So is the Walls cut-off this year a 4.0?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:are electives (art, music, gym) included in the calculation?

or just the 5 core classes?

-math
-ELA
-history
-science
-foreign language

Everything that has a grade is input into GPA.

Here is how they calculated GPA: https://enrolldcps.dc.gov/sites/dcpsenrollment/files/page_content/attachments/SWW%20GPA%20Scale_SY%2022-23%20Admissions%20Update%20FINAL.pdf

It doesn't make a difference a SWW since the cutoff was almost 4.0, but the footnote infuriates me.

*Note: In response to the COVID-19 health emergency DCPS has prioritized equity and rigor in our
grading policies to ensure all students are supported academically as they navigate the challenges of the
pandemic. For SY19-20, SY20-21, and SY21-22 DCPS has modified its grading policy so that students who
earn a “C” and/or “D” grade will see it displayed on their transcript as passing grades of “P,” indicating
that a student demonstrated proficiency in the course.

Homogenizing a C and D and pretending like both "demonstrated proficiency" illustrates the degree to which DCPS is just passing kids along in the system and setting them up for failure.

Sample 7th grade report report card for DCPS:

Grade-level Math: D (shows up as "P")
Grade-level English: D
Grade-level Science: D
Grade-level Social Studies: D
Grade-level Foreign Language: D
Art: A
PE: A

For “equity” reasons, this student has a 4.0 GPA and receives an interview at Walls.

Sample 7th grade report card for DC charter school:

Advanced Math: 90% (A-)
Advanced English: 90% (A-)
Advanced Science: 90% (A-)
Advanced Social Studies: 90% (A-)
Advanced Foreign Language: 90% (A-)
Art: 98% (A)
PE: 98% (A)

This student receives no “equity” bump and has a 3.7 GPA and is denied an interview at Walls.

Does anyone really think that Walls is accepting the best and brightest in DC under the current admission system?

....Not the way it works.

The current system is used as a proxy for behavior/learning disabilities. They are using grades to get kids who are well behaved and who don't need supports. They are NOT getting the best or highest achieving from an academic standpoint. And they are fine with that. They actually prefer it--as a parent of two students who have gone through the school, what they want is "easy" kids. Kids who are very high achievers are not easy to educate.[i

Oh my..Tell that to teachers that have to deal with disruptions daily. High Achieving and well behaved are normally traits that appear together. Very bizarre...

No, you're missing my point...achievement and behavior are correlated. But very high achieving kids are not easy to educate--not because of their behavior but because they demand more from their educators (they need to be challenged). Wallls is not interested in those very high achieving kids...it takes too much work.

So, they just use GPA to proxy for behavior...it helps them screen out the "problem" kids under the ruse of academic merit. If they really wanted the smartest or hardest workers or most resilient (or name your superlative), they would use other factors in their admissions policy.

So what? Walls doesn’t need to admit the smartest students—merely smart is good enough. You may also be interested to know that personality plays a much bigger part than IQ in financial success. Walls’ admissions process seems to embody this fact.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lawrencelight/2017/06/13/why-the-secret-to-getting-rich-isnt-being-smart/?sh=408cb506589a

I have some negative thoughts about the SWW admissions processes, but the idea that they're intentionally not serving the brightest kids because they're optimizing for financially successful graduates instead-- now that is just some bizarre conspiracy shit. So, ok, that is not what's happening here. All that is happening is that, given the national pushback against standardized tests, DCPS doesn't want to reinstate them for admissions. So Walls has GPA and interviews. The latter are totally arbitrary and there are a lot of complaints about. The higher the GPA cutoff, the less you're picking your class via the interview. The difference between a 3.8 and a 3.9 may be nothing, but at least no one can accuse you of using GPA requirements to discriminate on the basis of appearance or whatever.

This. 100% and completely all of this.

Only problem is the actual rubric says something different. The interview is 86% of the total.

Again, in effect, the interview is 100% determinative of acceptance this year because the GPA cut off was so high (3.87). On the rubric, anything over a 3.7 gets all 5 points - therefore every candidate interviewed will receive 5 points for GPA portion of score.

[Anonymous]

Does Walls specify who they accept and who they waitlist, or do they simply accept, reject and throw all accepted into the lottery?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does Walls specify who they accept and who they waitlist, or do they simply accept, reject and throw all accepted into the lottery?

My understanding is top 170 scoring students (after the interview) are accepted; remaining students are placed on waitlist in lottery order.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does Walls specify who they accept and who they waitlist, or do they simply accept, reject and throw all accepted into the lottery?

My understanding is top 170 scoring students (after the interview) are accepted; remaining students are placed on waitlist in lottery order.

All interviewed students are ranked and ordered. Top 150 (or 145, or whatever the number it is this year) are offered spots and then they go through the waitlist in that order. The only time the lottery comes into play is to determine preference amongst other schools, so that if one put Banneker above Walls and were going to be offered both, they would "match" at Banneker and not Walls.

[Anonymous]

What is the source for the statement above?

[Anonymous]

DP, but the Banneker rubric says they give all eligible students the same score, so admissions is decided and the waitlist (if any after matches) is ranked by lottery, while the Walls rubric indicates that they give each student a different score.

[Anonymous]

I am the PP who stated that everyone is ranked, and you are right, I shouldn't have stated it so matter of factly. This is what I was told by a couple of other Walls parents when we were going through the process last year and I specifically asked this question because I was confused, so it may not be fact, but it did make sense to me, as it seemed strange that the waitlist would be random (by lottery) but the initial offers would be ranked. Sorry for any confusion if this is incorrect information - I should have prefaced it with "my understanding is".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DP, but the Banneker rubric says they give all eligible students the same score, so admissions is decided and the waitlist (if any after matches) is ranked by lottery, while the Walls rubric indicates that they give each student a different score.

I think that's a whole different ballgame. Banneker's rubric basically says nothing. No one knows what they really do-No gpa requirement, recommendations-sorta but not really, etc.

I was told that Walls basically ranks the kids based on the process and places them in the lottery. This is basically what the rubric says--https://www.myschooldc.org/sites/default/files/u421/SY23-24_SWW_AdmissionProcessRubric_FINAL.pdf. This is how it played out for us last year. We felt like we had a good shot after the interview.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does Walls specify who they accept and who they waitlist, or do they simply accept, reject and throw all accepted into the lottery?

My understanding is top 170 scoring students (after the interview) are accepted; remaining students are placed on waitlist in lottery order.

All interviewed students are ranked and ordered. Top 150 (or 145, or whatever the number it is this year) are offered spots and then they go through the waitlist in that order. The only time the lottery comes into play is to determine preference amongst other schools, so that if one put Banneker above Walls and were going to be offered both, they would "match" at Banneker and not Walls.

Not exactly....the top 170 interviewed kids are offered spots but they need to figure out how to rank the waitlist. For that, they need to use a lottery (not the whole DCPS one) to assign numbers to "tied" kids. So, if the top 170 kids all received scores of 36 but then 20 kids scored scores of 35, they need to randomly assign them to waitlist positions 1-20. If 20 kids received scores of 35, they will be randomly assigned waitlist positions 21-40 (and so on).

To be clear, this is how it works in theory...in practice, who the hell knows. For example, what happens if 200 kids get scores of 36? Then all 200 kids would need to be put in the lottery for the 170 spots and 30 would be given waitlists 1-30.