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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It is starting to be more than a handful at EH recently.  EH also offers math and ELA acceleration.  Similar story at SH.  People with bright kids do sometimes turn down Basis to instead just try these schools.  It is somewhat hard to believe unless you have a child there or you have otherwise recently taken a hard look at these schools.[/quote]

As has been discussed on here on many threads, the nuance that is missed in many of these broad sweeping conversations about good/bad schools is the huge achievement gaps that are important to understand when looking at the city to understand the big picture. But when the schools scores are lumped together and an average score is presented, IMO it at the very least makes it harder to understand what is really happening at a school. Many people on these threads talk about the importance of having a cohort of peers achieving at higher levels, which many of these middle schools do. Ideally everybody at a school would be achieving at higher levels, but we have a long ways to go to reaching that and is worth of a whole separate discussion about how we can get there as a city.

If you look at sub groups at some of these schools being discussed (SH or EH for example) you will see they match or outperform their peers in the same subgroups across the city. As a parent who has a now 7th grader at one of those schools, I can say that there are assignments and teachers that push them, and options for more advanced courses. I also know there are kids who cannot or choose not to complete the assignments at the same level, but I know that in each of my child's classes there are a large number of kids who are doing the work, getting pushed to think one step further, doing well on class and standardized tests, etc. And for those who are thinking about the high school long game, kids from these schools get into SWW, Banneker, McKinley, privates, and increasingly the EPIC program at Eastern (TBD how much traction that picks up)

All that to say, there are options for academically advanced kids at more than just a handful of schools in this city, and there are many families at these schools by choice (in addition to the ones there b/c they didn't win a lottery a few years ago). [/quote]

I totally believe you about the middle schools. But the selective admissions high schools are so random in terms of who they let in, it's not something to count on. So the middle school decision is at least partly about, if you don't get in, are you comfortable with Eastern or are you able to pay for private school?[/quote]

The selective high schools are NOT that random. Only Walls is. If your kid (on grade level) could be happy at Banneker or McKinley or Walls, you will get a spot at one of the 3.[/quote]

They have very similar admissions process. None of them look at whether you are on grade level. You could strike out at all three. [/quote]

Look, I’ve been though the high school process with two kids in the past couple years and watched where their friends applied and matched. If your kid has a 3.0 and does the admission process, they will get a slot at Banneker, McKinley, or Walls. I agree with you that the process descriptions are similar, but the actual outcomes and the way the schools run them is different.[/quote]

I want to think this is the case because it would help my kid a lot right now if we knew that, but there were parents who posted last year whose kids struck out. Also, how could they run them differently? There are a lot more kids with a 3.0 and who want admissions than there are slots. [/quote]

I'll say this. My kid attends one of the 3 schools and I agree with PP that your kid will likely end up at one of the schools. That said, there are a few [i]really[/i] entitled parents at our school who leave me wondering how that works out down the road when their kids are in need of recommendation letters. Their kids tend to be entitled as well. Who knows how that plays out in LORs or interviews.

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