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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We thought the physical plant at McKinley was great, especially the engineering lab.  The teachers also seemed dedicated and accomplished.

Unfortunately, for us, we were hoping the school was akin to Blair Magnet or TJ, but it is absolutely not anywhere close.  We wish DCPS would transform McKinley into a DC TJ, but that doesn't seem like it will ever happen.

The commute was too much for us as well...if it was located where Walls is located (or anywhere in central DC) then the calculation would have been different[/quote]

There just aren't that many educated/education-pushing households with high school aged kids in DC compared to the TJ or Blair catchment areas.[/quote]

Banneker is the DC TJ[/quote]

This may be the most delusional thing I've read on this very bizarre board! Banneker is great at what it does . But it's not in the same galaxy as TJ. 
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+100. Get real, people. There is not a TJ equivalent in DC. Full stop. [/quote]

There isn't. However, does there really need to be?[/quote]

There are students who could use a top-tier science high school. My DC is one of them.[/quote]

So move and get your DC into a magnet. Then you’ll be on the MoCo or AAP board obsessing over how your “cogat 262” kid did not get admitted or whatever. It ain’t pretty over there.

[b]Walls or Banneker can provide plenty of challenges for a kid who actually is bright and science-focused. [/b](McKinley I think the jury is still out.) DC doesn’t need another selective HS - it needs better MS and ES instruction. [/quote]

Thoughtful suggestion, but we can't move out of DC.

And no, Walls and Banneker do not have sufficient advanced science offerings. J-R is more promising, but then again, it is a neighborhood high school and not the one we are zoned for.

There is no reason that a city the size of DC shouldn't have programs suitable for strong STEM students.  McKinley is the right idea, but it isn't high-level enough for top students.
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Since when do HS students have to have “advanced science offerings” to be able to handle science courses in college? SWW has 4 AP science classes and 3 AP math classes. It also has AP seminar and AP research that can be a platform for a STEM project.

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Does Walls offer those courses consistently? The website says they have to have at least 15 students to offer the course.

And a science-loving student would have no trouble handling college science offerings. But they have little chance of getting in top science colleges (like MIT or CalTech) if they have had no chance to show that they are at all competitive with students from the many, many high schools around the country with strong STEM offerings.[/quote]

That's just not true. I know many people who went to MIT for undergrad (my husband and best friend both went, so I know dozens and dozens of alums) and many of them came from very mediocre -poor public schools in random small towns. They took the hardest classes available to them, got near perfect SATs and were the top student at their school, but it's just not true that you need to go to a pressure cooker suburban high school like TJ to get in and to do well in college.

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Oddly enough, DCPS is not a poor district in a random small town.[/quote]

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