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[quote=Anonymous][quote]PP, how do BCC and Wilson compare? SWW is an application only school and if you live in the Wilson area there is no guarantee that your child would get into SWW. A better comparison would be SWW and, say, Richard Montgomery application-only IB program. I have heard from a current parent that Wilson only allows the top 5% of the grade to take "honors" classes, whereas BCC doesn't gate-keep honors classes (as far as I understand).[/quote]

There is no gate keeping at Wilson for honors and AP classes.  This info comes directly from Pete Cahill, the current Principal.  Students chose which level they want to take based on interest and willingness to work.  Wilson, like most other schools nationwide, has felt the pressure of such things as school challenge rankings to encourage as many students as possible to take high level classes and their corresponding exams.  At SWW all students take AP.  At both schools, Wilson and SWW, the "pass" rates (score of 3 out of five or better) for AP exams is 40%, i.e. SWW does no better than Wilson to prepare students for AP exams, and both schools lag FAR below MD and VA pass rates in the upper 80-90% range.  This means that, if they go to SWW or Wilson, my three kids would be in AP classes where in a 25 student class, only ten students will manage to pass the AP test.  I cannot help but fear that a classroom environment with this dynamic would be a bad place for an advanced student.  It makes me sad because I loved Wilson on my various visits there and found the students with whom I spoke both sincere and articulate.  I had the experience myself of attending a very inferior public MS and HS and then Yale (I was first from my public ever to attend), and I really don't want my kids to have the same weak preparation for college and life that I had.[/quote]

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