Reply to Talk to me about McKinley

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "Talk to me about McKinley"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Different students apply to McKinley than Walls. Students from Ward 7 and 8, which make up a big part of the McKinley student body, are not applying to Walls, or at least they weren't a couple of years ago:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/school-without-walls-admissions-test-diversity/2021/08/27/6959cec2-0293-11ec-a664-4f6de3e17ff0_story.html

“It could be that our families have gotten wind that certain schools are not for them, or not supportive of them,” said Carlene Reid, the Ward 8 representative on the D.C. State Board of Education. “I would not trust to put my child in a school that has systemically shut out students from Ward 8.”[/quote]

“Different” in the sense that they could not be admitted to Walls for academic reasons, but could be admitted to McKinley.

Look, I have a privileged white kid who likely would not have gotten into Walls with the prior more selective criteria, but could get into McKinley. No shame in admitting that![/quote]

Test scores haven't been used since prior to COVID. The current criteria are GPA, recommendation letter, interview, and writing sample. It is entirely unclear how SWW is implementing any of those besides GPA, and there are kids with high GPAs who are going to McKinley. You have no idea if they could get admitted and neither do they. They are not applying *because they do not want to go*. [/quote]

as I wrote, he would not have gotten in under the “prior, more selective criteria.” I still think nobody is choosing McKinley over Walls (or Banneker) but feel free to show me data or anecdotes. also not sure why OP or anyone is defensive about this. It’s all part of the picture in understanding the schools. [/quote]

I definitely think there are kids choosing McKinley over Walls.  If you are interested in taking STEM classes in HS and are not inbounds for JR, then McKinley offers much more than Walls.  Also, there are definitely many kids that live in parts of DC where McKinley is much more convenient than Walls.

Upper NW DC kids are not choosing McKinley over Walls because they are in bound for JR which offers more STEM classes, ECs and APs than McKinley.  That said, if those are their interests, they are not choosing Walls either.[/quote]

Do you know this or just “think” this? And where can I compare the AP classes available at McKinley v Walls?[/quote]

AP classes are not the appropriate comparison.  Most STEM classes in engineering and otherwise have no AP offered by College Board.  McKinley does offer AP Computer Science Principals and AP CSA which Walls does not provide.  Are you seriously asking where you can compare the AP classes....go to each school's website and look at their AP offerings...it is not hard to find.
[/quote]

What I actually did is compare the AP pass rates and the overall PARCC scores. McKinley might be a decent option for kids who cannot get into Walls or Banneker but I still have a very hard time believing that anyone would pick it over Walls or Banneker just to take a CS class (presumably with the 75% of classmates who can’t pass PARCC math).

I say this as a parent with a kid currently enrolled in a DCPS T1 school.  It’s quite clear as of 6th grade that academics need to pick up the pace eventually. I’m not totally ruling out McKinley but definitely would never place it above Walls or Banneker. [/quote]

My kid originally ranked Banneker over McKinley Tech then changed it after both of his interviews. He is now attending McKinley Tech. [/quote]

What made him change his mind? My DS would probably do the same, frankly because Banneker would be too
much work for him. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics