Wall 2022--63% admission rate for 9th

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:So, now that socially awkward math nerds can’t get into SWW anymore, where do they go?

Banneker, McKinley Tech, Basis, local privates, Stanford Online HS.

The math nerds in my kid's Deal Algebra 2 class went to Sidwell, St. Albans, GDS and Jackson Reed.

Not you again!

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:At least two years ago looks played into who was chosen. My daughter has two friends who are objectively gorgeous--they were selected although they were in low math classes and had multiple Bs. neither took the spots as they had no real interest in Walls. But the interviewers definitely voted for them.

Previous poster again. I should elaborate and say that I know because my daughter and friends were talking about this. of their friend group (8?) the quiet, plain, studious ones were not taken. The beautiful, glam, charismatic ones were, I remember because we had a conversation about it--they were laughing about it.
It's how the world works but kind of crappy for high school admissions but not surprising when 90% of admissions was based on a 2 minute interview by a teenager. a kid is going to consciously or unconsciously go with the visually appealing option.

This is not the first time you’ve posted about this. You don’t know that there interviews were based on looks. Also there are lots of quiet nonglam kids at Walls. Please stop spreading this rumor.

Agreed. I know some very plain looking freshman at Walls. You can say many things about the interview process, but it’s definitely not a beauty contest.

NP. I know a kid who was conducting interviews at Walls and he was laughing about this very thing. He definitely made it sound like he was basing his decisions on looks/people he might want to be friends with. This is a ridiculous way to conduct admissions.

I’m sure there are employers who extend offers to prospective employees for the same reasons. There are administrators and teachers who select students based on biases they’re not even aware they have. It’s certainly not right, but how do you prevent it? If humans are involved in the process, nothing is foolproof.

I think you mean well, but you've just deployed an age old rhetorical device. Nothing is perfect. Humans are fallible. Therefore let's do nothing.

Employers who conduct interviews without standards, job descriptions, rubrics or standard scoring get sued. And lose. Smart employers mandate bias education and development for all employees, and for sure those that conduct interviews. One of the reasons that objective standards (tests, project based assessments, GPA) are used in lieu of interviews and other purely subjective measures is that we have learned over time that subjectivity results in bias, which in turn results in discriminatory behaviors and outcomes. Somehow DC has decided that the way to overcome bias and discrimination is to employ a purely objective standard led by teenagers.

So what is your solution?

My children have gone through the admissions process at both Walls and DC private high schools. The private schools were not one iota more transparent than Walls in terms of what they were looking for during the interview. Yes, the interview lasted longer, but that doesn’t yield more insight for the student about how they’re being evaluated. Oh, private school interviews are also subject to the same implicit bias.

Not the PP you're responding to. Why have an interview at all????? It's absolutely unnecessary to inject human bias and subjective decision-making into an admissions process for a public school. Have GPA+Test+Lottery or GPA+PARCC+Lottery or GPA+Lottery but doing interviews is intentionally selecting children based on random and inconsistent criteria.

If you’re so opposed to the current system in place, file a FOIA request or a lawsuit against Walls. Stop talking about it and be about it.

What exactly would a FOIA request or a lawsuit accomplish? What would I be suing them for? Dumb ideas?

If someone was willing to pursue it and got in front of the right judge, a FIOA suit could be very embarrassing depending on what the actual guidelines are and what the interview notes look like

So stop complaining on DCUM and just do it!

My child is at Walls already, so I’m definitely not going to do it.

That's the point. No one is going to do it because no one actually cares. There is no opposition party in DC trying to embarrass DCPS and Walls isn't a high profile school that would be good fodder for right wing media, it's just a pretty good school in DC. The people funding the attacks on TJ, Boston Latin, Stuyvesant, or Lowell have no reason to care about Walls

If they care about Lowell, then they should care about Walls. Lowell (#82) is only ranked 15 spots higher than Walls (#97).
Link: https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/national-rankings

Plus Walls has a higher college readiness and graduation rate than Lowell. Walls also seems like a much more pleasant place to spend 4 years, based on that documentary.

Only the parents care and they are too busy getting their kids into and through high school to have the time or other resources to pursue an action that might take years. One cannot help thinking that is exactly what DCPS and the mayor are counting on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, now that socially awkward math nerds can’t get into SWW anymore, where do they go?

Wouldn’t math nerds prefer a different school? One of the biggest reasons that my DD is applying to Walls from Basis is that she’d prefer a school with less emphasis on math and science.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:So, now that socially awkward math nerds can’t get into SWW anymore, where do they go?

Wouldn’t math nerds prefer a different school? One of the biggest reasons that my DD is applying to Walls from Basis is that she’d prefer a school with less emphasis on math and science.

Exactly. My math advanced kid is focusing on writing and history now. Well rounded is more important.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, now that socially awkward math nerds can’t get into SWW anymore, where do they go?

Wouldn’t math nerds prefer a different school? One of the biggest reasons that my DD is applying to Walls from Basis is that she’d prefer a school with less emphasis on math and science.

Exactly. My math advanced kid is focusing on writing and history now. Well rounded is more important.

Two different responses here saying the same thing. In the first, poster says "this is what my kid is prefers and is looking for so they are applying to Walls." In the second, poster declares what is best for every student, because they speak with certainty for all students, and they know what they have is better than what else is out there. One of these people is confident, the other is posturing to make themselves feel better.