SWW - when do notices go out about interviews?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I personally know of 4 Hardy kids who got an interview (my kid is not one of them, has a 4.0, and a sibling at Walls, which I know likely doesn't matter). I wonder if the middle schools were told how much weight recommendations would carry - and I hope there was some effort to ensure consistent approach across Hardy teachers - but who knows.

We all know the answer to that question: no.

Exactly. Asked my kid's math teacher soon after the lottery launched. She responded that she would do it. Weeks went by. Then she sent out a persnickity message to families a day or two before the lottery closed basically saying "back off. If I told you I'd do it, I'll do it. I won't accept any more requests, go to another teacher. My deadline is not tomorrow, it's 2/9. I have to do these during my own time". She was clearly very much resenting this load of unpaid work, which I don't blame her for. But parents had no choice. It was a requirement. The union needs to take this up with MySchoolDC, SWW and other application schools and compensate the teachers for their time. Don't take it out on the families. It was not made clear in the online application that we could ask my child's 7th grade math teacher. Besides the teacher committed to doing it so I had to trust it would happen. Well, My kid's letter was submitted a few hours before her deadline. I'm guessing it wasn't all that thoughtful. No interview offer. Oh well. Bad, subjective process dependent upon a teacher actually being committed to doing right by the kids.

I could've written this. My kid has the same teacher. I had a thoughtful conversation with her at the PTC about the application process and she gave every indication that she would provide a strong letter. We designated her as a recommender in MySchool early in January so that she had ample notice and yet she completed it at the very last minute. In retrospect, I wish we had gone with the 7th grade teacher.

Oh wow. We had the same teacher (third kid in this post). My kid had a 4.0. No interview. Looks like she torpedoed all of our kids' recs.
She actually gave my kid an award earlier in the year.


I didn't reach out to her but I guess enough other people pissed her off that we all suffered.

So much speculation. It’s wild.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:first people said there shouldn't be a test. then they said the interview and gpa process was bad. now they're saying the gpa and recomendation process is bad. Seems like no one will be happy whatever happens. I'm sad for the kids that didn't get a chance to interview. If there are quotas or whatever by ward or school, it's certainly not something that should be publicized / released.

Yes to this!

Every year Walls turns down students with great credentials. There just aren't enough spots to go around. This is good preparation for college admissions.

Sorry, that doesn’t work here.

Every college has a better process than this…. No college weights letters if rec three times more than GPA….no college ignores rigor in the courseload and treats an A in PE the same as an A in accelerated math….I could go on and on…

Also college do not require that you and all your classmates ask the same 2 teachers. Kids ask a whole variety of teachers--depending on who knows them best, who likes them, etc.

There really is very little similarity between the Walls process and the college rec process.

Can you imagine if college acceptances were 75% based on teacher recs? Grades were basically irrelevant?

You all are missing the point. This is good prep for college admissions because your "perfect grade" student is going to get rejected from some college. Every year there are kids with amazing SATs and perfect grades and amazing letters of recommendation that get rejected from certain schools. And those rejection factors can have nothing to do with the kid themselves and more to do with the things the school is looking for. It's a different process but the experience and lesson is the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The winners here hands down are going to be Banneker and J-R. A bunch of first-rate students who would have been admitted to Walls pre-Covid will be giving Banneker and J-R another look. This mess has as a silver lining.

You assume kids going to Banneker all wanted SWW first. Also, Banneker also only takes about 10% of applicants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:first people said there shouldn't be a test. then they said the interview and gpa process was bad. now they're saying the gpa and recomendation process is bad. Seems like no one will be happy whatever happens. I'm sad for the kids that didn't get a chance to interview. If there are quotas or whatever by ward or school, it's certainly not something that should be publicized / released.

Yes to this!

Every year Walls turns down students with great credentials. There just aren't enough spots to go around. This is good preparation for college admissions.

Sorry, that doesn’t work here.

Every college has a better process than this…. No college weights letters if rec three times more than GPA….no college ignores rigor in the courseload and treats an A in PE the same as an A in accelerated math….I could go on and on…

They have the student transcripts, so there’s no reason to think that Walls would be overlooking the rigor of the course load in cases where they need to differentiate.

The specific rubric they release that doesn't have that would be the reason.

Snort laugh

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:first people said there shouldn't be a test. then they said the interview and gpa process was bad. now they're saying the gpa and recomendation process is bad. Seems like no one will be happy whatever happens. I'm sad for the kids that didn't get a chance to interview. If there are quotas or whatever by ward or school, it's certainly not something that should be publicized / released.

Yes to this!

Every year Walls turns down students with great credentials. There just aren't enough spots to go around. This is good preparation for college admissions.

Sorry, that doesn’t work here.

Every college has a better process than this…. No college weights letters if rec three times more than GPA….no college ignores rigor in the courseload and treats an A in PE the same as an A in accelerated math….I could go on and on…

They have the student transcripts, so there’s no reason to think that Walls would be overlooking the rigor of the course load in cases where they need to differentiate.

Except for the fact that they have an admissions rubric that ignores rigor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:first people said there shouldn't be a test. then they said the interview and gpa process was bad. now they're saying the gpa and recomendation process is bad. Seems like no one will be happy whatever happens. I'm sad for the kids that didn't get a chance to interview. If there are quotas or whatever by ward or school, it's certainly not something that should be publicized / released.

Parents who feel entitled will always want the process to make it so their kid gets in. And they would never call into question a process that resulted in their kid getting in, even if it were unfair. Some underrepresented families (like mine is) might also think the process is unfair for our own reasons, but overall, it’s usually the privileged folk who are screaming about SWW even though the school is 85% NOT low income. All of a sudden, these parents are social justice warriors over a .1-.3 GPA difference when their kid doesn’t get an interview. But where are all these people the rest of the time? Do they fight for equity and fairness for kids outside of their SWW application? Sorry, not sorry, but I can’t sympathize with those particular folks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:first people said there shouldn't be a test. then they said the interview and gpa process was bad. now they're saying the gpa and recomendation process is bad. Seems like no one will be happy whatever happens. I'm sad for the kids that didn't get a chance to interview. If there are quotas or whatever by ward or school, it's certainly not something that should be publicized / released.

Really? You don’t think the admissions process/criteria for a DCPS school should be public?

[Anonymous]

I am not going to say that a kid with a 4.0 is more deserving than a kid with a 3.7 but I am going to say that I'm sad that the teachers didn't seem to see my kid as being as amazing as I do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not going to say that a kid with a 4.0 is more deserving than a kid with a 3.7 but I am going to say that I'm sad that the teachers didn't seem to see my kid as being as amazing as I do.

Yeah, I'm just waiting for it to dawn on my kid that the teachers like her less than her classmates (who have similar/lower GPAs and did get interviews).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:first people said there shouldn't be a test. then they said the interview and gpa process was bad. now they're saying the gpa and recomendation process is bad. Seems like no one will be happy whatever happens. I'm sad for the kids that didn't get a chance to interview. If there are quotas or whatever by ward or school, it's certainly not something that should be publicized / released.

Yes to this!

Every year Walls turns down students with great credentials. There just aren't enough spots to go around. This is good preparation for college admissions.

Sorry, that doesn’t work here.

Every college has a better process than this…. No college weights letters if rec three times more than GPA….no college ignores rigor in the courseload and treats an A in PE the same as an A in accelerated math….I could go on and on…

Also college do not require that you and all your classmates ask the same 2 teachers. Kids ask a whole variety of teachers--depending on who knows them best, who likes them, etc.

There really is very little similarity between the Walls process and the college rec process.

Can you imagine if college acceptances were 75% based on teacher recs? Grades were basically irrelevant?

You all are missing the point. This is good prep for college admissions because your "perfect grade" student is going to get rejected from some college. Every year there are kids with amazing SATs and perfect grades and amazing letters of recommendation that get rejected from certain schools. And those rejection factors can have nothing to do with the kid themselves and more to do with the things the school is looking for. It's a different process but the experience and lesson is the same.

You are missing the point.

No college has an admissions process as dumb as Walls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not going to say that a kid with a 4.0 is more deserving than a kid with a 3.7 but I am going to say that I'm sad that the teachers didn't seem to see my kid as being as amazing as I do.

This is a joke, right? Didn’t you read Yardsticks in elementary school and know that kids often act different for you than they do for teachers? I remember my kids’ K and 1 grade teachers drilling that in. So you’re amazing kid at home may not be so amazing in the classroom.

Also, teachers can gauge on more than academic performance. One teacher commented about kids staying on top of their work, putting in effort, etc. If a parent’s sense of entitlement has been passed down, I would imagine that might impact how a child shows up in class (and a recommendation letter).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:first people said there shouldn't be a test. then they said the interview and gpa process was bad. now they're saying the gpa and recomendation process is bad. Seems like no one will be happy whatever happens. I'm sad for the kids that didn't get a chance to interview. If there are quotas or whatever by ward or school, it's certainly not something that should be publicized / released.

Yes to this!

Every year Walls turns down students with great credentials. There just aren't enough spots to go around. This is good preparation for college admissions.

Sorry, that doesn’t work here.

Every college has a better process than this…. No college weights letters if rec three times more than GPA….no college ignores rigor in the courseload and treats an A in PE the same as an A in accelerated math….I could go on and on…

Also college do not require that you and all your classmates ask the same 2 teachers. Kids ask a whole variety of teachers--depending on who knows them best, who likes them, etc.

There really is very little similarity between the Walls process and the college rec process.

Can you imagine if college acceptances were 75% based on teacher recs? Grades were basically irrelevant?

You all are missing the point. This is good prep for college admissions because your "perfect grade" student is going to get rejected from some college. Every year there are kids with amazing SATs and perfect grades and amazing letters of recommendation that get rejected from certain schools. And those rejection factors can have nothing to do with the kid themselves and more to do with the things the school is looking for. It's a different process but the experience and lesson is the same.

I think the PP's kid with the 98th+ percentile scores and the non-JR neighborhood high school needs a high school which can provide them with an appropriate education a lot more than they need a lesson in the unfairness and arbitrary nature of life. And no, it is not the case that there are so many kids like that that SWW just doesn't have room for them all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:first people said there shouldn't be a test. then they said the interview and gpa process was bad. now they're saying the gpa and recomendation process is bad. Seems like no one will be happy whatever happens. I'm sad for the kids that didn't get a chance to interview. If there are quotas or whatever by ward or school, it's certainly not something that should be publicized / released.

Yes to this!

Every year Walls turns down students with great credentials. There just aren't enough spots to go around. This is good preparation for college admissions.

Sorry, that doesn’t work here.

Every college has a better process than this…. No college weights letters if rec three times more than GPA….no college ignores rigor in the courseload and treats an A in PE the same as an A in accelerated math….I could go on and on…

Also college do not require that you and all your classmates ask the same 2 teachers. Kids ask a whole variety of teachers--depending on who knows them best, who likes them, etc.

There really is very little similarity between the Walls process and the college rec process.

Can you imagine if college acceptances were 75% based on teacher recs? Grades were basically irrelevant?

You all are missing the point. This is good prep for college admissions because your "perfect grade" student is going to get rejected from some college. Every year there are kids with amazing SATs and perfect grades and amazing letters of recommendation that get rejected from certain schools. And those rejection factors can have nothing to do with the kid themselves and more to do with the things the school is looking for. It's a different process but the experience and lesson is the same.

I think the PP's kid with the 98th+ percentile scores and the non-JR neighborhood high school needs a high school which can provide them with an appropriate education a lot more than they need a lesson in the unfairness and arbitrary nature of life. And no, it is not the case that there are so many kids like that that SWW just doesn't have room for them all.

Why is that kid special? Arguably, a kid in the 5th- percentile and the non JR neighborhood high school needs a school that provides with an appropriate education. Seems like the kid you mention above will do just fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:first people said there shouldn't be a test. then they said the interview and gpa process was bad. now they're saying the gpa and recomendation process is bad. Seems like no one will be happy whatever happens. I'm sad for the kids that didn't get a chance to interview. If there are quotas or whatever by ward or school, it's certainly not something that should be publicized / released.

Yes to this!

Every year Walls turns down students with great credentials. There just aren't enough spots to go around. This is good preparation for college admissions.

Sorry, that doesn’t work here.

Every college has a better process than this…. No college weights letters if rec three times more than GPA….no college ignores rigor in the courseload and treats an A in PE the same as an A in accelerated math….I could go on and on…

Also college do not require that you and all your classmates ask the same 2 teachers. Kids ask a whole variety of teachers--depending on who knows them best, who likes them, etc.

There really is very little similarity between the Walls process and the college rec process.

Can you imagine if college acceptances were 75% based on teacher recs? Grades were basically irrelevant?

You all are missing the point. This is good prep for college admissions because your "perfect grade" student is going to get rejected from some college. Every year there are kids with amazing SATs and perfect grades and amazing letters of recommendation that get rejected from certain schools. And those rejection factors can have nothing to do with the kid themselves and more to do with the things the school is looking for. It's a different process but the experience and lesson is the same.

I think the PP's kid with the 98th+ percentile scores and the non-JR neighborhood high school needs a high school which can provide them with an appropriate education a lot more than they need a lesson in the unfairness and arbitrary nature of life. And no, it is not the case that there are so many kids like that that SWW just doesn't have room for them all.

Why is that kid special? Arguably, a kid in the 5th- percentile and the non JR neighborhood high school needs a school that provides with an appropriate education. Seems like the kid you mention above will do just fine.

That kid isn't "special", they have a set of academic needs that aren't going to be met at a school with few kids at grade level. Which is nearly every DCPS neighborhood school. Whereas the kid who is profoundly behind will find a large peer group at any number of schools in DC. We can argue about whether they will receive appropriate remediation -- but they're sure not going to get that at Walls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:first people said there shouldn't be a test. then they said the interview and gpa process was bad. now they're saying the gpa and recomendation process is bad. Seems like no one will be happy whatever happens. I'm sad for the kids that didn't get a chance to interview. If there are quotas or whatever by ward or school, it's certainly not something that should be publicized / released.

Yes to this!

Every year Walls turns down students with great credentials. There just aren't enough spots to go around. This is good preparation for college admissions.

Sorry, that doesn’t work here.

Every college has a better process than this…. No college weights letters if rec three times more than GPA….no college ignores rigor in the courseload and treats an A in PE the same as an A in accelerated math….I could go on and on…

Also college do not require that you and all your classmates ask the same 2 teachers. Kids ask a whole variety of teachers--depending on who knows them best, who likes them, etc.

There really is very little similarity between the Walls process and the college rec process.

Can you imagine if college acceptances were 75% based on teacher recs? Grades were basically irrelevant?

You all are missing the point. This is good prep for college admissions because your "perfect grade" student is going to get rejected from some college. Every year there are kids with amazing SATs and perfect grades and amazing letters of recommendation that get rejected from certain schools. And those rejection factors can have nothing to do with the kid themselves and more to do with the things the school is looking for. It's a different process but the experience and lesson is the same.

I think the PP's kid with the 98th+ percentile scores and the non-JR neighborhood high school needs a high school which can provide them with an appropriate education a lot more than they need a lesson in the unfairness and arbitrary nature of life. And no, it is not the case that there are so many kids like that that SWW just doesn't have room for them all.

Why is that kid special? Arguably, a kid in the 5th- percentile and the non JR neighborhood high school needs a school that provides with an appropriate education. Seems like the kid you mention above will do just fine.

That kid isn't "special", they have a set of academic needs that aren't going to be met at a school with few kids at grade level. Which is nearly every DCPS neighborhood school. Whereas the kid who is profoundly behind will find a large peer group at any number of schools in DC. We can argue about whether they will receive appropriate remediation -- but they're sure not going to get that at Walls.

Why is the higher scoring kid more deserving?