"Nobody's arguing that no DCPS kid EVER makes the grade. The WaPo likes to publish a list of which area schools get kids into Harvard each year and the normal intake from DCPS, system-wide, is 1."

One is sad. But, take heart, now we've got Latin and Basis to turn it all around! We'll beat TJ and Blair by 2018, at the latest...

Anonymous wrote:I do like a funny Ivy interviewer.

As another Ivy interviewer I think you are waaaayyyy off. My take usually is that the mediocre children from the privates tend to think they should get in based on their private and/or parent connection. This is just the next step in their predicted life. I like interviewing the DCPS kids. I am always amazed at what they bring to the table. Many have been in the trenches (along with their parents) and it is amazing how resourceful they can be. It is nice to interview the kid who hasn't done language immersion or CTY camps. I can name the kids I have given high recommendations to from DCPS. The ones from the privates, of which there are more, I can't even remember.

Princeton interviewer. Don't get me wrong, I like and admire most of the DCPS kids I interview (or did, before I quit). I've given many high recommendations myself. I've even called the admissions office asking them to help various promising FARMs kids afford to visit NJ and sometimes got help to bus them up. They just don't get in, other than maybe one in two dozen. Do yours?

Anonymous wrote:The ones I know from wilson got 700+ on the SATs and 4s and 5s on AP exams.

I was a guidance counselor at a DCPS school for a few years before returning to a private. My DC starts at Brent shortly.

Nobody's arguing that no DCPS kid EVER makes the grade. The WaPo likes to publish a list of which area schools get kids into Harvard each year and the normal intake from DCPS, system-wide, is 1. The intake just from TJ in a given year is half a dozen. Also true of Sidwell and the Blair math-science magnet. Stuyvesant HS in NYC, where 1/3 of the kids are FARMs, gets the most into Harvard of any school in the country year after year, around 40. Of course NYC has a much bigger population than DC, but 40 from a single school there vs. 1 from all public schools here?

The Ivies, other than Cornell, now turn away at least 3/4 of applicants with at least one perfect SAT/800. At least one third of applicants score 750+ on all sections, which you hardly ever see at Wilson, SWW, Banneker.

I do like a funny Ivy interviewer.

As another Ivy interviewer I think you are waaaayyyy off. My take usually is that the mediocre children from the privates tend to think they should get in based on their private and/or parent connection. This is just the next step in their predicted life. I like interviewing the DCPS kids. I am always amazed at what they bring to the table. Many have been in the trenches (along with their parents) and it is amazing how resourceful they can be. It is nice to interview the kid who hasn't done language immersion or CTY camps. I can name the kids I have given high recommendations to from DCPS. The ones from the privates, of which there are more, I can't even remember.

Anonymous wrote: Plenty of "good" public and private schools in DMV turn out their share of mediocre students.

Anonymous wrote:Princeton interviewer here again. Yes, DC privates do turn out their share of average kids. I've interviewed a good many from Sidwell, Georgetown Day, St. Albans, NCS etc. who were out of their league, and some TJ and Blair magnet kids. But the difference between them and the top DCPS kids is that they tend to know it; they consider Ivies long shots because they rub shoulders with more academic classmates, e.g. Siemens finalists and kids with perfect SAT scores. The DCPS kids turn up at interviews convinced by adults that they're in the running mainly because they're the cream of the crop at public schools, even if their SAT scores are in the 600s (without being nationally ranked HS athletes), and they've only taken a handful of AP tests and scored 2s, 3s and 4s.

I see no evidence that attending a DC ES as good as one WotP, Brent, or a charter like Two Rivers, puts a kid at a disadvantage later, as long as parents with good reason to harbor Ivy League aspirations for their children are on the ball. This means supplementing with museum visits, tutors (often just braniac parents themselves), music lessons, language immersion and Johns Hopkins CTY camps, or whatever.

And of course most DCPS parents could care less about the Ivy League, for their own reasons. The problems seem to come later, 7th grade+, when the brightest and most disciplined DCPS, and now DC Charter, kids aren't pushed to the academic wall by a system content to see them test proficient on standardized tests, as educators focus on helping classmates unlikely to clear that bar.

I like how you roll Princeton interviewer. It's kind of a tough message to hear, but nonetheless one that needs to get out there. Thank you for sharing.

The ones I know from wilson got 700+ on the SATs and 4s and 5s on AP exams.

Anonymous wrote: Plenty of "good" public and private schools in DMV turn out their share of mediocre students.

Princeton interviewer here again. Yes, DC privates do turn out their share of average kids. I've interviewed a good many from Sidwell, Georgetown Day, St. Albans, NCS etc. who were out of their league, and some TJ and Blair magnet kids. But the difference between them and the top DCPS kids is that they tend to know it; they consider Ivies long shots because they rub shoulders with more academic classmates, e.g. Siemens finalists and kids with perfect SAT scores. The DCPS kids turn up at interviews convinced by adults that they're in the running mainly because they're the cream of the crop at public schools, even if their SAT scores are in the 600s (without being nationally ranked HS athletes), and they've only taken a handful of AP tests and scored 2s, 3s and 4s.

I see no evidence that attending a DC ES as good as one WotP, Brent, or a charter like Two Rivers, puts a kid at a disadvantage later, as long as parents with good reason to harbor Ivy League aspirations for their children are on the ball. This means supplementing with museum visits, tutors (often just braniac parents themselves), music lessons, language immersion and Johns Hopkins CTY camps, or whatever.

And of course most DCPS parents could care less about the Ivy League, for their own reasons. The problems seem to come later, 7th grade+, when the brightest and most disciplined DCPS, and now DC Charter, kids aren't pushed to the academic wall by a system content to see them test proficient on standardized tests, as educators focus on helping classmates unlikely to clear that bar.

Anonymous wrote:"I find that DCPS parents spanning the socioeconomic spectrum tend to have inflated expectations of what their kids are getting out of all 3 schools - they've been known to call us in tears come April. The differentiated learning approach pre AP only works so well. "

Yes. This exactly and it's hard to stomach parents insisting over and over again how wonderful Latin/Deal are for middle school (Basis will be added to this list next year) and how Wilson/Walls/Banneker are competitive with suburban publics and select DC privates.

Capitol Hill families are the worst.

Own it parents. You like your Hill house, your Hill lifestyle and financial freedom that comes from not paying tuition.

All of those things are perfectly ok, but just admit that you're doing something second rate in terms of education for your child.

Life is all about choices. Own your choices and please, please stop with the excessive boosterism. You're only persuading yourself at this point.

I'll own it. Life is about choices and I read what some people post here and think there are a lot of miserable people out there. Doesn't matter if you go to a top notch private school or an Ivy League school. There are many other ways to learn and more than an education at these schools that make some successful or happy.

Anonymous wrote:
Capitol Hill families are the worst.

Own it parents. You like your Hill house, your Hill lifestyle and financial freedom that comes from not paying tuition.

All of those things are perfectly ok, but just admit that you're doing something second rate in terms of education for your child.

Life is all about choices. Own your choices and please, please stop with the excessive boosterism. You're only persuading yourself at this point.

What makes you think we're NOT paying tuition for our kids? Many of us are able to delay with good to good enough elementary schools, heavy involvement in learning, and extra support as needed. Schools are just one factor in how a child develops. Plenty of "good" public and private schools in DMV turn out their share of mediocre students.

Who are all these posters who are so into telling us DCPS and charter schools are second rate? Do you have kids in these schools?

My sons go to Brent and I don't see their education as second rate. My MIL was a teacher in a highly ranked suburban district and she is very happy with what my sons are learning (she volunteers at Brent). One of my son's was recently evaluated privately and was above grade-level in reading and, more than a grade above grade-level in math. There are so many bright kids in his grade at Brent. We may move to the suburbs for middle school; I'm not that excited about any of the options where we might lottery in. I don't want to move before all my kids go all the way through 5th at Brent.

Staying at Brent is not becuase I love my Hill house so much and because I don't want to pay for privates, it's because I believe it really is about the best place my kids could be in school. Every teacher my kids have had at Brent is passionate about teaching and about my kids. They will stop me in the hallway and tell me about how my son figured out how to do a complicated math problem in a creative way, or how my son was a really good friend to a new student that day. The principal knows each of my kids by name - my kids all get really excited when they see him.

I also don't dream of the Ivy Leagues for my children - not because my dreams for them are small - actually my dreams are bigger than tha. I want my children to be well prepared for college, go to good colleges, and have careers that they love. I want them to be good self-advocates and make choices for themselves.

Anonymous wrote:
Own your choices and please, please stop with the excessive boosterism. You're only persuading yourself at this point.

Fair enough. My choice is to fight to get the very best education for my child at a public school and to live where I want. If that doesn't work out and I have to either move or go private, well at least I've fought the good fight and perhaps left a trail of successes and failures for those that come behind me to learn from.

I am a Capitol Hill parent and I have come to conclusion of 12:37.

There is no political will to improve our schools so they can equal MD and VA suburbs. In fact, there appears to be an effort to hold back the highest achieving students. I guess it is so the achievement gap won't be so large.

And finally, DCPS has no expertise or content experts with not just gifted and talented but merely accelerated learning. It is not a priority.

"I find that DCPS parents spanning the socioeconomic spectrum tend to have inflated expectations of what their kids are getting out of all 3 schools - they've been known to call us in tears come April. The differentiated learning approach pre AP only works so well. "

Yes. This exactly and it's hard to stomach parents insisting over and over again how wonderful Latin/Deal are for middle school (Basis will be added to this list next year) and how Wilson/Walls/Banneker are competitive with suburban publics and select DC privates.

Capitol Hill families are the worst.

Own it parents. You like your Hill house, your Hill lifestyle and financial freedom that comes from not paying tuition.

All of those things are perfectly ok, but just admit that you're doing something second rate in terms of education for your child.

Life is all about choices. Own your choices and please, please stop with the excessive boosterism. You're only persuading yourself at this point.

Anonymous wrote: I commend DCPS they did everything humanly possible to ensure that Eastern would become a school to attract a wide-spectrum of District Residents.

Utter nonsense. No selective admissions programs at Eastern, few, if any, high-SES families of any color in the forseeable future. No brainer. If Eastern attracts more than a handful of white students in the next five years, I'll be shocked and so will the rest of my Brent PTA pals.

A wide spectum of District residents is code for low and moderate-income AA, period. So convenient for the city to grab our hefty SE property taxes to educate NE and across-the-river HS kids. Go on, pitch a fit to help illustrate the point.

Anonymous wrote:
The kids I know from Wilson who went to Harvard and Yale were high SES kids living IB in ward 3.

Please don't continue to extrapolate from your experience only. Apparently "your" ivy doesn't admit Wilson kids. Other Ivies do

I'm not the previous pp, but I interview for Princeton and my spouse interviews for MIT.

We've burned out on interviewing at Wilson, SWW and Banneker over the years because so few get in, although it's true that v. occasionally, 1 or 2 will. It's more rewarding to interview in the burbs and at privates. I've observed that the Wilson kids are generally the most competitive of the DCPS bunch, but their prep often seems inadequate, and they're not helped to compete in natl sci comps. I find that DCPS parents spanning the socioeconomic spectrum tend to have inflated expectations of what their kids are getting out of all 3 schools - they've been known to call us in tears come April. The differentiated learning approach pre AP only works so well.