Reply to Why is Washington Latin MS now a Tier 2 school?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]What is a STEM kid, and why can't they attend Latin?[/quote]

STEM = science, technology, engineering, math.

Middle schoolers at Basis are required to do 9 hours of science (3 bio, 3 chem, 3 physics) each week. That's more than is available at Washington Latin. A kid who knows he/she is interested in science could certainty go to either school but Basis kids have to take more science. [/quote]

it is actually much less about the science for us than the math - which is an absolutely fundamental building block for advanced science classes in Physics and Chemistry, but it is cool to have kids who like science able to take so much of it in middle school, and get into a tracked science class starting in 8th grade...........

Washington Latin requires its students to take [b]Algebra I for 7th and 8th grade.[/b]

At Basis, if your kid is really good at math and likes it, they can take Algebra I in 5th or 6th grade.  There are only 13 or so kids doing that this year in 5th, and there are some kids who won't take Calculus until they are seniors, and that is fine as well (I think it is a graduation requirement), but kids who are good at math would get really turned off by two years of Algebra I.  Heck I would have been and I am not even very good at math.  I don't know of any other school that has this weird set up - they have "enrichment" for the kids who like math at Latin, but not advancement the way I understand it.

I know there are kids at Deal in 8th in Algebra II, and kids at Walls in 9th in Pre Calculus - at the pace Latin sets if you have to take Geometry, Algebra II and pre-calculus you at most would graduate with AP Calculus AB under your belt - and that is really unfair to kids who want to place out of Calculus entirely before they go to college and just get on with science.  But I think Washington Latin is pretty up front about it.  And Latin parents feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

I love the fact that all these charters are providing so many more options - from Latin typical liberal arts/slow math to Basis technically "rigorous liberal arts" but in fact possibly really advanced math, and then all the language immersion schools........ that are all starting to go through 12th.

Because given the wait lists at Latin and McKinley Tech, if these two schools were the only game in town for kids who do not have Deal or Hardy as an option and no way to get to Wilson, MS options would just all around stink, DCPS seems intent on destroying Walls, and Banneker parents themselves admit that high school is too late for a real STEM education.  Variety and more and more options and a somewhat free market (more charters = more competition) is how we pull ourselves out of this hole IMO. DCPS has had the chance to function for years and they have blown it.[/quote]

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