Considering pulling kid from Wilson

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've had my kids in a collective 22 years of DCPS but have one in private high school this year and it's night and day over the DCPS foolery. Kid has already read 3 books including the Odyssey and written a half dozen papers. Classes are quiet and kids are respectful. My kid misses the fights and the drama of DCPS but he/she is learning.
The wealth is not an issue and there is about 55% kids of color, 30% of kids on aid. We are scraping our pennies together for this experience because we were tired of the hit-of-miss and often chaotic environment of DCPS. Last year my kid had an ELA teacher who only logged on 50% of the time. The other 50%? I have no idea. I talked to the principal and the principal
said there was nothing to be done because there was a valid excuse (different one each day) each time. My stress level over school has returned to zero. No fights. Quiet classrooms. Textbooks. Multiple writing assignments. It's ridiculous that we have to pay for what was a standard experience when we were kids.

Glad private is working out for you.

For a slightly different perspective - Wilson’s admin is a mess, but my kid never experience violence or bullying of any kind in 4 years at Wilson. There were a few fights, but his take was that the kids involved were generally kids who felt they needed to maintain a reputation for being tough. As a parent, I know that there ARE kids whose experience has been different, but that’s what my kid thinks. In contrast, my white, working class high school was very, very much more violent than Wilson. Growing up, I didn’t know anybody who hadn’t been in a lot of fistfights. My kid and all of his close friends have never had that experience.

+1
I've got two kids at Wilson. They both have excellent teachers this year and their friends are well behaved, smart, and hardworking. Each of them has witnessed one fight this year (the same one). They both think the violence is overblown because of these Instagram accounts.

Is their experience the norm? I don't know. But we've been pretty happy with the school overall and both my kids appreciate the fact that they have friends from all over the city, all races/socioeconomic backgrounds. There is ZERO competition over material goods or vacations. They shop at thrift stores, take public transportation everywhere, and have picnics because (although many in their cohort are UMC) others are not.

Is it the same "quality" as a private education? Probably not. Are they learning other life skills/perspectives that they wouldn't get at a private school? I imagine so.

Exactly this

For Your kid. Not mine.

My kid has one interesting class. Two filler classes and one class with no teacher. In a filler class, the teacher is calling in sick regularly. So, sitting doing nothing 3/4 of a day. Why? B/c the 4x4 schedule increased the class sizes to average of approx 35 kids per class. Teacher are exhausted. The school is over enrolled by 700 students. The administration would need to hire at least an additional 15% of teachers to meet the demand for classes. There’s no money in the budget for this. So, my kid is enrolled in crap classes that are going to look like garbage for a college application. Maybe next semester will be different bc stacking three AP classes into one semester and have to change a class bc it’s already been taken. But who know… everything could get shuffled again.

Also, property stolen from backpack during class w/ no teacher. Has witnessed 3-4 fights in and out of school. Has been offered to buy LSD in school. It’s toxic.

This is not normal. There are serious problems in this school and just because it’s not happening to your kid doesn’t mean it’s not happening.

Imo, part of the issue is that parents see things in terms of “my kid” and not about the community. The Wilson community is not OK. Many staff, teachers and students are struggling and you can’t see it bc your kid is “fine”. It’s disheartening that parents can support numerous causes for people you don’t know and march on the Mall but cannot stand support people in your community and your school when they tell you something is very wrong.

Oh come on. Drugs are in every school, including the privates. I went to a well-respected private for the last three years of high school, and the only difference was that the rich kids had better drugs.

[Anonymous]

My kid is having a fantastic 10th grade year at Wilson. Truly.

[Anonymous]

I know kids who are having a good year and kids who are having a horrific year.

Kids in a school of 2200 kids will have a WIDE range of experiences.

My kid was in 8th grade at Deal last year and had a horrible year because he had an ELA teacher who just didn't show up for 50% of the calls. Then the teacher would routinely take personal calls during class and would log-off to talk. This
happened all.the.time.
Another team had a history teacher who also rarely if ever showed up. This teacher also took personal calls during class and would routinely leave the class . This teacher was eventually dismissed.
However, 3 of the teams had teachers who always showed up and did a great job. So ask a former 8th grade parent about their virtual Deal experience and you get VASTLY different responses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know kids who are having a good year and kids who are having a horrific year.

Kids in a school of 2200 kids will have a WIDE range of experiences.

My kid was in 8th grade at Deal last year and had a horrible year because he had an ELA teacher who just didn't show up for 50% of the calls. Then the teacher would routinely take personal calls during class and would log-off to talk. This
happened all.the.time.
Another team had a history teacher who also rarely if ever showed up. This teacher also took personal calls during class and would routinely leave the class . This teacher was eventually dismissed.
However, 3 of the teams had teachers who always showed up and did a great job. So ask a former 8th grade parent about their virtual Deal experience and you get VASTLY different responses.

But as a parent, that's not good enough. I mean, I'm not ok with a 50/50 shot at my kid learning anything in a high school year. There are alwasy bad teachers and some bad experiences, but the percentage of teaching issues seems abnormally high for a public high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know kids who are having a good year and kids who are having a horrific year.

Kids in a school of 2200 kids will have a WIDE range of experiences.

My kid was in 8th grade at Deal last year and had a horrible year because he had an ELA teacher who just didn't show up for 50% of the calls. Then the teacher would routinely take personal calls during class and would log-off to talk. This
happened all.the.time.
Another team had a history teacher who also rarely if ever showed up. This teacher also took personal calls during class and would routinely leave the class . This teacher was eventually dismissed.
However, 3 of the teams had teachers who always showed up and did a great job. So ask a former 8th grade parent about their virtual Deal experience and you get VASTLY different responses.

But as a parent, that's not good enough. I mean, I'm not ok with a 50/50 shot at my kid learning anything in a high school year. There are alwasy bad teachers and some bad experiences, but the percentage of teaching issues seems abnormally high for a public high school.

Part of this problem is the lack of substitutes in the area. I’m not excusing the teacher but if you need time off and there are no subs, what do you do? The pandemic has really sucked, esp for teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know kids who are having a good year and kids who are having a horrific year.

Kids in a school of 2200 kids will have a WIDE range of experiences.

My kid was in 8th grade at Deal last year and had a horrible year because he had an ELA teacher who just didn't show up for 50% of the calls. Then the teacher would routinely take personal calls during class and would log-off to talk. This
happened all.the.time.
Another team had a history teacher who also rarely if ever showed up. This teacher also took personal calls during class and would routinely leave the class . This teacher was eventually dismissed.
However, 3 of the teams had teachers who always showed up and did a great job. So ask a former 8th grade parent about their virtual Deal experience and you get VASTLY different responses.

But as a parent, that's not good enough. I mean, I'm not ok with a 50/50 shot at my kid learning anything in a high school year. There are alwasy bad teachers and some bad experiences, but the percentage of teaching issues seems abnormally high for a public high school.

Part of this problem is the lack of substitutes in the area. I’m not excusing the teacher but if you need time off and there are no subs, what do you do? The pandemic has really sucked, esp for teachers.

Well then that's even more of a reason not to have a 4X4 structure. It's putting too many eggs in one basket if there is a concern about substitutes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know kids who are having a good year and kids who are having a horrific year.

Kids in a school of 2200 kids will have a WIDE range of experiences.

My kid was in 8th grade at Deal last year and had a horrible year because he had an ELA teacher who just didn't show up for 50% of the calls. Then the teacher would routinely take personal calls during class and would log-off to talk. This
happened all.the.time.
Another team had a history teacher who also rarely if ever showed up. This teacher also took personal calls during class and would routinely leave the class . This teacher was eventually dismissed.
However, 3 of the teams had teachers who always showed up and did a great job. So ask a former 8th grade parent about their virtual Deal experience and you get VASTLY different responses.

But as a parent, that's not good enough. I mean, I'm not ok with a 50/50 shot at my kid learning anything in a high school year. There are alwasy bad teachers and some bad experiences, but the percentage of teaching issues seems abnormally high for a public high school.

I wasn't willing to take this chance for high school so my kids are in private high schools although we can't really afford it. I was worn out by middle school. We had some bad luck with losing teachers at Deal. I know other families who cruised through and never had their kid
lose a teacher.

Kid 1:
6th grade: Core subject teacher: out on leave in Jan. Long-term sub hired who was then fired for making inappropriate comments to girls. Mix of no instruction and temp subs. Year ended. Whew.
Kid left school after this year

Kid 2:
6th grade: ELA teacher walked out on a Friday in early October. Roughly 2 months of no ELA instruction. Temp sub until Jan. Permanent teacher (very good!) found in January
7th grade: Excellent teachers.
8th grade: ELA teacher who logged on 50% of the time and took personal calls during class. Another core teacher who was out sick for about a month. No subs for either teacher. There was a good month+ when my kid didn't have 2 of his/her 5 classes.

Kid 3:
6th grade: Excellent teaching team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know kids who are having a good year and kids who are having a horrific year.

Kids in a school of 2200 kids will have a WIDE range of experiences.

My kid was in 8th grade at Deal last year and had a horrible year because he had an ELA teacher who just didn't show up for 50% of the calls. Then the teacher would routinely take personal calls during class and would log-off to talk. This
happened all.the.time.
Another team had a history teacher who also rarely if ever showed up. This teacher also took personal calls during class and would routinely leave the class . This teacher was eventually dismissed.
However, 3 of the teams had teachers who always showed up and did a great job. So ask a former 8th grade parent about their virtual Deal experience and you get VASTLY different responses.

Deal really had a problem with teachers not showing up for classes and/or handling their personal business during class during the pandemic. We almost never received any notification of canceled classes, just a series of one no-show after another. It appeared that there was no supervision to ensure the teachers actually taught the classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know kids who are having a good year and kids who are having a horrific year.

Kids in a school of 2200 kids will have a WIDE range of experiences.

My kid was in 8th grade at Deal last year and had a horrible year because he had an ELA teacher who just didn't show up for 50% of the calls. Then the teacher would routinely take personal calls during class and would log-off to talk. This
happened all.the.time.
Another team had a history teacher who also rarely if ever showed up. This teacher also took personal calls during class and would routinely leave the class . This teacher was eventually dismissed.
However, 3 of the teams had teachers who always showed up and did a great job. So ask a former 8th grade parent about their virtual Deal experience and you get VASTLY different responses.

Deal really had a problem with teachers not showing up for classes and/or handling their personal business during class during the pandemic. We almost never received any notification of canceled classes, just a series of one no-show after another. It appeared that there was no supervision to ensure the teachers actually taught the classes.

I assume this is different this year now that not virtual?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The building was designed for 1550 students. This trend has been happening for years - educating more students for less money from downtown. All when costs are rising and teacher salaries stagnant. Notice in this article that Bargeman who is now principal after Martin was interim principal in 2015.


https://ggwash.org/view/37747/dcps-plans-to-give-wilson-high-school-less-money-to-serve-more-students

The current permanent building capacity is 1840, last years enrollment was 1872.
https://dme.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dme/publication/attachments/Appendix%20A%20-%20DCPS%20SY2019-20%20Enrollment%20Data.xlsx

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know kids who are having a good year and kids who are having a horrific year.

Kids in a school of 2200 kids will have a WIDE range of experiences.

My kid was in 8th grade at Deal last year and had a horrible year because he had an ELA teacher who just didn't show up for 50% of the calls. Then the teacher would routinely take personal calls during class and would log-off to talk. This
happened all.the.time.
Another team had a history teacher who also rarely if ever showed up. This teacher also took personal calls during class and would routinely leave the class . This teacher was eventually dismissed.
However, 3 of the teams had teachers who always showed up and did a great job. So ask a former 8th grade parent about their virtual Deal experience and you get VASTLY different responses.

Deal really had a problem with teachers not showing up for classes and/or handling their personal business during class during the pandemic. We almost never received any notification of canceled classes, just a series of one no-show after another. It appeared that there was no supervision to ensure the teachers actually taught the classes.

I assume this is different this year now that not virtual?

We aren't having this issue on my 6th grader's team. Her teachers are great and in great contrast to our older kid who had a horrible experience last year.
However, there are 15 different teams of kids in the school. I have no idea what is happening on the other 14.
That's the thing: any single person's experience is only applicable to 1/15th of the school (or 2/15th's for those with two kids).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know kids who are having a good year and kids who are having a horrific year.

Kids in a school of 2200 kids will have a WIDE range of experiences.

My kid was in 8th grade at Deal last year and had a horrible year because he had an ELA teacher who just didn't show up for 50% of the calls. Then the teacher would routinely take personal calls during class and would log-off to talk. This
happened all.the.time.
Another team had a history teacher who also rarely if ever showed up. This teacher also took personal calls during class and would routinely leave the class . This teacher was eventually dismissed.
However, 3 of the teams had teachers who always showed up and did a great job. So ask a former 8th grade parent about their virtual Deal experience and you get VASTLY different responses.

Deal really had a problem with teachers not showing up for classes and/or handling their personal business during class during the pandemic. We almost never received any notification of canceled classes, just a series of one no-show after another. It appeared that there was no supervision to ensure the teachers actually taught the classes.

I assume this is different this year now that not virtual?

We aren't having this issue on my 6th grader's team. Her teachers are great and in great contrast to our older kid who had a horrible experience last year.
However, there are 15 different teams of kids in the school. I have no idea what is happening on the other 14.
That's the thing: any single person's experience is only applicable to 1/15th of the school (or 2/15th's for those with two kids).

True, but it's helpful to know how often kids are winding up "unlucky". As a prospecitve Wilson parent, the idea that they could be missing 1/2 of AP phsysics instruction, for instance, is horrifying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The building was designed for 1550 students. This trend has been happening for years - educating more students for less money from downtown. All when costs are rising and teacher salaries stagnant. Notice in this article that Bargeman who is now principal after Martin was interim principal in 2015.


https://ggwash.org/view/37747/dcps-plans-to-give-wilson-high-school-less-money-to-serve-more-students

The current permanent building capacity is 1840, last years enrollment was 1872.
https://dme.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dme/publication/attachments/Appendix%20A%20-%20DCPS%20SY2019-20%20Enrollment%20Data.xlsx

Permanent capacity in 2015 was 1700. No space has been added to the school since then as far as I know, and the halls and stairwells are certainly no wider. How did the increase capacity by 140 with no construction?

https://dme.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dme/publication/attachments/Copy%20of%20DCPS%20Enrollment%20and%20Utilization%2003%2004%2016%20Final.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know kids who are having a good year and kids who are having a horrific year.

Kids in a school of 2200 kids will have a WIDE range of experiences.

My kid was in 8th grade at Deal last year and had a horrible year because he had an ELA teacher who just didn't show up for 50% of the calls. Then the teacher would routinely take personal calls during class and would log-off to talk. This
happened all.the.time.
Another team had a history teacher who also rarely if ever showed up. This teacher also took personal calls during class and would routinely leave the class . This teacher was eventually dismissed.
However, 3 of the teams had teachers who always showed up and did a great job. So ask a former 8th grade parent about their virtual Deal experience and you get VASTLY different responses.

Deal really had a problem with teachers not showing up for classes and/or handling their personal business during class during the pandemic. We almost never received any notification of canceled classes, just a series of one no-show after another. It appeared that there was no supervision to ensure the teachers actually taught the classes.

I assume this is different this year now that not virtual?

We aren't having this issue on my 6th grader's team. Her teachers are great and in great contrast to our older kid who had a horrible experience last year.
However, there are 15 different teams of kids in the school. I have no idea what is happening on the other 14.
That's the thing: any single person's experience is only applicable to 1/15th of the school (or 2/15th's for those with two kids).

True, but it's helpful to know how often kids are winding up "unlucky". As a prospecitve Wilson parent, the idea that they could be missing 1/2 of AP phsysics instruction, for instance, is horrifying.

Correct. It wasn't a risk we were willing to take so we applied for private high school. Why? Our experience at Deal last year with teachers not showing up and also my experience of going to a really crappy high school and being underprepared for college.
Other people's mileage and life experience will vary. The thought of my kid missing an instructor for a high school class was like kryptonite for me. Hence we're paying. Others aren't set off by this as much as I was and they're comfortable with rolling the dice with Wilson.
I always say, DCPS is great! Until it isn't. I was tired of the risk of the "isn't".

[Anonymous]

Correct. It wasn't a risk we were willing to take so we applied for private high school. Why? Our experience at Deal last year with teachers not showing up and also my experience of going to a really crappy high school and being underprepared for college.
Other people's mileage and life experience will vary. The thought of my kid missing an instructor for a high school class was like kryptonite for me. Hence we're paying. Others aren't set off by this as much as I was and they're comfortable with rolling the dice with Wilson.
I always say, DCPS is great! Until it isn't. I was tired of the risk of the "isn't". [/quot

How do you like the private? Is it really worth the $45,000 a year?