SWW - Letters of Recommendation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FYI, this is still happening.

To make a long complicated story short, I caught and corrected an incorrect teacher email address over a week before the first interviews, but was told it was too late for the rec to be included. SWW entered an alternate “average score” in its place and admitted that no one who has one true rec and one “average score ever gets an interview.

It’s a mess. The system is broken enough in its best form, we don’t need to put up barriers to making it as fair as possible. And I’m ok if my child doesn’t get an interview based on their two genuine teacher recommendations, but I’m not ok with random numbers being added and a decision being based on those.

So be warned…

1. Only some families are notified of missing recommendations.
2. There is no monitoring of undelivered teacher emails.
3. The MSDC portal allows correction of teacher email address without indicating the portal is closed or that no request will be sent.
4. The recommendation deadline (apparently Feb 9 this year) is not published or communicated to families (except in the reminder email that only some families received)
5. MSDC and SWW provide conflicting information regarding school discretion to accept a recommendation outside the portal.

This is absolutely ridiculous. Please ask for an oversight hearing on SWW. These stories need to be heard. DC can’t be mad when upper middle class and wealthy parents choose private school over DCPS when things like this happen. Absolutely unacceptable.

This isn't the only problem though...there is something else going on that is very under the radar, and for years, people have been asking for transparency...but you will never get it. I find it very weird that my kid's friends who didn't get interviews at Walls are the smartest kids they know with 4.0's, the most personable and well mannered...and kids with mediocre GPA's got in. Something isn't adding up.

Walls has a minimum GPA to even get an interview- I think this year was 3.7 or 3.8. How are kids with mediocre GPAs getting in.

It's not by very hard to get a 3.7 or 3.8. A lot of kids have a 4.0; zillions of kids have a 3.7.

There is a big difference in academic potential between a kid with 99% test scores and a 3.9-4.0, and a kid with 80% test scores and a 3.7-3.8. DCPS is comfortable with making decisions based on the random preferences of people with no qualifications to make such decisions.

DCPS is also comfortable with high-potential UMC kids going to private instead of Walls. Despite being a tax-payer funded public service, DCPS inexplicably does not consider it their responsibility to educate all students to their fullest potential.

How is that even a surprise? From public safety to taxation to schools, it's pretty clear what DC thinks of gentrifiers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FYI, this is still happening.

To make a long complicated story short, I caught and corrected an incorrect teacher email address over a week before the first interviews, but was told it was too late for the rec to be included. SWW entered an alternate “average score” in its place and admitted that no one who has one true rec and one “average score ever gets an interview.

It’s a mess. The system is broken enough in its best form, we don’t need to put up barriers to making it as fair as possible. And I’m ok if my child doesn’t get an interview based on their two genuine teacher recommendations, but I’m not ok with random numbers being added and a decision being based on those.

So be warned…

1. Only some families are notified of missing recommendations.
2. There is no monitoring of undelivered teacher emails.
3. The MSDC portal allows correction of teacher email address without indicating the portal is closed or that no request will be sent.
4. The recommendation deadline (apparently Feb 9 this year) is not published or communicated to families (except in the reminder email that only some families received)
5. MSDC and SWW provide conflicting information regarding school discretion to accept a recommendation outside the portal.

This is absolutely ridiculous. Please ask for an oversight hearing on SWW. These stories need to be heard. DC can’t be mad when upper middle class and wealthy parents choose private school over DCPS when things like this happen. Absolutely unacceptable.

This isn't the only problem though...there is something else going on that is very under the radar, and for years, people have been asking for transparency...but you will never get it. I find it very weird that my kid's friends who didn't get interviews at Walls are the smartest kids they know with 4.0's, the most personable and well mannered...and kids with mediocre GPA's got in. Something isn't adding up.

Walls has a minimum GPA to even get an interview- I think this year was 3.7 or 3.8. How are kids with mediocre GPAs getting in.

Their minimum is GPA of 3.0 and the recommendations count so much more for the interview that they can counter a lower GPA.

And then with the interview, and essay- both very subjective - the GPA ends up being just 10% of the total score.

So very easy for 3.9 or 4.0 students to not get in. I know it’s not ideal, but factoring in Standardized test scores to some degree would help provide a bit more objective information to go on and wouldn’t require any more work on their part. I assume they don’t have the people power to do a really good standardized interview process like Banneker does? Otherwise I’m not sure why they wouldn’t do the interview panels like Banneker does. Much fairer process.

[Anonymous]

We got automated emails on January 22nd and January 29th that our application was incomplete as it was missing one or more teacher recs. You could also log into myschooldc and view the status of your application to see whether the letters were submitted, who the emails went to, and when they were due.

This is a copy/paste of one of the emails:

Greetings DCPS Selective HS/Program lottery applicant families,
We hope that this message finds you well. You are receiving this email because you have applied to one or more of the DCPS Selective High Schools or Programs.
As a reminder, the high school lottery application deadline is Monday, February 2, 2026. We are writing to follow up regarding recommendation letters, which are required as part of the application process and are due by Monday, February 9, 2026.
As of January 21, 2026, our records indicate that your student may have one or more missing recommendations. Please note that applications with missing recommendations will receive zero points for that component.
To ensure your application can be fully reviewed by your school(s) of interest, please complete the following steps in your My School DC (MSDC) account. Log into your MSDC account and follow steps below:
Under Submitted Applications, select the fourth image for View/Edit Recommendations.
a. Hover over options to confirm, if unsure which to select.
Once in View Status of Recommendations, you will see the status of your recommendation as shown in the screenshot below: image
Review and confirm that the recommender’s email address is captured accurately.
Check the recommender’s name spelling and the spelling of the email domain.
If your application was submitted more than 24 hours ago, you may send an email reminder to your recommender by selecting Send an Email Reminder.
Please note that you may not send more than one (1) reminder in any given 24-hour period.
Feel free to also graciously remind your recommender about the outstanding request.
Be mindful that your recommender(s) may have a high volume of recommendation letters in their queue at this time, so your understanding and patience is highly appreciated and encouraged.

If you have questions or need assistance, please contact us directly at [e-mail] as soon as possible. Thank you for your continued interest in DC Public Schools.

Best,
The DCPS Enrollment Team 

Yes this is the email DCPS Offfice of Integrity acknowledges that it forgot to send to all applicants. Unbelievable.