School Without Walls Principal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The SWW principal appears to be a terrible administrator, a terrible speaker, and is not liked or respected by most students, parents, or teachers at the school. It is amazing that the top performing high school in the city is led by someone of this caliber. Does anyone know how she keeps her job?

In DCPS, as long as you don’t poke the bear you are secure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The SWW principal appears to be a terrible administrator, a terrible speaker, and is not liked or respected by most students, parents, or teachers at the school. It is amazing that the top performing high school in the city is led by someone of this caliber. Does anyone know how she keeps her job?

In DCPS, as long as you don’t poke the bear you are secure.

That's generally true in most places of employment.

[Anonymous]

We are a Walls family, and we tolerate her because Walls was our best option - but yeah, its like the woman has no vision for how to keep a program to grow and foster dynamic learning environments for children to thrive. The without walls aspect is lost - its very rigid and formulaic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When DCPS fired the dynamic Principal at Walls b/c he stood up to the Mayor - there was a clear message that the city sent to anyone in who might be interested in being a Principal at a school within DCPS.
...... you will be fired if you express a POV
...... having success as an administrator will not save your job.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to recruit Principal into DCPS? The firing made it materially more difficult.

When my kid was applying to Walls the current parents all said that the current Principal (the very person you say was so great) was terrible…but don’t worry because it won’t impact your kid too much.

He seemed like a total piece of shit to us which was a major reason to pass on accepting the offer.

I guess the current principal is also awful in her own way.

[Anonymous]

We didn’t even apply to Walls because of the principal. Instead my kid applied and got into Banneker but it was ultimately too regimented for them, so we went with JR.

The issue of problematic principals is also at JR. I wish there was a way to convince DCPS to change course with their approach to principal selection and oversight. It’s very damaging, at least at the schools I’m familiar with. There is a lot of potential in DCPS that is left on the table due to poor, petty leadership.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We didn’t even apply to Walls because of the principal. Instead my kid applied and got into Banneker but it was ultimately too regimented for them, so we went with JR.

The issue of problematic principals is also at JR. I wish there was a way to convince DCPS to change course with their approach to principal selection and oversight. It’s very damaging, at least at the schools I’m familiar with. There is a lot of potential in DCPS that is left on the table due to poor, petty leadership.

The previous JR principal was fairly outspoken, which was sometimes good and sometimes bad.

She implemented the “honors for all” during freshman year which just resulted in dumbed down honors classes for all.

She tried to implement AP for all which meant all juniors were automatically enrolled in I think AP English and history, but DCPs shot her down because of costs…since they pay for every DCPS student to take the AP test, so now it went from maybe 150 taking those two AP tests to 500 x 2 taking those AP tests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When DCPS fired the dynamic Principal at Walls b/c he stood up to the Mayor - there was a clear message that the city sent to anyone in who might be interested in being a Principal at a school within DCPS.
...... you will be fired if you express a POV
...... having success as an administrator will not save your job.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to recruit Principal into DCPS? The firing made it materially more difficult.

This. Totally, 100% THIS! DCUM is rife with parents who criticize Principals for not being dynamic leaders willing to fight Central. There's another thread about J-R with basically the same issues. These are parents who have never worked in large bureaucratic orgs. DCPS has made it clear who gets to work in DCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When DCPS fired the dynamic Principal at Walls b/c he stood up to the Mayor - there was a clear message that the city sent to anyone in who might be interested in being a Principal at a school within DCPS.
...... you will be fired if you express a POV
...... having success as an administrator will not save your job.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to recruit Principal into DCPS? The firing made it materially more difficult.

This. Totally, 100% THIS! DCUM is rife with parents who criticize Principals for not being dynamic leaders willing to fight Central. There's another thread about J-R with basically the same issues. These are parents who have never worked in large bureaucratic orgs. DCPS has made it clear who gets to work in DCPS.

But that's exactly the problem! DCPS is mid from top down. It's by design. The leadership is lame, so they are insecure about control and hire compliant managers.

A stronger system would esteem dynamic, capable principals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We didn’t even apply to Walls because of the principal. Instead my kid applied and got into Banneker but it was ultimately too regimented for them, so we went with JR.

This seems shortsighted. The principal is not in the classroom teaching your kid.

We’ve had a great experience so far with the teachers for core subjects at Walls. Electives have been a little spotty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When DCPS fired the dynamic Principal at Walls b/c he stood up to the Mayor - there was a clear message that the city sent to anyone in who might be interested in being a Principal at a school within DCPS.
...... you will be fired if you express a POV
...... having success as an administrator will not save your job.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to recruit Principal into DCPS? The firing made it materially more difficult.

This. Totally, 100% THIS! DCUM is rife with parents who criticize Principals for not being dynamic leaders willing to fight Central. There's another thread about J-R with basically the same issues. These are parents who have never worked in large bureaucratic orgs. DCPS has made it clear who gets to work in DCPS.

But that's exactly the problem! DCPS is mid from top down. It's by design. The leadership is lame, so they are insecure about control and hire compliant managers.

A stronger system would esteem dynamic, capable principals.

It’s this way in most big public schools systems. One of my parents was a public high school teacher and had the same complaints about principals 40 years ago. You hear about the inspirational exceptions to the rule, but the vast majority of public school principals are functionaries, there to keep the school functioning and out of the news, and to make things easier on central system administration.

[Anonymous]

Is there any inspiring principle in DC public/ charter MS or HS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there any inspiring principle in DC public/ charter MS or HS?

Yes. I know of two good ones. I kinda fear naming the schools would put a target on their backs!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The SWW principal appears to be a terrible administrator, a terrible speaker, and is not liked or respected by most students, parents, or teachers at the school. It is amazing that the top performing high school in the city is led by someone of this caliber. Does anyone know how she keeps her job?

OP- Do you have a child at Walls? How have your experiences as a parent and your DC have been impacted by the principal? Are their any specific examples that you encountered and could share where the principal really negatively impacted the situation?

Not OP, but I can say that the way the principal is running the school is one of the reasons we declined a seat at Walls.

In favor of private or another public?

Another public.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We didn’t even apply to Walls because of the principal. Instead my kid applied and got into Banneker but it was ultimately too regimented for them, so we went with JR.

This seems shortsighted. The principal is not in the classroom teaching your kid.

We’ve had a great experience so far with the teachers for core subjects at Walls. Electives have been a little spotty.

Principals wield a lot of power in DCPS. It's shortsighted not to take note of that.

[Anonymous]

What makes a principal loved, a good one, or stellar- within a large public school system? How do principals get evaluated for their performance- What are the criteria?