SWW - Letters of Recommendation

[Anonymous]

My child's teacher did not submit a letter of recommendation before the deadline, although they did submit the letter before interviews took place. Walls appears to be refusing to consider the letter. As a result of the late letter my child's score was not high enough to be considered for an interview, even though they confirmed their GPA was high enough.

I am upset in part because I asked Walls to let me know the deadline in advance and they refused to share any information. By the time I followed up with the teacher, it was too late since scores had been calculated. This seems very unfair. I am trying to figure out if this is an isolated incident or more widespread.

Has this happened to anyone else?

[Anonymous]

That really sucks. I’m sorry.

[Anonymous]

Read the rubric...Your kid shouldn't be penalized!

[Anonymous]

Read the rubric...Your kid shouldn't be penalized!

[Anonymous]

Where is the rubric? I've asked for it, but so far they haven't given it to me.

[Anonymous]

One of my child’s teachers did not submit a recommendation at all. They were ultimately given until 5 pm on Feb. 22nd to do so (according to an email I received from Walls). The teacher still did not submit a recommendation.

I was subsequently told by Walls that My School DC told the school to take the average score for all applicant recommendations and apply that score to the missing recommendation for each affected child. Any child above the threshold, once the averaged recommendation score was factored in, was offered an interview. From my conversation with the person at Walls, only a few students — out of somewhere on the order of 300 applicants with missing recommendations — were offered an interview.

OP, not sure when your recommendation was ultimately provided by the teacher — or if Walls contacted you to inform you that it was missing as they did with me. Hope the information I provided can be helpful to you.

Beyond frustrating. And definitely seems like kids were penalized if they didn’t receive both recommendations.

[Anonymous]

That’s honestly complete BS. That is something I would continue to fight up the chain at DCPS.

[Anonymous]

I really hope one of the many families screwed over by this subjective, opaque process will file a lawsuit. Our 4.0 kid didn't get an interview offer. Asked her ELA and math teachers to write recommendation letters 6 weeks before they were due. Thankfully, the ELA teacher submitted his letter right before he left the school midyear. The math teacher dragged her feet and was pissy about the obligation (imposed on families, not by families!), and submitted the letter a few hours before the deadline. Then it was announced this week that the math teacher is leaving DCPS, a plan that had been known by the principal for weeks. So I'm guessing the teacher's letters were pretty craptastic. Whatever. We're fine with our HS choices but the way SWW handles their admissions process should be legally scrutinized.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really hope one of the many families screwed over by this subjective, opaque process will file a lawsuit. Our 4.0 kid didn't get an interview offer. Asked her ELA and math teachers to write recommendation letters 6 weeks before they were due. Thankfully, the ELA teacher submitted his letter right before he left the school midyear. The math teacher dragged her feet and was pissy about the obligation (imposed on families, not by families!), and submitted the letter a few hours before the deadline. Then it was announced this week that the math teacher is leaving DCPS, a plan that had been known by the principal for weeks. So I'm guessing the teacher's letters were pretty craptastic. Whatever. We're fine with our HS choices but the way SWW handles their admissions process should be legally scrutinized.

.

Agree. What a ludicrous admissions process!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of my child’s teachers did not submit a recommendation at all. They were ultimately given until 5 pm on Feb. 22nd to do so (according to an email I received from Walls). The teacher still did not submit a recommendation.

I was subsequently told by Walls that My School DC told the school to take the average score for all applicant recommendations and apply that score to the missing recommendation for each affected child. Any child above the threshold, once the averaged recommendation score was factored in, was offered an interview. From my conversation with the person at Walls, only a few students — out of somewhere on the order of 300 applicants with missing recommendations — were offered an interview.

OP, not sure when your recommendation was ultimately provided by the teacher — or if Walls contacted you to inform you that it was missing as they did with me. Hope the information I provided can be helpful to you.

Beyond frustrating. And definitely seems like kids were penalized if they didn’t receive both recommendations.

Walls did not contact me. I received the notice that my child was not selected for an interview and only after that asked the teacher if they had submitted the recommendation. They confirmed that they had not.

Walls would not give me a straight answer about how they scored my child's application so I do not know if they used the criteria they applied to your child or not. If they had a clear answer, I don't know why they wouldn't just tell me. I also wonder if the average score for recommendations from all applicants was low and unfairly applied to other students.

Your story makes me even more concerned about the transparency of the process. Why contact some students with missing recommendations and not others? If it is the case that 300+ students had missing recommendations maybe there is a problem with their process.

[Anonymous]

The only way this will change is if parents put pressure on DCPS. A kid with a 4.0 should get an interview, period. I am sorry that this happened but don’t be afraid to pursue action with central office.

[Anonymous]

For other families in the future- You can always log in to MySchoolDC to check if letters have been submitted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where is the rubric? I've asked for it, but so far they haven't given it to me.

One thing we learned is don't depend on this blog for real info.

https://www.myschooldc.org/how-apply/applying-high-school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really hope one of the many families screwed over by this subjective, opaque process will file a lawsuit. Our 4.0 kid didn't get an interview offer. Asked her ELA and math teachers to write recommendation letters 6 weeks before they were due. Thankfully, the ELA teacher submitted his letter right before he left the school midyear. The math teacher dragged her feet and was pissy about the obligation (imposed on families, not by families!), and submitted the letter a few hours before the deadline. Then it was announced this week that the math teacher is leaving DCPS, a plan that had been known by the principal for weeks. So I'm guessing the teacher's letters were pretty craptastic. Whatever. We're fine with our HS choices but the way SWW handles their admissions process should be legally scrutinized.

The assumptions being made about teachers are terrible. My kid also had a recommendation letter submitted on the day of the deadline but was invited to interview. It’s fine to question the process, but stop looking for a scapegoat (esp if you are supposedly fine with your HS choices).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where is the rubric? I've asked for it, but so far they haven't given it to me.

One thing we learned is don't depend on this blog for real info.

https://www.myschooldc.org/how-apply/applying-high-school

Thank you.