If your kid is very motivated and extremely bright s/he will be fine and probably thrive in DC. However, as pp mentioned, for an average student I believe Berhesda would offer a better opportunities. It is easy to fall through the cracks in DCPS. DCPS focuses on the very smart and the remedial.

Anonymous wrote:For your average student a Bethesda
Education will be far greater than that in DC.

100% true. ReallygGood teachers (and I am not talking about the popular ones) usually don't stay long in charters.

It is not a black and white question. Where do you want to live? How important is diversity to you? Etc

West of the Park (Rock Creek)

What does FARM mean

Anonymous wrote:What does WTOP mean?

I mean WOTP

What does WTOP mean?

For your average student a Bethesda
Education will be far greater than that in DC.

Anonymous wrote:@21:59, your comments on Banneker are not supported by the SAT scores at Banneker, or by the experience of 05:12 in interviewing Bannker students.

Studies have shown that SAT scores have more to do with income than ability. I used to have a very high level job in the DC school system and know that Banneker actually sends quite a few students to the ivys, on full rides at that. Banneker also has the IB program. I think the fact that my son has 2 highly educated parents, the chances are that he is going to do well any where he goes. I graduated from one of these highly decorated schools and looking back, it was no better than any other school. Kids got into MIT and Yale from Banneker last year.

@21:59, your comments on Banneker are not supported by the SAT scores at Banneker, or by the experience of 05:12 in interviewing Bannker students.

Lumping Banneker and SWW together is awful. SWW is a crappy school that had a period in which it was pretty good academically, but has fallen from that. It still is okay, probably on the same level Wilson is ok, if you have a motivated student who can generally get the material they can succeed and end up going somewhere, while the general population stagnates. The reason all of the graduating seniors go to college is that SWW has relationships with mediocre colleges such as Temple, Pittsburgh, etc that counts for something.

Banneker is a solid magnet that consistently churns out graduates who are able and willing to work. They might not be the richest, or the most 'likely' to succeed, but they got a steller education and are motivated. Banneker is the best public in the city, Walls is a school that desperately wants to be the best, but will never manage to be.

Thanks 5:12. Any comments on how SWW and Banneker compares with non test in suburban high school in MoCo or Fairfax. The SATs and APs taken by kids at SWW and Banneker sounds like any mediocre high school in the US and they score average or less than even those and their college admissions reflect that.

"I am the second poster with kids who've gone to school in MoCo and DC. I don't agree that the middle and high schools named are not as good. SWW and Banneker are absolutely as good. Again, the difference is demographics. Therefore, if you look at SAT scores, they are going to be lower. However, if you look at where the students attend college, the lists look about the same."

PPs think this is true, but it isn't, at least not when you compare the best suburban test-in academic magnets to the best DCPS selective admissions high schools. I used to work on the admissions committee at an Ivy and stay in the loop with former colleagues. SWW and Banneker get very few into Ivies, Little Ivies like Amherst and Williams, top technical schools like MIT, and the US military academies compared to suburban magnets like TJ and Blair.

The diffrence isn't just demographics, it's weaker teaching and lack of accelerated/GT programs, and serious differentiation, before the AP level. Top DCPS, and now Washington Latin, high school kids tend to take a handful of AP classes, scoring 3s and maybe 4s, and get 600s on SATs, vs. suburban kids who take double the number of AP classes, score mostly 5s and 700s, or even perfect 800s, on SATs. There are always a few exceptions but not nearly as many as parents tend to think. For example, Harvard usually takes 1-2 per year DCPS wide, vs. half a dozen from some suburban schools. Banneker's SAT scores aren't just a little bit lower, they're below or near the national average, in the low 500s. I did a lot of interviewing there until recently and burned out on the weak prep. A real disgrace.

Anonymous wrote:Hearst and Hyde are over 15% FARMS,
Eaton and Stoddert are just below 15%

Yes but those schools aren't the only ones WOTP.

Hearst and Hyde are over 15% FARMS,
Eaton and Stoddert are just below 15%