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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]NP.  Kind of amazing how much harder Banneker is to get into this year than just two or three years back.  I don't remember reading this kind of angst-ridden thread about Banneker admissions before, at least not in the several years since the renovation opened up a bunch more spots.  [/quote]

More central location is a big reason. Throw in private school tuition increases, higher mortgage rates, etc. and this is what happens. Hopefully the same for McKinley Tech! [/quote]

I do not see this happening for McKinley Tech unfortunately [/quote]

Not sure why you would say this.  McKinley Tech had the same type of reputation now that Banneker had a few years ago.  Good word on the street.  Impressive test scores.  This year, lots of kids aren't getting interviews for Banneker who would have gotten in any other year.  Some of them will go to McKinley Tech rather than spend 180K on privates.  Some of those kids will be white.  They'll join the growing number of white kids who are already there and boom, five years from now, the conversation is quite different than it is now.  I wouldn't be shocked if the conversation were pretty different next year even.[/quote]

I agree with this. We live walking distance from McKinley and are already hearing murmurings about this, and for the first time I know a UMC family whose kid enrolled this year. I have kids in upper elementary and would be thrilled if McKinley was talked about the way Banneker currently is when the time comes.[/quote

I would be thrilled too but I don’t see much happening with McKinley Tech. Maybe I am jaded as I have been around DCPS a very long time. DCPS middle schools in general are pretty bad. They don’t do a good job educating kids so there are not enough high performing students to spread out between Walls, Banneker, JR, MacArthur and  McKinley Tech. That is one reason they had to get rid of the Walls test. The test was not particularly hard. It was just there to ensure kids entering Walls were at least ready for grade level work (nothing exceptional). But most kids in the city were shut out because our middle schools are so weak. And McKinley Tech can’t do much advanced STEM if kids are coming in with a weak math and science foundation. That is the depressing reality in DC[/quote]

What's different now is that there are charter middle schools and more kids who have stayed in DC instead of moving to the suburbs for a variety of reasons. Interest rates being one of them.  Inspired teaching moved to two full classes (50 graduates each year).  DC International is full now.  Most of the kids who graduated from those schools would have left the city, gone to private or worked their way into the JR stream in past years.  We are seeing the fruition of many years of work by many schools to create a better reality for middle school.  The reality is changing, and, no, it's not mostly about DCPS, but there are more kids who are not zoned for JR staying in DC now.  [/quote]

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