Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

....this school is miles better than the school that a child could be going to in a different part of the district? And that child going to a different school in a different part of the district is in high danger of not finishing high school, forget attending college? I think numbers like that for this demo, is astounding.

I suspect that the difference between Latin HS and Ballou is probably pretty great, in terms of day to day experience. So, to be headed to Towson next year after 4 yrs of Latin is an improvement over the typical outcome for kids who start out at Ballou and eventually drop out, enter the penal system, have a baby, or graduate illiterate.

But I have a sneaking suspicion that OP and others like OP 1) aren't faced with the choice between a Dunbar and Latin and 2) wonder why kids like OP's aren't better positioned to gain entrance to UVA coming from Latin HS. That's all.

What I think people don't understand is that many of these parents that select Latin, are not running TO Latin as much as they are running AWAY from Ballou, Anacostia, Coolidge, etc. They want their child to have a shot at doing something better. Latin has some students that can't seem to get out of their environment even while at school. Many do not have stellar GPAs and they have behavior issues. They try not to suspend or even expell these students (although they have done this), because with the child in school, at least they are safe and not out on the streets in their neighborhood doing who knows what. This is not and most likely never will have the college acceptances of an application high school as long as they are open to the city, and students peel off after 8th grade (more potential for 9th graders that come from "those wards"). Latin has the curriculum and the tools in place for students to be accepted into Ivies. I'm sure there are a number of students whose transcripts look just like a student from Walls, but maybe just decided not to apply to an Ivy or Top school for whatever reason.

Doesn't Banneker have similar demographics (i.e., race and poverty). Why do their students get MUCH better results?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn't the issue that DC has a lottery system, this is a charter school, so that this school is miles better than the school that a child could be going to in a different part of the district? And that child going to a different school in a different part of the district is in high danger of not finishing high school, forget attending college? I think numbers like that for this demo, is astounding. Now, whether your child who has the opportunity to pay for a Sidwell, or has parents who can afford to live in a suburb with great public schools or area in DC with good public schools can do better - that's not really the issue, is it?

DC also has application high schools, at least two of them competitive (SWW and Banneker). It's not a simple dichotomy between neighborhood public schools, charters, or private for high school even if that's largely the case for middle school outside of Deal.

^^^ and enrollment is 30% higher for Latin middle school than high school

Anonymous wrote:Isn't the issue that DC has a lottery system, this is a charter school, so that this school is miles better than the school that a child could be going to in a different part of the district? And that child going to a different school in a different part of the district is in high danger of not finishing high school, forget attending college? I think numbers like that for this demo, is astounding. Now, whether your child who has the opportunity to pay for a Sidwell, or has parents who can afford to live in a suburb with great public schools or area in DC with good public schools can do better - that's not really the issue, is it?

DC also has application high schools, at least two of them competitive (SWW and Banneker). It's not a simple dichotomy between neighborhood public schools, charters, or private for high school even if that's largely the case for middle school outside of Deal.

PP here^^ Also, no matter how good the college couselor is, I know for a fact they will not be able to convince my DD to apply to a school she has no interest in attending (even if it is Ivy). As a parent, I also would not MAKE her apply.

Anonymous wrote:

....this school is miles better than the school that a child could be going to in a different part of the district? And that child going to a different school in a different part of the district is in high danger of not finishing high school, forget attending college? I think numbers like that for this demo, is astounding.

I suspect that the difference between Latin HS and Ballou is probably pretty great, in terms of day to day experience. So, to be headed to Towson next year after 4 yrs of Latin is an improvement over the typical outcome for kids who start out at Ballou and eventually drop out, enter the penal system, have a baby, or graduate illiterate.

But I have a sneaking suspicion that OP and others like OP 1) aren't faced with the choice between a Dunbar and Latin and 2) wonder why kids like OP's aren't better positioned to gain entrance to UVA coming from Latin HS. That's all.

What I think people don't understand is that many of these parents that select Latin, are not running TO Latin as much as they are running AWAY from Ballou, Anacostia, Coolidge, etc. They want their child to have a shot at doing something better. Latin has some students that can't seem to get out of their environment even while at school. Many do not have stellar GPAs and they have behavior issues. They try not to suspend or even expell these students (although they have done this), because with the child in school, at least they are safe and not out on the streets in their neighborhood doing who knows what. This is not and most likely never will have the college acceptances of an application high school as long as they are open to the city, and students peel off after 8th grade (more potential for 9th graders that come from "those wards"). Latin has the curriculum and the tools in place for students to be accepted into Ivies. I'm sure there are a number of students whose transcripts look just like a student from Walls, but maybe just decided not to apply to an Ivy or Top school for whatever reason.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks, 08:45.

It would be nice if some of the previous posters would sheepishly come back and acknowledge how out of touch and yes, ignorant, their comments made them sound.

I'm a PP and I'll come back and apologize if what I wrote seemed like it was meant to denigrate the kids and their achievements. It was not. However, my context is as a graduate of an urban public high school in another state, not much larger than Latin. Surrounding school districts looked down their nose at us. Yet, my classmates attended and graduated from schools like Duke, Dartmouth, Georgia Tech, Uva, VT, NC State, Rutgers, Indiana, plus a host of regional and state public schools.

I know exactly one family (college graduates) at Latin and I know they will not be happy if their DC's acceptance list looks like what was posted in the OP.

The school has had FOUR graduating classes. Come on people. Also, I went to one of these "low tier" schools and did just fine. It wasn't about prestige for me. It was about affordability. I put myself through school. I am now very successful in my career and make a lot more than my Duke, Harvard, Yale friends.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't speak to the quality of education at Latin, but the list of acceptances looks similar to what I saw in my graduating class at Yorktown 20 years ago. In my HS class, there were a few (like maybe 3) kids who went to ivies or Stanford, and a lot who went to UVA or William and Mary, but most other college bound kids went to the schools listed above. So I don't see this listing of schools as unimpressive, especially since DC has no decent in state options.

Yorktown's acceptance list has never looked anything like this...those folks would have burned the Arlington school board office to the ground.

Since I happen to have access to Washington-Lee's naviance, I can tell you what the Ivy admissions were like in another Arlington high school in 2014. Class size somewhere around 500.

Harvard--2 out of 14 applicants (Harvard actually has admitted a stunning 19% of applicants from W-L in the last 8 years; I assume that means W-L grads have done well there)
Yale--0/9
Princeton--0/15
Brown--1/17
Dartmouth--0/6
Columbia--1/19
Penn--2/15
Cornell--3/19

Assuming that many of these applications are from the same kids, I'd say something like 20-25 W-L students out of 500 are applying to Ivy League schools, and maybe 3? of them are accepted. 3/500. (FTR, Yorktown has not dissimilar results.) So does that put the Latin acceptances in perspective?

No it does not. How do things look in the tier below Ivies? That's what really seems to be missing from the Latin acceptance list.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't speak to the quality of education at Latin, but the list of acceptances looks similar to what I saw in my graduating class at Yorktown 20 years ago. In my HS class, there were a few (like maybe 3) kids who went to ivies or Stanford, and a lot who went to UVA or William and Mary, but most other college bound kids went to the schools listed above. So I don't see this listing of schools as unimpressive, especially since DC has no decent in state options.

Yorktown's acceptance list has never looked anything like this...those folks would have burned the Arlington school board office to the ground.

Since I happen to have access to Washington-Lee's naviance, I can tell you what the Ivy admissions were like in another Arlington high school in 2014. Class size somewhere around 500.

Harvard--2 out of 14 applicants (Harvard actually has admitted a stunning 19% of applicants from W-L in the last 8 years; I assume that means W-L grads have done well there)
Yale--0/9
Princeton--0/15
Brown--1/17
Dartmouth--0/6
Columbia--1/19
Penn--2/15
Cornell--3/19

Assuming that many of these applications are from the same kids, I'd say something like 20-25 W-L students out of 500 are applying to Ivy League schools, and maybe 3? of them are accepted. 3/500. (FTR, Yorktown has not dissimilar results.) So does that put the Latin acceptances in perspective?

Anonymous wrote:I can't speak to the quality of education at Latin, but the list of acceptances looks similar to what I saw in my graduating class at Yorktown 20 years ago. In my HS class, there were a few (like maybe 3) kids who went to ivies or Stanford, and a lot who went to UVA or William and Mary, but most other college bound kids went to the schools listed above. So I don't see this listing of schools as unimpressive, especially since DC has no decent in state options.

Yorktown's acceptance list has never looked anything like this...those folks would have burned the Arlington school board office to the ground.

Anonymous wrote:I can't speak to the quality of education at Latin, but the list of acceptances looks similar to what I saw in my graduating class at Yorktown 20 years ago. In my HS class, there were a few (like maybe 3) kids who went to ivies or Stanford, and a lot who went to UVA or William and Mary, but most other college bound kids went to the schools listed above. So I don't see this listing of schools as unimpressive, especially since DC has no decent in state options.

I think this point cannot be made enough times. The top state schools offer little to no aid to out-of-state students, no matter what their color, level of income, or achievements. Michigan, Berkeley, UCLA, UNC, UVA, Texas, Florida, etc., have plenty of low-income students in their own states; they look to OOS students to pay full freight.

Also recall that first generation college students often don't want to go that far from home (or family), so they have additional concerns driving their decision-making relative to other students.

Also recall that this is a very small class in an urban open-enrollment high school. As noted above, there are plenty of lower-income students at Latin, but remember that SAT scores are highly correlated with family income. So there might be only a handful of students who have the test scores to even make it through the first round of consideration at the elite schools. (Sure, elite schools practice affirmative action, but if you think non-athlete minorities are admitted without good SAT scores, you are dead wrong. They might not have stellar SAT scores; but they definitely have good ones.) Few of these students will be legacies or elite athletes, so they won't have those hooks.

The reality is that children of well-off, highly educated parents are likely to do comparatively well in the college game whether they go to Latin or Walls or Sidwell. The children of lower-income, less-educated parents are likely to get a big boost by going to Sidwell. Unfortunately, they aren't likely to get there. The same, BTW, is true of college. Children of well-off, highly educated parents are likely to do comparatively well in life whether they go to Denison or Hampshire or Harvard. The children of lower-income, less-educated parents are likely to get a big boost in life by going to Harvard. And again, they aren't likely to get there. Remember this when you are wringing your hands about your children's future. Perspective, please.

Graduating Latin parent here.. Our child came from a small, east coast HS (Latin) and did not want to apply to many excellent schools that were large scale or geographical far flung. Not one CA school was on the list even though some were courting our child aggressively. We, and Latin's excellent guidance counselor, respected and supported our child's wishes. Its her journey. Students from this class are approaching $4,000,000 in financial aid grants.
Our family is upper.middle class fwiw. We consider our childs Latin education a privilege. Our child chose not to.go to private school for HS. The relationships - will be lifelong friendships now- with more than a.dozen teachers and an amazing, lovable group of peers. Priceless. I dont think you have any idea what navigating adolescence is like. We are so grateful for the Latin support team delivering our child health, whole, hopeful to the finish line of HS.

Ps. To the nice neighbor, thank you for the warm welcome.and keeping an eye out. We ? you.

I see a lot of schools that are close to DMV and travel cost/proximity to home could likely be a factor

Excellent article on challenges of higher education for students growing up in poverty. Even Emory, an elite school which makes a strong push to both attract and retain such students, still finds mixed results.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/education/poor-students-struggle-as-class-plays-a-greater-role-in-success.html

I think Latin should just post this list internally or only on their website in the future if it's not more impressive.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jesus, how obtuse are you people? Consider what most kids in DC do.

FWIW, I had terrific scores and grades and I went to a school in that same range as those listed above because it is where I got the best scholarship. In my HS, which was probably similar to Latin, my acceptance into that school and scholarships (as well as those of others like me) was a source of pride for the teachers.

Maybe it seems unsophisticated now, but for the first person in a family going to college it is a big deal.

A valid point. But for those of us in a different demographic (ie, high income, not the first in our family to attend college), this is a disappointing list.

Wow. You are not a very nice person. It's fine to set high goals for your kids. Why disparage the choices or outcomes for other people's kids?

Anonymous wrote:I can't speak to the quality of education at Latin, but the list of acceptances looks similar to what I saw in my graduating class at Yorktown 20 years ago. In my HS class, there were a few (like maybe 3) kids who went to ivies or Stanford, and a lot who went to UVA or William and Mary, but most other college bound kids went to the schools listed above. So I don't see this listing of schools as unimpressive, especially since DC has no decent in state options.

But the point is that from Latin there are no kids going to Ivies or UVA or William and Mary!