Reply to Talk to me about McKinley

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]McKinley is NOT trying to be TJ or Bronx school of science and failing.  It is trying to be McKinley Tech and succeeding.  It is a school accepting of motivated students of varied levels of prior preparation and achievement with a range of opportunities to explore interest in and (for some areas) earn industry certifications in STEM areas. It offers a lot of help landing field specific internships and in engineering very strong extracurricular offerings (I.e. robot and EV car teams that travel nationally and internationally).  It is a place that both celebrates the student who through hard work earns a 2 on an AP and the achievement of a stronger student who earns a 5.  It also provides exposure to STEM fields that can help both a student going to colllege immediately and a student who isn’t.  For example in biotech students prepare for the BACE exam that certified lab techs.  This provides a straight out of HS pathway to a decently paying job, exposure to topics that will help in college level lab science classes, and a pathway to a non-scut work college work study job or college internship.  It is OK to wish for a TJ style school in DC but please do not fault McKinley for not being what it has no intention of being.

If your student is incredibly lazy and will do a minimum amount of work and not reach their potential if not surrounded by mostly above grade level students then maybe they won’t thrive at McKinley.  But if you have a strong student academically that will work hard McKinley will provide challenge for them to excel.  [/quote]

The tyranny of low expectations shines through in yet another rose-colored-glasses post about McKinley giving DCPS a pass on failing to support ES and MS GT challenge for top talent and performers in the system, particularly low SES minority kids.

Sure, DCPS has no intention of bothering to try to compete with suburban and NYC public school talent and ambition. At least you got one thing right.[/quote]

I get it.  You want a school for high academically performing gifted students and that doesn’t exist in DC.  Why though is it bad to have a school catering to students of diverse academic strengths but interest in science and technology.  My relative for example was a middling student with an interest in math at a large suburban HS.  Went in to a middling college.  Got a job doing database administration and is making mid-100,000 salary.  They would have loved to tech exposure at McKinley but would not have tested into a program like TJ.  Why is an option for students like that horrible?[/quote]

+1. Kids who work hard should have good high school options regardless of how strong they are academically. McKinley is not why there is no TJ option in DC, and even if there were, it would still be desirable to have McKinley. [/quote]

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