Anonymous wrote:At the risk of opening a can of worms, I am opening this thread again, now that this year's interviews are happening in 1-2 weeks.

Can anyone share what prompts were given last year for the essay? We are trying to get our daughter to practice her writing and having a slight idea of what to write about would be great. Also, are these short essays? 200 words or so?

Thanks!

My son’s essay prompt last year was “Does technology make you smarter.”
You get a full page and can use the back of the page to organize your ideas.

At the risk of opening a can of worms, I am opening this thread again, now that this year's interviews are happening in 1-2 weeks.

Can anyone share what prompts were given last year for the essay? We are trying to get our daughter to practice her writing and having a slight idea of what to write about would be great. Also, are these short essays? 200 words or so?

Thanks!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Performance on tests has more to do with how much money parents have to invest in test prep. That is definitely not fair considering the large population in DC that is low-income. This approach only benefits wealthy white parents.

People keep saying this, and while tests are correlated with parental income, they’re the indicator that’s least correlated with parental income.

You know test and academic performance is most closely correlated with? Trying really hard. In every school I ever attended, the kids who did the best weren't necessarily the rich kids. It was the kids who studied their asses off. This nonsense about how test-prep-is-destiny is so tiresome.

All the rich kids at mediocre colleges are proof of this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Performance on tests has more to do with how much money parents have to invest in test prep. That is definitely not fair considering the large population in DC that is low-income. This approach only benefits wealthy white parents.

People keep saying this, and while tests are correlated with parental income, they’re the indicator that’s least correlated with parental income.

You know test and academic performance is most closely correlated with? Trying really hard. In every school I ever attended, the kids who did the best weren't necessarily the rich kids. It was the kids who studied their asses off. This nonsense about how test-prep-is-destiny is so tiresome.

Honestly if a test were a perfect predictor of intelligence (g or whatever) and it were uncorrelated with parental income that would mean there would be no returns to intelligence and we would have much bigger problems

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Performance on tests has more to do with how much money parents have to invest in test prep. That is definitely not fair considering the large population in DC that is low-income. This approach only benefits wealthy white parents.

People keep saying this, and while tests are correlated with parental income, they’re the indicator that’s least correlated with parental income.

You know test and academic performance is most closely correlated with? Trying really hard. In every school I ever attended, the kids who did the best weren't necessarily the rich kids. It was the kids who studied their asses off. This nonsense about how test-prep-is-destiny is so tiresome.

Anonymous wrote:Performance on tests has more to do with how much money parents have to invest in test prep. That is definitely not fair considering the large population in DC that is low-income. This approach only benefits wealthy white parents.

People keep saying this, and while tests are correlated with parental income, they’re the indicator that’s least correlated with parental income.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just moved to DC. Why isn't it just like NYC stuyvesant nd bronx: everybody who wants to take test does and top scores get in?

Because of racial politics (not a normative statement, just an obvious descriptive one) and the makeup of the city council.

Perhaps there are laws that make it difficult to use non-academic criteria for admission, but it seems to me you could structure test-in in politically palatable ways. For example:

- 20% equitable access set aside

- Top 5 test takers from each DCPS middle school get automatic admission

I like the second approach because I think ultimately it could help increase buy-in to DCPS middle schools, which would improve the educational experience there even for kids who don't ultimately get into Walls.

This worked really well in Texas for the universities, and made the satellite universities a lot better

PP, originally from Texas. Must have been thinking of Texas university admissions subconsciously when I proposed that ...

Looking at more closely at student enrollment, you could give automatic admission to roughly 3% of 8th graders at each DCPS middle/education campus and fill about half of the Walls freshman class.

Anonymous wrote:Performance on tests has more to do with how much money parents have to invest in test prep. That is definitely not fair considering the large population in DC that is low-income. This approach only benefits wealthy white parents.

Performance on tests has something to do with how much money parents invest in test prep, but so does GPA, essay writing, and how you present in interviews. The fact is that kids whose parents have money have a lot of advantages in most areas. But top colleges are moving away from test-optional because it turns out that standardized tests are actually a pretty good way to predict who will do best at the school. DC can mitigate some of the skew by providing free and low-cost test prep to eligible students (as they do in NYC).

Performance on tests has more to do with how much money parents have to invest in test prep. That is definitely not fair considering the large population in DC that is low-income. This approach only benefits wealthy white parents.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t see why DCPS “should” do it. There is a big Asian lobby in NYC that advocates for test-based admissions. There is no similar lobby in DC. Both school systems have policies that reflect local priorities. Another example is, NYC doesn’t have any by-right neighborhood high schools. Are you saying DC should get rid of those too? Just to be more like NYC?

Honestly McKinley should go to a test based admission. Banneker and Walls have constituencies that would probably successfully resist this, but McKinley is built to be a test in school.

That is not the population the Mayor wants at McKinley. If McKinley moved to a test based admission, the passing score would be set so low it would be meaningless.

A test at McKinley wouldn’t be remotely meaningless. In an uncertain admissions environment, using a math exam with a low passing score at McKinley would ensure that kids doing grade-level work or better aren’t stranded in severely underperforming high schools.

But that's happening right now. McKinley prefers to admit students that have a 3.0 GPA, requires a math teacher recommendation, and completion of an onsite essay. It takes in students from a variety of schools across the District.

All of those criteria are much less informative than performance on a standardized test.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just moved to DC. Why isn't it just like NYC stuyvesant nd bronx: everybody who wants to take test does and top scores get in?

Because of racial politics (not a normative statement, just an obvious descriptive one) and the makeup of the city council.

Perhaps there are laws that make it difficult to use non-academic criteria for admission, but it seems to me you could structure test-in in politically palatable ways. For example:

- 20% equitable access set aside

- Top 5 test takers from each DCPS middle school get automatic admission

I like the second approach because I think ultimately it could help increase buy-in to DCPS middle schools, which would improve the educational experience there even for kids who don't ultimately get into Walls.

This worked really well in Texas for the universities, and made the satellite universities a lot better

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there any evidence that these gifted programs are necessary or that they produce genuine innovators or scholars?

I went to an HYP with lots of kids from Stuyvesant and Lowell. Do some have impressive outcomes? Sure. More impressive than the kids who were just the smart kid at the local public high school? Nope.

My kid is currently in DCPS high school — this is a very Pollyanna view of what it means to attend a poorly performing urban high school.

Sure but did you go to HYP?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the Walls admissions process, does it matter what classes you take? For example, does it matter if you take Algebra vs. regular math?

Do they see the students grades by term or just the year-end grade?

Classes don't matter. Only the final GPA matters.

Exactly why GPA is a silly way to do this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t see why DCPS “should” do it. There is a big Asian lobby in NYC that advocates for test-based admissions. There is no similar lobby in DC. Both school systems have policies that reflect local priorities. Another example is, NYC doesn’t have any by-right neighborhood high schools. Are you saying DC should get rid of those too? Just to be more like NYC?

Honestly McKinley should go to a test based admission. Banneker and Walls have constituencies that would probably successfully resist this, but McKinley is built to be a test in school.

That is not the population the Mayor wants at McKinley. If McKinley moved to a test based admission, the passing score would be set so low it would be meaningless.

A test at McKinley wouldn’t be remotely meaningless. In an uncertain admissions environment, using a math exam with a low passing score at McKinley would ensure that kids doing grade-level work or better aren’t stranded in severely underperforming high schools.

But that's happening right now. McKinley prefers to admit students that have a 3.0 GPA, requires a math teacher recommendation, and completion of an onsite essay. It takes in students from a variety of schools across the District.

Anonymous wrote:For the Walls admissions process, does it matter what classes you take? For example, does it matter if you take Algebra vs. regular math?

Do they see the students grades by term or just the year-end grade?

Classes don't matter. Only the final GPA matters.