I love that Banneker has a culture normed around Black excellence. In shitty times, it’s nice sometimes to see a better future is just waiting to emerge.

My kid’s on a sports team that doesn’t have a ton of participants. They had tryouts but I get the impression that unless they had some massive increase in demand plenty of kids would be welcome on the team.

They practice hard though. I am really impressed by my own kid and how hard the kid works as an athlete, at school, and in doing so much homework. Kid needs slightly better study and sleep habits but otherwise is working very hard and doing very well.

My kid also applied and we visited back in the fall after visiting two private schools. Kid loved both the physical and cultural structure. Lots of my former students graduated from there. They loved it and said they were well prepared for college. Some going so far to say that their freshman years were easy.

Parent of a 9th grader here and she gets plenty of encouragement and space to be creative.

Kids are weirdly supportive of each other. They have typical teenage drama. The homework is no more than I had in HS (about an hour to an hour and a half a night). My kid loves it at Banneker. Sports are tryout and either you make the team or not (cuts?).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The culture is definitely kids who are engaged and want to learn, and teachers who want to help them. But I'd say it is a culture of *compliance* vs. one of creativity or curiosity. As long as your kid is one that culture will work for (follow the rules because we say so and because they are the rules), they will be fine. There's a lot of work, some of it is busywork.

The neighborhood is fine - a few blocks north (around 7th/T) is not great. But at arrival/dismissal time, everything is generally pretty smooth.

+1. Above culture is reinforced by an old school principal. It’s no secret the expectations of compliance.

Same with lots of homework, some of which is busywork.

-1. This line of thought is heavily overplayed by people who just want a different principal.

Anonymous wrote:The culture is definitely kids who are engaged and want to learn, and teachers who want to help them. But I'd say it is a culture of *compliance* vs. one of creativity or curiosity. As long as your kid is one that culture will work for (follow the rules because we say so and because they are the rules), they will be fine. There's a lot of work, some of it is busywork.

The neighborhood is fine - a few blocks north (around 7th/T) is not great. But at arrival/dismissal time, everything is generally pretty smooth.

+1. Above culture is reinforced by an old school principal. It’s no secret the expectations of compliance.

Same with lots of homework, some of which is busywork.

As a parent to a 10th grader, I would absolutely refute the above commenter's suggestion that Banneker breeds a culture of compliance without creativity or curiosity. What an uninformed comment. I'd be deeply shocked if the person making this comment has an actual child enrolled in the school. My experienced perception of Banneker is that the culture is supportive, friendly, fun, curious, socially-minded, and intelligent. And yes, creative. My child adores their teachers, who are inspirational and dedicated. Any time my kid has had an ambition or curiosity, they have found competent and passionate guidance from teachers and collaborators among their friends. There is barely any teacher turnover because they are all lifers, so dedicated to the school's mission. In our experience there has been no bullying, no fights. The school assemblies regularly display the vast array of talent -- dancing, music, tech, athleticism-- that the students possess. Mine rides the Metro to school and has never had a problem.

The culture is definitely kids who are engaged and want to learn, and teachers who want to help them. But I'd say it is a culture of *compliance* vs. one of creativity or curiosity. As long as your kid is one that culture will work for (follow the rules because we say so and because they are the rules), they will be fine. There's a lot of work, some of it is busywork.

The neighborhood is fine - a few blocks north (around 7th/T) is not great. But at arrival/dismissal time, everything is generally pretty smooth.

I live in the neighborhood, walk past the school at the beginning of and end every day and have visited a class there. I see the kids flowing in and out of metro, very calm and orderly, and the kids in the class were remarkably sweet and dutiful. Vibes are good there.

Also parent of current 9th grader, seconding everything in the replies above. To the "less chaotic" question: a couple times this year I needed to go into the school during the day, and I was struck by how absolutely quiet it was in the building -- as it should be, it was during class, but compared to our middle school environment it was kind of amazing to me.

I haven't heard of any physical fights at Banneker this year (first year my kid is there). And there's not an issue with theft.

I haven't heard of any of the meanness or bullying that was an issue in elementary or middle school.

My kid takes the bus to and from school and hasn't had any problems on the bus or in the neighborhood. Interesting characters sometimes on the bus, but nothing that they haven't been able to handle.

Anonymous wrote:The neighborhood is delightful.

The attendance is due to selectiveness and the possibility of being kicked out for bad attendance, but also Banneker is well-served by bus and metro and has kids who are old enough to get to school on their own. You really can't compare that to elementary attendance stats.

Banneker and SWW's attendance rates are far ahead of every DCPS HS in this city. Metro accessibility is not the difference maker.

OP, Banneker also assigns a citizenship grade each quarter which also factors in tardies and absences. Overall, however, it's because its a college prep school so it pulls the kids who want to be in school and will also need recommendation letters down the road. For most kids in the city, HS is as far as it goes.

The neighborhood is delightful.

The attendance is due to selectiveness and the possibility of being kicked out for bad attendance, but also Banneker is well-served by bus and metro and has kids who are old enough to get to school on their own. You really can't compare that to elementary attendance stats.

My kid applied to Banneker. I love the academic focus, sports program seems decent, and clubs look interesting. But what's the culture like? We don't know anyone there so would love some insight.

Our IB high school's chronic absenteeism rate is something like 40%. So, I think it is awesome that Banneker's rate of 10% is one of the lowest in DC. Is that indicative of the day-to-day school environment being less chaotic than some other schools? Kids actually want to go to school? Is it the teachers? Or students being self motivated?

Walls mentioned that they hadn't had a fight in 11 years, which is a stat that they are very proud of. Any bullying or other issues at Banneker?

Any issues with the neighborhood? (I lived in Shaw 20 years ago, and I know a lot has changed since then but it is still not terrific in terms of street crime.)

Are sport teams try out or no-cut?

Thank you