Reply to Intresting Idea! Wilson as a test in Magnet

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]DC already has six application-only high schools -- Banneker, CHEC, Ellington, McKinley, Phelps and Walls. There are probably already too many for the size of the public school population.

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None are test in.[/quote]

Define test-in. Ellington and Walls have admissions tests, they all have admissions requirements. [/quote]

Yes, but Walls uses a rather easy admissions test combined with an interview to screen candidates.  In NYC, Boston, Chicago, Dallas and other US cities, affirmative action doesn't undergird admissions to the top test-in HS magnets to nearly the same extent as in DC.  
The admissions tests are much tougher elsewhere, and interviews are seldom part of the process  (because interviews giving screeners a tool to identify and favor minority applicants in the process).

The conversation about revamping Walls' admissions system is an awkward one the city shouldn't shy away from. I'd like to see low and moderate-income AA and Latino applicants benefit from much stronger MS academics, and support at city-run magnet test prep centers providing free test prep to all comers (as in Boston and NYC), to help them compete with more affluent applicants.  To some extent, BASIS' MS has begun providing the service.

As things stand, minority applicants to Walls are sometimes given a pass to attend ahead of better prepared white applicants, an arrangement that lends itself to litigation.  Sooner or later, a white family whose strong applicant failed to clear the Walls admissions bar, or a group of them, is going to sue.  Once Trump gets an affirmative action-hostile justice onto the SC, the lower courts will be less likely to uphold affirmative action-based admissions at any level (public test-in ES, MS, HS, competitive admissions universities and colleges).  The change won't be lost on potential DC plaintiffs and their lawyers.  Better to move to address the problem than to wait for the courts to get involved.

Banneker's admissions system also leaves a lot to be desired.  No test involved. [/quote]

The Walls test is testing 8th graders on Algebra I and Geometry. How is that "easy"?[/quote]

The Walls admission test using 8th grade common core standards. And how do you know the test is easy?  How do you know the students who passed the test didn't do just that? I am honestly curious but also a little concerned that the implication is that the students didn't pass the test on their own merit.[/quote]

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