I wouldn't go that far. Walls had 5 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists last year. That's a lot in a class of around 100 (roughly 5% of the students as finalists). At, TJ, around one quarter of the students are finalists, but the catchment area is far bigger and more affluent than that for Walls.

Anonymous wrote:SWW, Banneker, McKinley, and Ellington are magnet schools.

But these schools are a joke compared to a
TJ in Virginia.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can parents "game" a system undergirded by test-in magnet programs unless their kids are very bright and prepare diligently for the tests? Assiduous study is "gaming" the system?

The purpose of public G&T programs is to raise up kids who are innately smarter, not those who have been overprepped to make it look like they're smarter. I think what you're looking for is a private school.

You can't disaggregate the two, the brains and the prep, at least not neatly, or be certain that the latter is a byproduct of affluence.

I'm a Boston Latin and MIT grad from a low SES immigrant background. I don't think I was "innately smarter" than peers in the 6th grade, when I took the entrance exam for BL. I just read a lot more than the average bear, for fun, and was willing to do more math than I was assigned at school, with help from relatives with math smarts (none of whom had been able to attend college). I think what you're seeing is a system that can't possibly support a meritocracy. I don't see that. Well-off parents can pay for all the prep they want without necessarily producing a bright spark who puts nose to the grindstone.

Put a magnet school in Ward 7 that is not an extended year school and that is a traditional school. Maybe it will be diverse but the most important thing is that it be quality, competitive, and different. Start with the elementary school that would feed into a magnet middle school. Ensure that the school and area are safe and conducive to learning. Work on stakeholder perceptions and marketing. Make sure the school is close to public transportation. Recognize and respect that there are are high/moderate in come residents in the area or would be attracted to the area with more school options. Also appreciate that low and no income residents want great schools, safe neighborhoods, and opportunities, too.

Anonymous wrote:How can parents "game" a system undergirded by test-in magnet programs unless their kids are very bright and prepare diligently for the tests? Assiduous study is "gaming" the system?

The purpose of public G&T programs is to raise up kids who are innately smarter, not those who have been overprepped to make it look like they're smarter. I think what you're looking for is a private school.

Anonymous wrote:How can parents "game" a system undergirded by test-in magnet programs unless their kids are very bright and prepare diligently for the tests? Assiduous study is "gaming" the system?

The only system I know of that uses tests only is NYC 's Science High Test. A lot of other places allow parental appeals for G and T programs.

In addition, wealthy parents buy test prep. You can prep for any exam.

Finally, you are assuming that tests measure the qualities that you want in a student. Studies show that they don''t. SAT scores, for example, iare only weakly correlated with college performance.

Anonymous wrote:How can parents "game" a system undergirded by test-in magnet programs unless their kids are very bright and prepare diligently for the tests? Assiduous study is "gaming" the system?

They pay for formal test prep for their kids that other students can't afford.

How can parents "game" a system undergirded by test-in magnet programs unless their kids are very bright and prepare diligently for the tests? Assiduous study is "gaming" the system?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, most people I know in DC read the magnet posts from VA and MD with horror. We don't want our kids treated that way.

Treated what way? I went to a magnet school in MCPS and don't have any idea what you could be talking about. (Though I don't read the VA/MD boards now.)

The prepping, testing, measuring and comparing IQs, in or out, bussing, bullying and bashing ... those threads are horrid.

FWIW, DH and I both were in such programs too, and we are more than happy with how our DCPS schools handle our kids advanced needs. I know not all schools do this well, but they could if they followed the model of the schools who are doing it well. DCPS knows how, they just need to implement it everywhere.

Scrubbing toilets is an honorable job

Anonymous wrote:all this assumes that all the parents of kids scoring 5s will want their kids to go to magnets. Many won't. The commute will be terrible for some of them. Some have siblings who wouldn't be eligible and the parents won't want to split them up. A lot of the kids scoring 5s go to charters and their parents don't want to give up montessori or language immersion or a path through middle school. Kids don't want to give up their friends.

And what about the kid who scores 5 in one thing and a 2 in another?

I would really favor a return to tracking. This would deal with differentiation and the issue of the lopsided kids with special talents in one class. The trick is to avoid the racist application of the program by using either test scores with no parental right of appeal to place kids. Alternatively, a class could be open to all cvomets, as long as they agreed to attempt the harder material.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Magnet schools will not attract white families to send their children to majority black schools. It makes them feel uncomfortable and we all know that if the school is majority black it must not be a safe environment. What will make them send their children there would be enough white students attending the school so that the families would not feel like a minority. Wilson is a good example of this.

This is demonstrably untrue. Plenty of white ( and middle class black families ) would-and have- happily sent their children to majority black schools when they have confidence in the program, administration and teachers.

It isn't demonstrably untrue. If you were right, Banneker, a school to have confidence in relative to other DC public high schools (other than Walls and Wilson) would be loaded with white families by now.

Hmmm, I wonder what factor could keep white parents from enrolling their children at Banneker.

Banneker is the high school equivalent of an historically black college. Mostly tradition.

So white parents are scared of their child competing with a majority of highly qualified black kids?

White parents are respectful of tradition. Or at least, some of them are.

This might be the biggest piece of bullshit I've read on DCUM in 2017.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Magnet schools will not attract white families to send their children to majority black schools. It makes them feel uncomfortable and we all know that if the school is majority black it must not be a safe environment. What will make them send their children there would be enough white students attending the school so that the families would not feel like a minority. Wilson is a good example of this.

This is demonstrably untrue. Plenty of white ( and middle class black families ) would-and have- happily sent their children to majority black schools when they have confidence in the program, administration and teachers.

It isn't demonstrably untrue. If you were right, Banneker, a school to have confidence in relative to other DC public high schools (other than Walls and Wilson) would be loaded with white families by now.

Hmmm, I wonder what factor could keep white parents from enrolling their children at Banneker.

I would certainly consider it, but a couple of things concern me. The fact that I can't figure out whether their IB students are getting 6's and 7's, which is what top colleges expect, gives me pause. Also, their IB curriculum offers only the easiest math track, which seems to be somewhere around the level of AP Calc AB. I don't think my STEM kid would be happy with that sequence, which puts kids about a year and a half behind the top kids at suburban schools. If anyone has more info on this, I would love to hear it. I think they used to offer BC Calc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Again, another honest parents.. Whites will not send their children to any school where they are not going to be in the majority. Enough of this nonsense about PARCC criteria and diversity. The solution is to create great schools in all communities and maintain DISCIPLINE and then let the chips fall where they may. Short history lesson, during segregation, blacks schools and students were proficient without testing. The standard for performance was created by a desire to be better. What happened, - DESEGREGATION AND THE NOTION THAT BLACK KIDS HAD TO GO TO SCHOOL WITH WHITES IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE.

Your "honesty" doesn't jive with the facts at my kids school, which is about 10% white. More than 50% black, more than 30% Hispanic.

Nor with ANY middle school or high school in all of DC -- none are majority white.