SWW - when do notices go out about interviews?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The way admissions are being handled this year will not ensure a class of 150 high achieving, on grade level students.

My kid didn't get a spot either, but please don't rain on a bunch of hard working middle school kids who got an opportunity.

+100

Comments like PP are just gross. You can be upset your kid didn’t get an interview and think the process is unfair. Fine. Claiming that the kids who did get an interview are not high achieving makes you an a**hole.

Notably, PP didn't say this. PP didn't say none of the kids who got interviews are high-achieving. Just that the process does not ensure a class of 150 high achieving, on grade level students. It doesn't. It is likely that many of the kids being interviewed (and who will eventually take places at the school) are in fact high-achieving, but the process does nothing to exclude kids who are below grade level, and it doesn't necessarily result in the 300 highest achieving students in the applicant pool being interviewed.

And I would argue the admissions test did not ensure the 300 highest achieving students were interviewed. Or that the class was 150 high achieving students. There were years when the test cutoff for an interview was 50% on the math test.

Still, you’d probably rather have someone on the right side of that 50% in the class than on the wrong side.

All in all, I think testing is the best way to do admissions to a selective school. Grades and GPA mean totally different things at different schools. The interviews were clearly silly. The letters of rec process they came up with is bizarre. These could all be components of admission, but they shouldn’t have more weight than an admissions test.

[Anonymous]

If there was a test, people would complain about the test. I’m sure there are kids who would have gotten glowing letters last year, but there were no recommendation letters required. I have friends whose daughter got into walls last year. They felt they had “no options” with their inbound school and felt the admission process was fair. Anyone would feel good about a process that selects their child. It’s an imperfect system in an imperfect world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The way admissions are being handled this year will not ensure a class of 150 high achieving, on grade level students.

My kid didn't get a spot either, but please don't rain on a bunch of hard working middle school kids who got an opportunity.

+100

Comments like PP are just gross. You can be upset your kid didn’t get an interview and think the process is unfair. Fine. Claiming that the kids who did get an interview are not high achieving makes you an a**hole.

Notably, PP didn't say this. PP didn't say none of the kids who got interviews are high-achieving. Just that the process does not ensure a class of 150 high achieving, on grade level students. It doesn't. It is likely that many of the kids being interviewed (and who will eventually take places at the school) are in fact high-achieving, but the process does nothing to exclude kids who are below grade level, and it doesn't necessarily result in the 300 highest achieving students in the applicant pool being interviewed.

Doens't necessarily? It absolutely does not and it hasn't for the past 4 admissions cycles. My older kid is in class of 2025 (the first non-test class). Most of the smartest and highest achievers that year were not admitted to Walls. My kid was in the Deal Algebra 2 class that year. A good 75% of the class who applied to Walls were not admitted. Dont' worry though--the top privates were happy to take them and these kids are now kiling it (most on aid) at Sidwell, GDS, STA, and NCS.
Same thing this year. My younger one is at Deal and did get an interview but most of the smartest kids she knows did not. These are smart, kind, social kids who have never had less than a A in any quarter at Deal. They're not obnoxious or trouble makers. A bunch of them all came from the same ELA or math classes at Deal with teacher(s) who probably gave them less than perfect rec scores (not knowing that perfect scores were needed to get the kids an interview).
It's been a crazily flawed process for years now.

Can’t imagine that there would be well-qualified students outside of Deal…. 🙄

Lol. Not my point at all.

But it's just striking that DCPS pays a specialized teacher to teach a class like middle school Algebra 2, picks super motivated, high achieving kids for the class and then rejects almost all of them for admission to their high school magnet. In turn, almost all of these students leave DCPS entirely for 9th grade.

So why did DCPS invest in these kids throughout middle school, including paying staff to develop this course sequence and teach this one-off class, etc?
It's just craziness. So much in DCPS that doesn't make sense and yet other large, urban districts (NYC, Philly, etc) seem to make it work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The way admissions are being handled this year will not ensure a class of 150 high achieving, on grade level students.

My kid didn't get a spot either, but please don't rain on a bunch of hard working middle school kids who got an opportunity.

+100

Comments like PP are just gross. You can be upset your kid didn’t get an interview and think the process is unfair. Fine. Claiming that the kids who did get an interview are not high achieving makes you an a**hole.

Notably, PP didn't say this. PP didn't say none of the kids who got interviews are high-achieving. Just that the process does not ensure a class of 150 high achieving, on grade level students. It doesn't. It is likely that many of the kids being interviewed (and who will eventually take places at the school) are in fact high-achieving, but the process does nothing to exclude kids who are below grade level, and it doesn't necessarily result in the 300 highest achieving students in the applicant pool being interviewed.

Doens't necessarily? It absolutely does not and it hasn't for the past 4 admissions cycles. My older kid is in class of 2025 (the first non-test class). Most of the smartest and highest achievers that year were not admitted to Walls. My kid was in the Deal Algebra 2 class that year. A good 75% of the class who applied to Walls were not admitted. Dont' worry though--the top privates were happy to take them and these kids are now kiling it (most on aid) at Sidwell, GDS, STA, and NCS.
Same thing this year. My younger one is at Deal and did get an interview but most of the smartest kids she knows did not. These are smart, kind, social kids who have never had less than a A in any quarter at Deal. They're not obnoxious or trouble makers. A bunch of them all came from the same ELA or math classes at Deal with teacher(s) who probably gave them less than perfect rec scores (not knowing that perfect scores were needed to get the kids an interview).
It's been a crazily flawed process for years now.

Can’t imagine that there would be well-qualified students outside of Deal…. 🙄

Lol. Not my point at all.

But it's just striking that DCPS pays a specialized teacher to teach a class like middle school Algebra 2, picks super motivated, high achieving kids for the class and then rejects almost all of them for admission to their high school magnet. In turn, almost all of these students leave DCPS entirely for 9th grade.

So why did DCPS invest in these kids throughout middle school, including paying staff to develop this course sequence and teach this one-off class, etc?
It's just craziness. So much in DCPS that doesn't make sense and yet other large, urban districts (NYC, Philly, etc) seem to make it work.

This line of argument is MUCH more likely to spell the end of Algebra II at Deal than it is to revive the entrance exam at Walls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The way admissions are being handled this year will not ensure a class of 150 high achieving, on grade level students.

My kid didn't get a spot either, but please don't rain on a bunch of hard working middle school kids who got an opportunity.

+100

Comments like PP are just gross. You can be upset your kid didn’t get an interview and think the process is unfair. Fine. Claiming that the kids who did get an interview are not high achieving makes you an a**hole.

Notably, PP didn't say this. PP didn't say none of the kids who got interviews are high-achieving. Just that the process does not ensure a class of 150 high achieving, on grade level students. It doesn't. It is likely that many of the kids being interviewed (and who will eventually take places at the school) are in fact high-achieving, but the process does nothing to exclude kids who are below grade level, and it doesn't necessarily result in the 300 highest achieving students in the applicant pool being interviewed.

And I would argue the admissions test did not ensure the 300 highest achieving students were interviewed. Or that the class was 150 high achieving students. There were years when the test cutoff for an interview was 50% on the math test.

Still, you’d probably rather have someone on the right side of that 50% in the class than on the wrong side.

All in all, I think testing is the best way to do admissions to a selective school. Grades and GPA mean totally different things at different schools. The finterviews were clearly silly. The letters of rec process they came up with is bizarre. These could all be components of admission, but they shouldn’t have more weight than an admissions test.

True.

Jeremiah Quinlan, the dean of undergraduate admissions at Yale, said in a written statement released by the university that Yale had determined that test scores, while imperfect, were predictive of academic success in college.

“Simply put,” he said, “students with higher scores have been more likely to have higher Yale G.P.A.s, and test scores are the single greatest predictor of a student’s performance in Yale courses in every model we have constructed.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The way admissions are being handled this year will not ensure a class of 150 high achieving, on grade level students.

My kid didn't get a spot either, but please don't rain on a bunch of hard working middle school kids who got an opportunity.

+100

Comments like PP are just gross. You can be upset your kid didn’t get an interview and think the process is unfair. Fine. Claiming that the kids who did get an interview are not high achieving makes you an a**hole.

Notably, PP didn't say this. PP didn't say none of the kids who got interviews are high-achieving. Just that the process does not ensure a class of 150 high achieving, on grade level students. It doesn't. It is likely that many of the kids being interviewed (and who will eventually take places at the school) are in fact high-achieving, but the process does nothing to exclude kids who are below grade level, and it doesn't necessarily result in the 300 highest achieving students in the applicant pool being interviewed.

Doens't necessarily? It absolutely does not and it hasn't for the past 4 admissions cycles. My older kid is in class of 2025 (the first non-test class). Most of the smartest and highest achievers that year were not admitted to Walls. My kid was in the Deal Algebra 2 class that year. A good 75% of the class who applied to Walls were not admitted. Dont' worry though--the top privates were happy to take them and these kids are now kiling it (most on aid) at Sidwell, GDS, STA, and NCS.
Same thing this year. My younger one is at Deal and did get an interview but most of the smartest kids she knows did not. These are smart, kind, social kids who have never had less than a A in any quarter at Deal. They're not obnoxious or trouble makers. A bunch of them all came from the same ELA or math classes at Deal with teacher(s) who probably gave them less than perfect rec scores (not knowing that perfect scores were needed to get the kids an interview).
It's been a crazily flawed process for years now.

Can’t imagine that there would be well-qualified students outside of Deal…. 🙄

Lol. Not my point at all.

But it's just striking that DCPS pays a specialized teacher to teach a class like middle school Algebra 2, picks super motivated, high achieving kids for the class and then rejects almost all of them for admission to their high school magnet. In turn, almost all of these students leave DCPS entirely for 9th grade.

So why did DCPS invest in these kids throughout middle school, including paying staff to develop this course sequence and teach this one-off class, etc?
It's just craziness. So much in DCPS that doesn't make sense and yet other large, urban districts (NYC, Philly, etc) seem to make it work.

You do realize Walls is a humanities based magnet school. Kids who are prioritizing advanced math go elsewhere. Maybe that had something to do with admissions decisions.

[Anonymous]

When they had the test, I know a bunch of kids who were on Principal's Honor Roll at Deal who did not make the cut for the interview. In general - nice kids who worked hard and were really good at box checking (which is what a lot of Middle School is).
I wish they put the PARCC requirement back. They can modify the rubric: that you needed to score at least a "4" in either 6th or 7th grade (this way if you have a bad test day you are still in the pool). The school district could say- if you attend a Title 1 school, a "3" is acceptable.
It is like colleges - you need some data point beyond grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The way admissions are being handled this year will not ensure a class of 150 high achieving, on grade level students.

My kid didn't get a spot either, but please don't rain on a bunch of hard working middle school kids who got an opportunity.

+100

Comments like PP are just gross. You can be upset your kid didn’t get an interview and think the process is unfair. Fine. Claiming that the kids who did get an interview are not high achieving makes you an a**hole.

Notably, PP didn't say this. PP didn't say none of the kids who got interviews are high-achieving. Just that the process does not ensure a class of 150 high achieving, on grade level students. It doesn't. It is likely that many of the kids being interviewed (and who will eventually take places at the school) are in fact high-achieving, but the process does nothing to exclude kids who are below grade level, and it doesn't necessarily result in the 300 highest achieving students in the applicant pool being interviewed.

Doens't necessarily? It absolutely does not and it hasn't for the past 4 admissions cycles. My older kid is in class of 2025 (the first non-test class). Most of the smartest and highest achievers that year were not admitted to Walls. My kid was in the Deal Algebra 2 class that year. A good 75% of the class who applied to Walls were not admitted. Dont' worry though--the top privates were happy to take them and these kids are now kiling it (most on aid) at Sidwell, GDS, STA, and NCS.
Same thing this year. My younger one is at Deal and did get an interview but most of the smartest kids she knows did not. These are smart, kind, social kids who have never had less than a A in any quarter at Deal. They're not obnoxious or trouble makers. A bunch of them all came from the same ELA or math classes at Deal with teacher(s) who probably gave them less than perfect rec scores (not knowing that perfect scores were needed to get the kids an interview).
It's been a crazily flawed process for years now.

Can’t imagine that there would be well-qualified students outside of Deal…. 🙄

Lol. Not my point at all.

But it's just striking that DCPS pays a specialized teacher to teach a class like middle school Algebra 2, picks super motivated, high achieving kids for the class and then rejects almost all of them for admission to their high school magnet. In turn, almost all of these students leave DCPS entirely for 9th grade.

So why did DCPS invest in these kids throughout middle school, including paying staff to develop this course sequence and teach this one-off class, etc?
It's just craziness. So much in DCPS that doesn't make sense and yet other large, urban districts (NYC, Philly, etc) seem to make it work.

Maybe these kids are better fits for Banneker of Mckinley Tech- Walls is a Humanities application high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The way admissions are being handled this year will not ensure a class of 150 high achieving, on grade level students.

My kid didn't get a spot either, but please don't rain on a bunch of hard working middle school kids who got an opportunity.

+100

Comments like PP are just gross. You can be upset your kid didn’t get an interview and think the process is unfair. Fine. Claiming that the kids who did get an interview are not high achieving makes you an a**hole.

Notably, PP didn't say this. PP didn't say none of the kids who got interviews are high-achieving. Just that the process does not ensure a class of 150 high achieving, on grade level students. It doesn't. It is likely that many of the kids being interviewed (and who will eventually take places at the school) are in fact high-achieving, but the process does nothing to exclude kids who are below grade level, and it doesn't necessarily result in the 300 highest achieving students in the applicant pool being interviewed.

Doens't necessarily? It absolutely does not and it hasn't for the past 4 admissions cycles. My older kid is in class of 2025 (the first non-test class). Most of the smartest and highest achievers that year were not admitted to Walls. My kid was in the Deal Algebra 2 class that year. A good 75% of the class who applied to Walls were not admitted. Dont' worry though--the top privates were happy to take them and these kids are now kiling it (most on aid) at Sidwell, GDS, STA, and NCS.
Same thing this year. My younger one is at Deal and did get an interview but most of the smartest kids she knows did not. These are smart, kind, social kids who have never had less than a A in any quarter at Deal. They're not obnoxious or trouble makers. A bunch of them all came from the same ELA or math classes at Deal with teacher(s) who probably gave them less than perfect rec scores (not knowing that perfect scores were needed to get the kids an interview).
It's been a crazily flawed process for years now.

Can’t imagine that there would be well-qualified students outside of Deal…. 🙄

Lol. Not my point at all.

But it's just striking that DCPS pays a specialized teacher to teach a class like middle school Algebra 2, picks super motivated, high achieving kids for the class and then rejects almost all of them for admission to their high school magnet. In turn, almost all of these students leave DCPS entirely for 9th grade.

So why did DCPS invest in these kids throughout middle school, including paying staff to develop this course sequence and teach this one-off class, etc?
It's just craziness. So much in DCPS that doesn't make sense and yet other large, urban districts (NYC, Philly, etc) seem to make it work.

Maybe these kids are better fits for Banneker of Mckinley Tech- Walls is a Humanities application high school.

No AP Physics, no BC calculus. Walls may call itself a humanities high school, and I don't think anyone should expect it to be like BASIS, but it's still the only selective high school in DC which has a significant proportion of kids who are advanced in math, and the coursework to support them at least to some degree. Also, it's not like they're considering the kids' ELA PARCC scores, either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The way admissions are being handled this year will not ensure a class of 150 high achieving, on grade level students.

My kid didn't get a spot either, but please don't rain on a bunch of hard working middle school kids who got an opportunity.

+100

Comments like PP are just gross. You can be upset your kid didn’t get an interview and think the process is unfair. Fine. Claiming that the kids who did get an interview are not high achieving makes you an a**hole.

Notably, PP didn't say this. PP didn't say none of the kids who got interviews are high-achieving. Just that the process does not ensure a class of 150 high achieving, on grade level students. It doesn't. It is likely that many of the kids being interviewed (and who will eventually take places at the school) are in fact high-achieving, but the process does nothing to exclude kids who are below grade level, and it doesn't necessarily result in the 300 highest achieving students in the applicant pool being interviewed.

Doens't necessarily? It absolutely does not and it hasn't for the past 4 admissions cycles. My older kid is in class of 2025 (the first non-test class). Most of the smartest and highest achievers that year were not admitted to Walls. My kid was in the Deal Algebra 2 class that year. A good 75% of the class who applied to Walls were not admitted. Dont' worry though--the top privates were happy to take them and these kids are now kiling it (most on aid) at Sidwell, GDS, STA, and NCS.
Same thing this year. My younger one is at Deal and did get an interview but most of the smartest kids she knows did not. These are smart, kind, social kids who have never had less than a A in any quarter at Deal. They're not obnoxious or trouble makers. A bunch of them all came from the same ELA or math classes at Deal with teacher(s) who probably gave them less than perfect rec scores (not knowing that perfect scores were needed to get the kids an interview).
It's been a crazily flawed process for years now.

This. The process oozes incompetence, unclear goals for Walls, weak leadership at Walls, and political prerogatives in city where ed leaders are obsessed with the threatening optics of majority white/high SES classes and schools. The process does not embody fairness or a methodical talent search.

I'm a New Yorker who went to Stuyvesant. My spouse is a Bostonian who went to Latin. We prepped like crazy for entrance exams taken in 8th grade (me) and 6th grade (spouse) mostly at free city test prep centers open to all comers (good thing as our families could not afford to pay for test prep). There were no interviews but there was abundant diversity in our HS cohorts. Many of our classmates from low-income backgrounds, whites, Asians and URMs alike, went on to Ivies, top 10 SLACs, military academics, MIT, Cal Tech etc. This shambolic admissions process is bad for DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The way admissions are being handled this year will not ensure a class of 150 high achieving, on grade level students.

My kid didn't get a spot either, but please don't rain on a bunch of hard working middle school kids who got an opportunity.

+100

Comments like PP are just gross. You can be upset your kid didn’t get an interview and think the process is unfair. Fine. Claiming that the kids who did get an interview are not high achieving makes you an a**hole.

Notably, PP didn't say this. PP didn't say none of the kids who got interviews are high-achieving. Just that the process does not ensure a class of 150 high achieving, on grade level students. It doesn't. It is likely that many of the kids being interviewed (and who will eventually take places at the school) are in fact high-achieving, but the process does nothing to exclude kids who are below grade level, and it doesn't necessarily result in the 300 highest achieving students in the applicant pool being interviewed.

And I would argue the admissions test did not ensure the 300 highest achieving students were interviewed. Or that the class was 150 high achieving students. There were years when the test cutoff for an interview was 50% on the math test.

Still, you’d probably rather have someone on the right side of that 50% in the class than on the wrong side.

All in all, I think testing is the best way to do admissions to a selective school. Grades and GPA mean totally different things at different schools. The finterviews were clearly silly. The letters of rec process they came up with is bizarre. These could all be components of admission, but they shouldn’t have more weight than an admissions test.

True.

Jeremiah Quinlan, the dean of undergraduate admissions at Yale, said in a written statement released by the university that Yale had determined that test scores, while imperfect, were predictive of academic success in college.

“Simply put,” he said, “students with higher scores have been more likely to have higher Yale G.P.A.s, and test scores are the single greatest predictor of a student’s performance in Yale courses in every model we have constructed.”

I agree. How did SF bring back the test for Lowell -- who was pushing back? Can parents start to advocate for a return of the test?

[Anonymous]

DC is not trying to be Boston or NYC. And applications to Walls keep rising.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC is not trying to be Boston or NYC. And applications to Walls keep rising.

Ha, of course they do. With opaque and subjective admissions criteria, EVERYONE has a shot!

[Anonymous]

It is interesting - last year the cutoff was 3.88 (approx) to get an invterview - and they interviewed 500 (so you needed a 3.88 to be in top 500 group). This year, the cut off GPA was 3.7 - at which point they looked at letters of rec/scored those letters and added that score to GPA score. I wonder how many kids were in the 3.7 and above pool. This probably expanded eligible numbers by a lot. 1000? 750?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The way admissions are being handled this year will not ensure a class of 150 high achieving, on grade level students.

My kid didn't get a spot either, but please don't rain on a bunch of hard working middle school kids who got an opportunity.

+100

Comments like PP are just gross. You can be upset your kid didn’t get an interview and think the process is unfair. Fine. Claiming that the kids who did get an interview are not high achieving makes you an a**hole.

Notably, PP didn't say this. PP didn't say none of the kids who got interviews are high-achieving. Just that the process does not ensure a class of 150 high achieving, on grade level students. It doesn't. It is likely that many of the kids being interviewed (and who will eventually take places at the school) are in fact high-achieving, but the process does nothing to exclude kids who are below grade level, and it doesn't necessarily result in the 300 highest achieving students in the applicant pool being interviewed.

Doens't necessarily? It absolutely does not and it hasn't for the past 4 admissions cycles. My older kid is in class of 2025 (the first non-test class). Most of the smartest and highest achievers that year were not admitted to Walls. My kid was in the Deal Algebra 2 class that year. A good 75% of the class who applied to Walls were not admitted. Dont' worry though--the top privates were happy to take them and these kids are now kiling it (most on aid) at Sidwell, GDS, STA, and NCS.
Same thing this year. My younger one is at Deal and did get an interview but most of the smartest kids she knows did not. These are smart, kind, social kids who have never had less than a A in any quarter at Deal. They're not obnoxious or trouble makers. A bunch of them all came from the same ELA or math classes at Deal with teacher(s) who probably gave them less than perfect rec scores (not knowing that perfect scores were needed to get the kids an interview).
It's been a crazily flawed process for years now.

Nothing is flawed... Just maybe SWW is tired of being the backup plan for kids that were always going to private schools. It's a nightmare to manage a waitlist. They want families that really want to be there.

I don’t think that’s the reason (or if it’s the reason, it’s been a failure). The number of seats SWW has to offer to fill a freshman class has been going up since they dropped the exam, not down.

The increase in seats is from the CO. SWW is actually over enrolled. They have made a point to stop going to the wait list. A big part of that is selecting families that want to be at the school who don't have better options.