Benjamin Banneker Academic High School
Encyclopedia
Benjamin Banneker Academic High School is a small magnet
high school
located in Washington, D.C.
, that was originally built to serve as a neighborhood Junior High School and named in honor of the African-American mathematician
, astronomer
, clockmaker
, and almanac
author, Benjamin Banneker
. In 1980 the school was converted to a magnet high school for academics. The school is colloquially referred to by students and faculty as "Banneker." It is also referred to as the top high school in the District of Columbia Public Schools
, and one of the best in the region, because of its strenuous curriculum and Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs.
Banneker is located across the street from Howard University
, to which it has strong ties. It is part of DCPS
and draws students from all parts of the city. Any student interested in applying must follow an entrance procedure, involving a multiple choice test, a written essay, an interview, recommendation(s), and a report of the applicant's standardized test
scores and grades from previous years.
The school's current enrollment is approximately 386 students spanning from grades 9 through 12, and the current principal is Anita M. Berger. Benjamin Banneker Academic High School is one of the many IB Diploma Programme
world schools, however, is currently the only high school in Washington, D.C. with the IB Programme available. Banneker AHS was ranked 46th in Newsweek Magazine's 2007 Top 1,000 High Schools.
The school had the honor of hosting President Barack Obama for the yearly "Back To School" speech in September 2011.
. Prospective student
s must apply and be accepted into Benjamin Banneker Academic High School. Students in the surrounding community are not necessarily able to attend Banneker AHS, due to the academic requirements for admittance. These students may attend a local high school located just a few blocks away from Benjamin Banneker AHS, Cardozo Senior High School.
entrance.
, Volleyball
, Softball
, Tennis
, Track & Field, Cross Country
, Soccer, and Boys Basketball
and Soccer.
.
Magnet school
In education in the United States, magnet schools are public schools with specialized courses or curricula. "Magnet" refers to how the schools draw students from across the normal boundaries defined by authorities as school zones that feed into certain schools.There are magnet schools at the...
high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
located in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, that was originally built to serve as a neighborhood Junior High School and named in honor of the African-American mathematician
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
, astronomer
Astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
, clockmaker
Clockmaker
A clockmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs clocks. Since almost all clocks are now factory-made, most modern clockmakers only repair clocks. Modern clockmakers may be employed by jewellers, antique shops, and places devoted strictly to repairing clocks and watches...
, and almanac
Almanac
An almanac is an annual publication that includes information such as weather forecasts, farmers' planting dates, and tide tables, containing tabular information in a particular field or fields often arranged according to the calendar etc...
author, Benjamin Banneker
Benjamin Banneker
Benjamin Banneker was a free African American astronomer, mathematician, surveyor, almanac author and farmer.-Family history and early life:It is difficult to verify much of Benjamin Banneker's family history...
. In 1980 the school was converted to a magnet high school for academics. The school is colloquially referred to by students and faculty as "Banneker." It is also referred to as the top high school in the District of Columbia Public Schools
District of Columbia Public Schools
District of Columbia Public Schools is the traditional public school system of Washington, D.C. in the United States.- Composition and enrollment :...
, and one of the best in the region, because of its strenuous curriculum and Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs.
Banneker is located across the street from Howard University
Howard University
Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...
, to which it has strong ties. It is part of DCPS
District of Columbia Public Schools
District of Columbia Public Schools is the traditional public school system of Washington, D.C. in the United States.- Composition and enrollment :...
and draws students from all parts of the city. Any student interested in applying must follow an entrance procedure, involving a multiple choice test, a written essay, an interview, recommendation(s), and a report of the applicant's standardized test
Standardized test
A standardized test is a test that is administered and scored in a consistent, or "standard", manner. Standardized tests are designed in such a way that the questions, conditions for administering, scoring procedures, and interpretations are consistent and are administered and scored in a...
scores and grades from previous years.
The school's current enrollment is approximately 386 students spanning from grades 9 through 12, and the current principal is Anita M. Berger. Benjamin Banneker Academic High School is one of the many IB Diploma Programme
IB Diploma Programme
The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme is a two-year educational programme for students aged 16–19that provides an internationally accepted qualification for entry into higher education, and is recognised by universities worldwide. It was developed in the early to mid-1960s in Geneva by...
world schools, however, is currently the only high school in Washington, D.C. with the IB Programme available. Banneker AHS was ranked 46th in Newsweek Magazine's 2007 Top 1,000 High Schools.
The school had the honor of hosting President Barack Obama for the yearly "Back To School" speech in September 2011.
Community
Benjamin Banneker Academic High School serves the entire District of ColumbiaWashington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
. Prospective student
Student
A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...
s must apply and be accepted into Benjamin Banneker Academic High School. Students in the surrounding community are not necessarily able to attend Banneker AHS, due to the academic requirements for admittance. These students may attend a local high school located just a few blocks away from Benjamin Banneker AHS, Cardozo Senior High School.
Program highlights
Benjamin Banneker AHS is D.C.'s citywide academic high school, grades 9 through 12. The school offers a highly structured four-year program leading to collegeCollege
A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...
entrance.
Curriculum
- Academic: Required and elective college preparatoryUniversity-preparatory schoolA university-preparatory school or college-preparatory school is a secondary school, usually private, designed to prepare students for a college or university education...
courses with a balance of the liberal artsLiberal artsThe term liberal arts refers to those subjects which in classical antiquity were considered essential for a free citizen to study. Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic were the core liberal arts. In medieval times these subjects were extended to include mathematics, geometry, music and astronomy...
and sciences. - Extended Day Program: There are a number activities including: CheerleadingCheerleadingCheerleading is a physical activity, sometimes a competitive sport, based on organized routines, usually ranging from one to three minutes, which contain the components of tumbling, dance, jumps, cheers, and stunting to direct spectators of events to cheer on sports teams at games or to participate...
, DebateDebateDebate or debating is a method of interactive and representational argument. Debate is a broader form of argument than logical argument, which only examines consistency from axiom, and factual argument, which only examines what is or isn't the case or rhetoric which is a technique of persuasion...
Team, It's AcademicIt's AcademicIt's Academic is a televised academic quiz competition for high school students, currently airing on two NBC affiliates in Washington, D.C. and Central Virginia and one CBS affiliate Baltimore, Maryland . The show has been on the air since October 7, 1961, making it the longest...
Team, Chess ClubChess clubA chess club is a club formed for the purpose of playing the board game of chess. Chess clubs provide for both informal games and timed games, often as part of an internal competition or in a league.-Organisation:...
, Mu Alpha Theta (Math Honor Society), RecyclingRecyclingRecycling is processing used materials into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution and water pollution by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse...
Club, the Student Government Association, and "Train of Thought" Newspaper. - Community Laboratory Program: 270 hours of volunteer service over a four-year period to promote awareness of career goals is required of each student for graduation.
- Banneker Summer Institute (BSI): A five-week summer program designed to strengthen academic skills in scienceScienceScience is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
and mathematicsMathematicsMathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
. Courses in visual artsVisual artsThe visual arts are art forms that create works which are primarily visual in nature, such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, and often modern visual arts and architecture...
, musicMusicMusic is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
and InternetInternetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
Access are also offered. - International Baccalaureate Courses: Languages, Experimental Sciences, Mathematics, Arts and Individuals and Society.
- Advanced Placement Courses: Art HistoryArt historyArt history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and style...
, BiologyBiologyBiology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
, CalculusCalculusCalculus is a branch of mathematics focused on limits, functions, derivatives, integrals, and infinite series. This subject constitutes a major part of modern mathematics education. It has two major branches, differential calculus and integral calculus, which are related by the fundamental theorem...
AB, English LiteratureEnglish literatureEnglish literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
, English Language and Composition, U.S. History, U.S. Government, Comparative Government, StatisticsStatisticsStatistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....
, and World HistoryWorld HistoryWorld History, Global History or Transnational history is a field of historical study that emerged as a distinct academic field in the 1980s. It examines history from a global perspective...
. - Honors Courses may Include: AlgebraAlgebraAlgebra is the branch of mathematics concerning the study of the rules of operations and relations, and the constructions and concepts arising from them, including terms, polynomials, equations and algebraic structures...
II/TrigonometryTrigonometryTrigonometry is a branch of mathematics that studies triangles and the relationships between their sides and the angles between these sides. Trigonometry defines the trigonometric functions, which describe those relationships and have applicability to cyclical phenomena, such as waves...
Athletics
The school offers Girls BasketballBasketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
, Volleyball
Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...
, Softball
Softball
Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand...
, Tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
, Track & Field, Cross Country
Cross country running
Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...
, Soccer, and Boys Basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
and Soccer.
Robotics
The robotics club participated in the Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams with their invention (a cell-phone locker). The invention was extremely successful, and has been showcased at other events. It is currently under a pending patentPatent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
.