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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I know you believe it is mediocre, but what should we do about the applicant pool? McKinley Tech does seem reasonably aligned with the student body that it is likely to get. It feels like the "it should be Bronx Science" people wouldn't send their kids there anyway, since it's not close enough to Ward 3 anyway.[/quote]

I think parents actually would send them for the “Bronx Science” equivalent…but you have to start from scratch.

You can’t transition the current McKinley to that type of school because you won’t get the first Bronx Science class filled if there is still 3 years of the old McKinley.

So…how you actually make it happen is quite tricky. [/quote]

Hear me out, what if little by little more high performing students start attending, pulled by the excellent teaching and atmosphere, and pushed by the fact that it's getting harder and harder to get into J.R., SWW and Banneker.  The percentage of high performing students goes from 5% to 10% to 15%, etc. over the course of say, 10 years and then within a decade you have school with 50% high performing students.  I think that would be a good outcome, don't you?

That's what the Magnet high school I attended did.  We never had more than a cohort of, say 50% high performing kids.  It may even have been 30%.  And it was plenty to serve as a critical mass and it even served as a pressure cooker environment.  Which, from my perspective, isn't a great thing but it did push me to perform to get a higher rank.  To me, this kind of school would serve our school and our city well.  And it's quite possible that this is where McKinley is headed if it keeps attracting good leadership, teachers and students.[/quote]

Good luck with that. People have been making the same argument for the last 25 years or longer. And here we are—[/quote]

It's interesting that you would argue that DC schools haven't changed in 25 years.  I would argue that they have changed quite a bit.  In 2002, 15% of the District's students attended Charter Schools.  Now, that number is more than double the number it was at in 2007.  The number of students in the school system as a whole has grown by about that same number.  Charter schools are "growing the pie" of students who stay in DC for education.

That can be seen clearly in the district's own statistics.
https://osse.dc.gov/release/osse-announces-audited-dc-enrollment-numbers-2022-23-school-year

It makes sense that as charter high schools are now basically impossible to get into after 5th grade, (DCI was once an option to enter into at High School), and as SWW no longer considers test scores, some students will have made it all the way through middle school in public schools in DC but find their zoned high school to be unacceptable.  To be honest, unless you're attending JR, who wouldn't find their zoned high school unacceptable?

[b]The conversation around both Banneker and SWW has changed significantly in the last few years.  Both are seen as good options and competitive.  [/b]

I'm just saying that, when you've been reading this board for over a decade like I have, you notice that how schools are talked about changes.  I think it's more likely than not that McKinley Tech will attract more high performing students.  And if they can educate them well (which I believe they can) then that's a good thing.

Whether or not the word on the street or conversation on this board will change is another matter.  [/quote]

Please note that you’re only speaking for white people with that statement. I’m black, went to HYPS undergrad, and there were at least 10 kids from Banneker in the BSU. [/quote]

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