DCPS HS Interviews

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We heard about walls for 10th today.

Thanks for posting. Can I ask who the email came from and what your kid’s GPA is? I think my kid should get an interview but have heard nothing. Am paranoid I’ll miss the email….

Email was from Noretia Hardge.

One more mom of a 9th grader who is opting out for an interview for 10th grade at Walls...I'm guessing it is going to be much easier to get into Walls for 10th this year than in prior years...it seems as though several current 9th graders are looking to leave and maybe a lot of people aren't going to interview?

This makes sense given the entrance exam was removed last year. There are probably more kids in 9th who can’t handle the workload or level as compared to previous years.

The kids I know who are leaving are high achievers--it's not the work load that is making them leave; they and their parents just don't like the school/administration.

So I am guessing they must have the option of going in boundary to Wilson?

One is going to Wilson; the other is unsure--they are not in-boundary for Wilson. They applied to privates and, if that doesn't work out, may move. Take all this with a grain of salt--I don't know the parents so this is all coming through the kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We heard about walls for 10th today.

Thanks for posting. Can I ask who the email came from and what your kid’s GPA is? I think my kid should get an interview but have heard nothing. Am paranoid I’ll miss the email….

Email was from Noretia Hardge.

One more mom of a 9th grader who is opting out for an interview for 10th grade at Walls...I'm guessing it is going to be much easier to get into Walls for 10th this year than in prior years...it seems as though several current 9th graders are looking to leave and maybe a lot of people aren't going to interview?

This makes sense given the entrance exam was removed last year. There are probably more kids in 9th who can’t handle the workload or level as compared to previous years.

The kids I know who are leaving are high achievers--it's not the work load that is making them leave; they and their parents just don't like the school/administration.

So I am guessing they must have the option of going in boundary to Wilson?

One is going to Wilson; the other is unsure--they are not in-boundary for Wilson. They applied to privates and, if that doesn't work out, may move. Take all this with a grain of salt--I don't know the parents so this is all coming through the kids.

This will be interesting. Most of the privates are over-enrolled for the current 9th (NCS, Potomac, Sidwell, GDS, STA are all 5-10 kids over a typical year) because they had much higher than unusual number of kids say "yes" to offers of admission last year. Maybe St. Johns has space? Maybe Wilson will have lottery space.

[Anonymous]

Wilson doesn't take anyone via lottery anymore because it is overenrolled. Only kids who are in-boundary or from its feeder schools can get it.

DCPS is supposed to be working on solutions to Deal & Wilson overenrollment.

[Anonymous]

Parent of a Walls 9th grader here. We've also been disappointed by the quality of the teaching and the administration. Plenty of work, very little of it meaningful or engaging. The strength of the school seems to be the peer group. The principal is a zero - she sends communications home with grammatical errors and it was painful to listen to her during the one single Zoom appearance she made at the beginning of the year. Channel the way the adults sound in Peanuts and you'll get the idea. It's hard to believe that this is supposed to be the top of the DCPS heap. I don't know how much or whether this mediocrity is a function of covid, or if things will improve next year with a different set of teachers. But we can't afford private and are not in-boundary for Wilson, so we are gritting our teeth and hoping for better. But it shouldnt be this way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Parent of a Walls 9th grader here. We've also been disappointed by the quality of the teaching and the administration. Plenty of work, very little of it meaningful or engaging. The strength of the school seems to be the peer group. The principal is a zero - she sends communications home with grammatical errors and it was painful to listen to her during the one single Zoom appearance she made at the beginning of the year. Channel the way the adults sound in Peanuts and you'll get the idea. It's hard to believe that this is supposed to be the top of the DCPS heap. I don't know how much or whether this mediocrity is a function of covid, or if things will improve next year with a different set of teachers. But we can't afford private and are not in-boundary for Wilson, so we are gritting our teeth and hoping for better. But it shouldnt be this way.

This is what you get after DCPS fired the old Principal - the new one is lackluster at best.
Not a dynamic speaker - I am on calls and can not follow the thread.
The APs are non-responsive.

We are riding it out b/c we are on this path -and it is the right fit for my child.
But younger kids are moving in another direction

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD got the invitation for 10th and is also not interviewing. She said her two friends at Walls hate it. We had put her into the lottery to keep her options open…

Why are her friends unhappy at Walls?

Same here. My kid got invite offer but has no interest in Walls and wants to blow it off. Can't say I feel any great loss there

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD got the invitation for 10th and is also not interviewing. She said her two friends at Walls hate it. We had put her into the lottery to keep her options open…

Why are her friends unhappy at Walls?

Same here. My kid got invite offer but has no interest in Walls and wants to blow it off. Can't say I feel any great loss there

Where will DC go?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD got the invitation for 10th and is also not interviewing. She said her two friends at Walls hate it. We had put her into the lottery to keep her options open…

Why are her friends unhappy at Walls?

Same here. My kid got invite offer but has no interest in Walls and wants to blow it off. Can't say I feel any great loss there

Where will DC go?

Continue at current school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Parent of a Walls 9th grader here. We've also been disappointed by the quality of the teaching and the administration. Plenty of work, very little of it meaningful or engaging. The strength of the school seems to be the peer group. The principal is a zero - she sends communications home with grammatical errors and it was painful to listen to her during the one single Zoom appearance she made at the beginning of the year. Channel the way the adults sound in Peanuts and you'll get the idea. It's hard to believe that this is supposed to be the top of the DCPS heap. I don't know how much or whether this mediocrity is a function of covid, or if things will improve next year with a different set of teachers. But we can't afford private and are not in-boundary for Wilson, so we are gritting our teeth and hoping for better. But it shouldnt be this way.

This is what you get after DCPS fired the old Principal - the new one is lackluster at best.
Not a dynamic speaker - I am on calls and can not follow the thread.
The APs are non-responsive.

We are riding it out b/c we are on this path -and it is the right fit for my child.
But younger kids are moving in another direction

We did find the teaching at walls uneven but liked the junior and senior teachers (DD is a senior) to be much stronger.

[Anonymous]

Got the ding letter this morning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Got the ding letter this morning.

What does this mean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Got the ding letter this morning.

What does this mean?

Sorry. I meant the email from Walls saying you did not make the cut for the interview.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d say an entire academic year online was pretty challenging.

It was not challenging grade wise. Everything could be corrected, turned in by the last day, no one actually can fail, cheating was RAMPANT. Challenging emotionally? Yes. Challenging in terms of actual learning? Yes. Challenging in terms of grades? Absolutely not.

Something that is challenging emotionally can become something that is challenging in terms of grades. How can you not see that? My child was miserable and doing what they felt they needed to do to make that misery visible to the school. Was that self-defeating? Absolutely. DC was a straight A student in 6th (and 8th) but had four Cs in 7th grade and ended the year with a solid B average. But DC is moving forward with a visceral knowledge that actions have consequences, a chip on their shoulder, and something to prove. That’s worth as much as an A in 7th grade social studies. You seem to think I should have turned in DC’s homework for them just because it would have been easy (thus violating DC’s autonomy, shielding them from the consequences of their actions, and cheating, all at once). I can’t even imagine being that person.

Totally agree, my straight A for life kid almost failed PE and ended up with a B+ or an A-, I honesty cannot remember, but it was tough to stay on track and deal with all the online submission and how many learning platforms? He will go back to being straight A, but it does change high school options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Got the ding letter this morning.

What does this mean?

Sorry. I meant the email from Walls saying you did not make the cut for the interview.

I am sorry.

[Anonymous]

Any interviews from Banneker? I still haven't heard anything, already did our Walls interview.