Reply to Talk to me about McKinley

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][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.

[b]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.[/b]  [/quote]

This is true for a lot of the so called "bright" kids parents mention here. If a kid wants it, they'll put the work in and get there. There is more than one path to successful. I've hired a few McKinley grads in the Cyber field. All were great and very professional. [/quote]

This is a fantasy. The vast majority of kids in fact need the structure of teachers teaching the content, reinforced through regular homework and tests. When people claim “oh, your kid doesn’t need actual high-level teaching if they are smart!” I really raise an eyebrow. What they really mean is they believe their child doesn’t actually need to make any efforts in MS or HS because they believe they are “naturally gifted”. But at some point this wears off and kids in fact do need to be directly challenged. [/quote]

Yeah. It's BS to say that bright kids are only allowed to reach their potential if they also happen to be  blessed with early-onset executive function, but we'll pull out all stops to support average and struggling students.

It's total BS, and yet it's DCPS's philosophy.

All students deserve actual teaching and appropriate challenge and structure.[/quote]

It’s not just executive function, but also the content of the curriculum & teaching that matter. I am very perplexed by people who seem to think that kids should be able to teach themselves. [/quote]

Do you have evidence that the content in McKinley classes is not high enough level to enable a well prepared student, intelligent student, or average executive functioning to learn and master content?  Evidence provided earlier in the thread was that some McKinley students are scoring 4 and 5 in AP’s by completing the given work without outside tutoring to supplement the classroom teacher’s instruction.  Doesn’t that suggest classes are taught at a high enough level and that the teachers are teaching?  Does anyone knocking McKinley know a student at McKinley who scored a 1 or 2 but you are convinced would have scored higher had they attended walls?  [/quote]

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