Reply to Student Stratification at Selective High Schools

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[quote=Anonymous]This is true in the DC context but needn't be. Fact is, poor preparation across underperforming middle schools hasn't emerged as an insurmountable political obstacle to the creation of socioeconomically and racially diverse but high performing HS magnets in other East Coast cities. What NYC and Boston do is run free magnet high school exam test prep centers city wide.  With the centers, if you're an ambitious and talented HS student in an underperforming middle school in those cities, and you can get yourself to test prep in your borough regularly, you can catch up. You can even have a shot at scoring high enough on the HS magnet entrance exam to get a spot. Without an entrance exam to Walls to prep for, or a standardized test score you can submit with your application, let alone taxpayer furnished test prep, poor kids generally can't compete with more affluent peers. Case in point: many colleges that went test optional during Covid have figured that that one of the best ways to help poor kids compete in admissions is to reinstate mandatory SAT or ACT scores.  DCPS could follow the colleges lead in admitting that it's difficult to identify HS magnet talent without objective measures of student progress on an application.  A little political bravery, pragmatism and good planning could go a long way in putting Walls on track to become as high performing as suburban magnets.  The sad part, we have the students, the talent, the drive and the resources as a city to much aim higher than the Walls status quo, just not the leadership.
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