Is it true that starting from 2017-2018 Wilson HS won't offer honors classes in 9th grade?

[Anonymous]

This is mostly on the teachers. Truly dynamic teachers can keep most of a class engaged, even with a heterogeneous class. If Wilson can motivate and/or hire really high-performing teachers, the new arrangement could shrink the achievement gap without adversely affecting the brightest kids. If the teachers are dull, the brightest kids will still do fine, and earn A's, and the kids who might have gotten B's in a slower class will get C's and D's in the new class, and the achievement gap will just be repackaged.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will the material studied be challenging and interesting? Will the discussions be rich? I think all children benfit from that. Just wondering if Wilson admin think so and will make sure that is the case.

Was the material challenging and interesting, spawning rich discussions before? It's 9th grade English and Biology. I have my doubts that this change will either devastating or amazing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is unbelievably stupid. If a kid is below grade level in math and reading, how the hell can they do advanced science or anything else?

Mediocrity for all.

More than likely, the "honors" classes will be dumbed down to the lower students vs taught at the advanced level.

It is closing the achievement gap by lowering the top students.

Is Martin planning to slice class sizes down to 13-14 kids/seminars so the needs of all can be addressed, positive discipline maintained and rich learning happen? Will she and her assistants sit in on these experimental classes to ensure their high quality? Will there be tutoring built in to this idea?

[Anonymous]

This is absolutely ridiculous. What is this - the one room schoolhouse model? Is there an organized way to complain about this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is mostly on the teachers. Truly dynamic teachers can keep most of a class engaged, even with a heterogeneous class. If Wilson can motivate and/or hire really high-performing teachers, the new arrangement could shrink the achievement gap without adversely affecting the brightest kids. If the teachers are dull, the brightest kids will still do fine, and earn A's, and the kids who might have gotten B's in a slower class will get C's and D's in the new class, and the achievement gap will just be repackaged.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will the material studied be challenging and interesting? Will the discussions be rich? I think all children benfit from that. Just wondering if Wilson admin think so and will make sure that is the case.

Was the material challenging and interesting, spawning rich discussions before? It's 9th grade English and Biology. I have my doubts that this change will either devastating or amazing.

Here's a dirty little secret. The achievement gap won't be shrunk at high school. It's simply too late. The issue of the achievement gap must be addressed in the early years. This is all just so much education kabuki theater.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whats frightening is that they will want to extend this no-honors model to all grades.

I can't believe they would do that. I've never heard of a school that would break down an honors program into nothing. Source?

Of COURSE they would do that! This is DC! We only care about the low achievers. High achievers can eff themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A charter HS in NW would go a long way to getting all of these Wilson-worrying snowflakes out of DCPS's hair.

DCI - International Baccalaureate Diploma...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately all the Wilson principal and DCPS cares about are raising the scores of the lowest 25%. Despite trying all sorts of quick fixes, they are making zero progress even in this. Ultimately they need really strong teachers across the board to make a difference for all students but strangely they don't seem to care too much about or appreciate good teachers. By the way, AP scores across DCPS are horrendous, mostly 1s and 2s. Central office is a disaster and keeps coming up with hare-brained new initiatives just to show they are doing something.

They are not making zero progress. Look at Eastern.

Why? Who would send their child to Eastern? It's awful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A charter HS in NW would go a long way to getting all of these Wilson-worrying snowflakes out of DCPS's hair.

DCI - International Baccalaureate Diploma...

Washington Latin and BASIS are in NW too. And there are more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is mostly on the teachers. Truly dynamic teachers can keep most of a class engaged, even with a heterogeneous class. If Wilson can motivate and/or hire really high-performing teachers, the new arrangement could shrink the achievement gap without adversely affecting the brightest kids. If the teachers are dull, the brightest kids will still do fine, and earn A's, and the kids who might have gotten B's in a slower class will get C's and D's in the new class, and the achievement gap will just be repackaged.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will the material studied be challenging and interesting? Will the discussions be rich? I think all children benfit from that. Just wondering if Wilson admin think so and will make sure that is the case.

Was the material challenging and interesting, spawning rich discussions before? It's 9th grade English and Biology. I have my doubts that this change will either devastating or amazing.

This is the "ignore the high performers" approach to closing the achievement gap.

I'm thinking we need to explore private schools in order to avoid the social engineering fools and freaks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is absolutely ridiculous. What is this - the one room schoolhouse model? Is there an organized way to complain about this?

Are the Deal and Wilson LSATs still active? On their respective homepages, neither has posted anything in over a year. They would seem to be the right organizations to address this ridiculous and reckless "honors for all" plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is mostly on the teachers. Truly dynamic teachers can keep most of a class engaged, even with a heterogeneous class. If Wilson can motivate and/or hire really high-performing teachers, the new arrangement could shrink the achievement gap without adversely affecting the brightest kids. If the teachers are dull, the brightest kids will still do fine, and earn A's, and the kids who might have gotten B's in a slower class will get C's and D's in the new class, and the achievement gap will just be repackaged.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will the material studied be challenging and interesting? Will the discussions be rich? I think all children benfit from that. Just wondering if Wilson admin think so and will make sure that is the case.

Was the material challenging and interesting, spawning rich discussions before? It's 9th grade English and Biology. I have my doubts that this change will either devastating or amazing.

Here's a dirty little secret. The achievement gap won't be shrunk at high school. It's simply too late. The issue of the achievement gap must be addressed in the early years. This is all just so much education kabuki theater.

It would be some sort of freak of nature if every kid in 9th grade had the same achievement level. Even small private schools track by achievement because some kids learn faster and better than others. What is the point in pretending otherwise?