choice. It would make a very selective entrance for affluent kids and a less selective one for poorer kids, but would allow a mixed population of motivated, smart students. This would be the kind of diversity I would embrace for my kids, if they were smart enough to test in that is!

This sort of admission process would water down the admission process resulting in a watering down of curriculum most likely since many of the kids would most likely be years behind the others. This is not what many DC parents such as myself are clamoring for. We want a rigorous test-in school with qualified students regardless of race. An objective admission test is race blind.

[Anonymous]

No matter what the test, my kids would Ace it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From those figures on the NYC test-in experience, it goes to show that AAs have absolutely nothing to fear or lose from test-in schools and in fact may benefit greatly from them.

Ha ha - but the NYC specialized schools all use the same test, the SHSAT - what specifically in the SHSAT is the race-based barrier that trips students up?

NP. Nothing other then they are not in the top 3% of test takers which is what is required for admission. Admission is strictly test score based, no interview, recommendations, grades, etc.

Whenever something like this happens, the automatic assumption of some is that there is racial bias in the questions. So tell us, wouldn't there need to be some kind of universal secret non-AA extracurricular enrichment happening outside of school, which teaches the non-AAs how to decipher the code and answer those magic questions correctly? Just how does this grand conspiracy work, EXACTLY?

How do the allegations of bias hold water?

*crickets chirping*

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps this has been suggested before, but why not a test-based school which takes the top X number of students from each ward? This would create, essentially, a quota system for race, but race as imbedded in community choice. It would make a very selective entrance for affluent kids and a less selective one for poorer kids, but would allow a mixed population of motivated, smart students. This would be the kind of diversity I would embrace for my kids, if they were smart enough to test in that is!

This sort of admission process would water down the admission process resulting in a watering down of curriculum most likely since many of the kids would most likely be years behind the others. This is not what many DC parents such as myself are clamoring for. We want a rigorous test-in school with qualified students regardless of race. An objective admission test is race blind.

Do you honestly think there aren't 25 rising 6th graders in all of ward 8 who are qualified to grace a classroom with your child? Please. Just because test scores across the board are bad does not mean there are no kids prepared for a challenge! Bring them in, give them all the kind of curriculum my soon to be cut out of deal kids currently receive at deal and see what you get. Deal raves about their curriculum, and we have loved it. I would like to see how it stands up to the best middle school talent the WHOLE city has to offer, not just us rich kids in NW. Really smart kids catch up remarkably quickly when given the opportunity. I am a charter school teacher and see if every day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps this has been suggested before, but why not a test-based school which takes the top X number of students from each ward? This would create, essentially, a quota system for race, but race as imbedded in community choice. It would make a very selective entrance for affluent kids and a less selective one for poorer kids, but would allow a mixed population of motivated, smart students. This would be the kind of diversity I would embrace for my kids, if they were smart enough to test in that is!

This sort of admission process would water down the admission process resulting in a watering down of curriculum most likely since many of the kids would most likely be years behind the others. This is not what many DC parents such as myself are clamoring for. We want a rigorous test-in school with qualified students regardless of race. An objective admission test is race blind.

Do you honestly think there aren't 25 rising 6th graders in all of ward 8 who are qualified to grace a classroom with your child? Please. Just because test scores across the board are bad does not mean there are no kids prepared for a challenge! Bring them in, give them all the kind of curriculum my soon to be cut out of deal kids currently receive at deal and see what you get. Deal raves about their curriculum, and we have loved it. I would like to see how it stands up to the best middle school talent the WHOLE city has to offer, not just us rich kids in NW. Really smart kids catch up remarkably quickly when given the opportunity. I am a charter school teacher and see if every day.

I am not saying that there are not 25 kids in ward 8 or that I would not want ward 8 kids in my kid's class. I am saying let any DC student who wants to take the test take it and if they pass admit them based on their scores alone and not where they live or go to school. Taking to the top students from every DC school or ward would not guarantee that the top DC students who pass such a test would be admitted.

As for great curricula, I agree it is vital to helping kids. And yes, smart kids can catch up in many cases. However, there are many kids who enter school years behind in vocabulary for instance due to their parents not reading or talking to them at length. I believe preschool should be offered to every child in need to help make up the differences but even then it is a tall order in some cases.

[Anonymous]

but what you could do, since demand would almost certainly outstrip the spots, is have a certain cutoff and then among those choose 20 from each ward, instead of saying just choose the top 150 kids citywide.

That way you are still getting talented kids but you make some allowances for diversity in income and also in unevenness in quality of elementary schools across the city. Yes, kids in high-SES NW would have a smaller chance, but guess what, they have a good option in their backyard!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

OK, you tell us why Banneker only enrolls a handful of white kids, a small number of Latinos and no Asian kids at all.

Banneker can't go out with a net and snare students on foxhall drive. I believe that very few white and asian students actually apply, and that those who apply are also applying to Walls, which is in a much more upscale area of the city, demographics aside.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:but what you could do, since demand would almost certainly outstrip the spots, is have a certain cutoff and then among those choose 20 from each ward, instead of saying just choose the top 150 kids citywide.

That way you are still getting talented kids but you make some allowances for diversity in income and also in unevenness in quality of elementary schools across the city. Yes, kids in high-SES NW would have a smaller chance, but guess what, they have a good option in their backyard!

Again, it would not be OK in my book to water down the admission criteria as you are proposing just for diversity. TJ watered down their admission criteria and the result was that about 30% of the recent freshmen needed remedial math! I am also in favor of improved schools in all wards so the two do not have to be mutually exclusive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps this has been suggested before, but why not a test-based school which takes the top X number of students from each ward? This would create, essentially, a quota system for race, but race as imbedded in community choice. It would make a very selective entrance for affluent kids and a less selective one for poorer kids, but would allow a mixed population of motivated, smart students. This would be the kind of diversity I would embrace for my kids, if they were smart enough to test in that is!

This, is a very interesting idea. Kudos to you, pp.

[Anonymous]

NP: I agree. Really like the top-of-the-wards idea!