Would you choose School Without Walls over the private HS in which your DC is accepted?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reason I wouldn’t be excited about public for high school if my kid had the chance for private is the amount of time spent on standardized tests. I work with public and charter schools throughout the city, and even in a school like Walls, their ranking in the city matters. And so not only is your kid spending unnecessary hours prepping for and taking standardized test that don’t even matter for their own learning and growth, but the teachers have this stress pulling at them too. instead of thinking, how can I get my students really into this content that will give them an enriching academic and life experience? they are thinking about that stuff.

The brightest kids don't spend much time prepping for standardized tests, because standardized tests are typically easy for this group. Therefore teachers do have lots of time to give them engaging content.

That’s not typically what happens in a public school classroom and you know it. Those bright kids are seated in the back of the class and either given busy work or ignored.
I personally have a combined 18 years of experience with DCPS to back this up (in “the best” WotP public schools). That’s why we moved our children to private schools for high school.

But the poster isn't talking about bright kids in DCPS generally, but about kids at SWW. Did you have kids at Walls? I wouldn't find it strange if teachers there don't have to spend a ton of time teaching to the test (except for AP's), because all the kids there are selected from a pool of high performers.

Are they really? How hard is it to get in SWW versus GDS or Sidwell for 9th?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reason I wouldn’t be excited about public for high school if my kid had the chance for private is the amount of time spent on standardized tests. I work with public and charter schools throughout the city, and even in a school like Walls, their ranking in the city matters. And so not only is your kid spending unnecessary hours prepping for and taking standardized test that don’t even matter for their own learning and growth, but the teachers have this stress pulling at them too. instead of thinking, how can I get my students really into this content that will give them an enriching academic and life experience? they are thinking about that stuff.

The brightest kids don't spend much time prepping for standardized tests, because standardized tests are typically easy for this group. Therefore teachers do have lots of time to give them engaging content.

That’s not typically what happens in a public school classroom and you know it. Those bright kids are seated in the back of the class and either given busy work or ignored.
I personally have a combined 18 years of experience with DCPS to back this up (in “the best” WotP public schools). That’s why we moved our children to private schools for high school.

But the poster isn't talking about bright kids in DCPS generally, but about kids at SWW. Did you have kids at Walls? I wouldn't find it strange if teachers there don't have to spend a ton of time teaching to the test (except for AP's), because all the kids there are selected from a pool of high performers.

Are they really? How hard is it to get in SWW versus GDS or Sidwell for 9th?

All the freshmen at Walls are good students. Plenty of kids at those k-12s wouldn’t be admitted at 9th if they had to re-apply.