Word for incoming Walls students. Walls is a decent school. As the parent of a current student, I will say, the almost uniformly high-achieving student body is an incredible asset - dare I say, the best thing about the school (and this is HUGE!). But I am so unimpressed by what DCPS does to educate this amazing cohort. You have this incredibly smart, interested group of kids, who for the most part all want to learn and comply and do the work .. . but as far as the school goes, about 50% of the teachers are REALLY BAD. My kid is actually pretty good at "humanities" type stuff. (in middle school, teachers would read kid's creative writing to other classes as an example of "this is how to do it."). But since being at Walls, kid has decided they "hate" humanities-type classes (e.g., English, History, language). Why? Because the teachers of those classes at Walls have been awful: Uninspired. Mean. Spiteful. Petty. I see the "curriculum"/assignments, and I hear the "feedback" given by teachers - SO BAD. SO UNIMPRESSIVE.
This is embarrassing DCPS, do better! I am still fine with choice/kid being at Walls. Kid is happy and has lots of friends and scores well on standardized tests (despite lackluster teaching in English/etc.). Kid is super smart and excelling (kicking ass in math - yay the math teachers at Walls are good, phew). But I am so irritated/borderline angry that Walls has managed to convince my very talented writer/student that they hate English/History/Humanities. I hope that someday (yes, even in high school) kid has an inspiring teacher in that area. In sum, my kid is smart and appears poised to crush standardized tests/get straight A's so I suppose should do quite well in college apps in the next year. But I am still complaining because Walls has managed to suck the life/interest/fun out of humanities coursework for my kid. This makes me mad because, duh, this stuff (history! good novels!) is super fun/interesting/fascinating! So annoying that Walls has ruined it (so far) for my kid. Saturday night rant over. |
I'm sorry to hear this. It doesn't seem like high school is DCPS' strong suit, at any of the high schools.
My kid is at a different high school, and it's a good school but not exceptional even though the kids are really good, smart kids. |
+1 Wait until senior year and AP Lit when your kid will have to make influencer-like videos and cook a dish as their final project. It’s ridiculous! |
Prospective parents here. My DC would be thrilled for such a class. There is so much history connecting food themes with literature across the centuries and making a dish while giving it a context would certainly communicate the material, teach, and engage the audience about literature in a very creative way. |
People don’t want to teach anymore. Teachers can do a really bad job with no consequences because the pool of good replacement teachers is nonexistent. |
Sounds like a nice middle school project. AP Lit? That's absurd. I could totally believe that that assignment was one of those created at Central Office. They love doing 'Internet' writing -- write a Twitter post! make an Instagram-style page! It doesn't make the kids like it better; it's just vapid. |
OP I’m glad your kid has a good math teacher. My Walls student has a terrible math teacher this year. Hoping for better next year! |
We are not in the 1950s APs anymore. Teaching and learning through a project-based approach is the way to go not just in high school, but all throughout grad. school. Glad that Walls is keeping up with the times. |
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Yeah dcps is not impressive. My kids are at Deal and JR. Some smart and talented kids, but not great teachers. |
What explains this? Walls is supposed to be the crown jewel of DCPS. Why can’t they get good teachers?? |
+1. It’s totally ridiculous. Is this a joke for AP lit? They should be reading classic literature of works and writing lengthy analysis papers on it. |
These are final projects for seniors who are already into college and have already taken the AP exam. And because of the way DCPS calculates grades, if they have As for the first three quarters, a kid can get a C- in the fourth quarter and still get an A- on the year. This sounds like a fun final project that keeps kids engaged. Kudos to the teacher. |
Walls doesn’t receive any special preferences when it comes to hiring teachers. They have to pull from the same teacher pool as everyone else and no difference in pay rates. If you need a teacher…you take in theory the best one that is currently in the teacher pool. Teachers fired for underperformance at other schools have ended up at Walls and teachers fired by Walls end up elsewhere. There was a terrible Deal Math teacher that people were relieved to finally see go…until some of those Deal kids showed up at Walls and there was the teacher. |
The schools with the best teachers are the schools with the best principals. Good principals know how to pick the excellent and energetic teachers, and then manage a positive workplace where the teachers can do a good job with support and with minimal drama. |