How are things going at Walls this year?
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Anonymous
Not PP but this is really the most idiotic response to a post I have seen on DCUM. Are you a Wilson parent? Previous posters suggested that Wilson and Walls were equally good or Wilson was better, and parents just picked one or the other because of “fit.” In response, PP pointed out that Walls has better academics, better college placement, and a much higher ranking. Your response is that Walls attracts a higher caliber of student. That means you AGREE with PP. And then you make an analogy to hospitals. Why don’t we run with that analogy. Let’s say you have a terrible disease. Would you choose a hospital with better doctors, better treatment, and a higher ranking than one with worse doctors, worse treatment, and a lower ranking? I suspect that you might pick the first one. |
Anonymous
USN&WR puts Walls at #2 in the DMV and Wilson at #73. You think that is BS. You must be a Wilson parent. Take a look at the USN&WR college rankings. Harvard is tied for #2 and the University of Indiana is tied for #68. Both are good universities. If your kid was accepted to both and they were free, which would you pick? I guess you would pick Indiana. |
Anonymous
You don't understand the PP's point at all...they were pointing out the idiocy of how USNews determines the rankings...if you look at how they do it (which I just did) they use measures like % of kids who graduate and scores on assessment tests...OF COURSE Walls does better on those because they screen out a bunch of kids based on GPA or their test or whatever they do during the admissions process...but that does not mean it's a better-than-average school (maybe yes, maybe no)...it just serves a smarter-than-average population. Imagine two schools: School A is a magnet school that screens for "above average" kids and screens out any kid with a learning disability (i.e., all the kids would graduate from almost any high school and would perform better than average on assessment tests). School B is a general public school that reflects a wide range of kids from all backgrounds, of all abilities, with no screening. It reflects the population as a whole. Suppose school A's graduation rate is 100% and 90% of kids score above average on some achievement test. Is that surprising? Does it tell you anything about the quality of the school? Not really. We knew those kids were going to graduate and score above average on tests--they were screened before they started at that school and unless the school really messed up, this was going to be the case. Now, suppose school B's graduation rate is 95% and 85% of kids score above average on the test. Wow! That seems pretty great given the high school graduation rate is something like 70 percent and we'd only expect 50% to score above average. The school must be doing something really well. But US News would rank school A higher than school B because there is no adjustment for student population. And the hospital analogy is a great one--the ranking would only be meaningful if the metrics used to determine the ranking were good. If, as you suggest, a ranking is based on some sort of measures of "good doctors" and "better treatment", than it might be useful. If, on the other hand, they used what the PP suggested--mortality rates--high rankings might not reflect anything other than serving low-risk (i.e., relatively healthy) patients. So, if the US News ranked high schools based on the "quality of the teachers" or "improvements in student achievement" then the rankings might be meaningful. But they don't. Simply using the levels of things like test scores and graduation rates is meaningless if you don't control for the student population. Dig a little deeper and think more critically before relying on these rankings...there may be some that are useful, but this one is B.S. |
Anonymous
| The DCPS leaders responsible for the watered-down, affirmative action based admissions process at Walls can only game the rankings for so long. Weak management of the jewel in the DCPS crown under Ferebee sucks no matter how you slice it. |
Anonymous
Brilliant student of color, winner of all the awards straight As throughout middle school was rejected. There is no evidence if affirmative action and these types of statements are alienating. |
Anonymous
| The process is a mess, complete mess, but no point in pretending that affirmative action had nothing to do with it. Bowser says she wants greater Ward 7 and 8 representation at Walls. She’s not willing to invest in more serious prep for bright poor minority kids aiming for Walls. So she’s taken a pathetic shortcut to increasing their numbers. Sorry that your student was passed over. Please sue DCPS for an unaccountable admissions process at Walls. |
Anonymous
I'm a physician and good ratings don't use pure mortality rates just for the reason the PP suggests...they do often use, however, something called Standardized Mortality Rates, which is the ratio of observed deaths to "expected deaths"..."expected deaths" is basically a prediction of what you would expect given a population...an average of sorts. This allows for a better apples-to-apples comparison. There's no reason school ratings couldn't do something similar...but it's much harder and more expensive to do so that's why it's not done. |
Anonymous
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May I help bridge the debate by pointing out that, by national standards, both Wilson and SWW are mediocre at best.
True, Wilson probably more so, but it's not like SWW is a top school, especially lately. |
Anonymous
Both things are true. DCPS/Bowser/Ferebee wanted greater representation from Wards 7 and 8 at Walls, and they incompetently landed on an admissions process (GPA/interview) that does nothing to advance that goal, while sometimes excluding kids who would have been a great fit for Walls and done very well there. |
Anonymous
| DCPS is in a race to the bottom. No matter what school if it’s admissions process or honors for all. Sad. |
Anonymous
Ah yes, the stupidity of supposed good intentions. If voters want to destroy DC public schools, I guess that's our right...but then let's not complain about things or make up a hundred random "instutional" excuses. |
Anonymous
Oh, ffs..."honors for all" is three or four classes at Wilson...people continue to make it seem like there are no opportunities for advanced classes. The school has more AP classes than any other in the city. |
Anonymous
+1 Wilson parent here- plenty of things at Wilson to complain about...the fact that 9th grade English and Biology (and a couple other classes) are not tracked is not one of them. |
Anonymous
Not tracking English at the high school level at a school with a big range of preparedness is a very big deal. |
Anonymous
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+1000. Those who defend the practice have no pity on teachers trying to teach a bunch of 9th graders who read and write at a middle school level sitting alongside classmates who work at a college level.
Far too many Wilson families are left scrambling to furnish their own challenge for 9th and 10th graders, particularly for humanities. |