Any Walls boosters / haters these days?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why worry, OP, your odds of admission to Walls aren't good. Moreover, the school is going downhill without standardized test scores in admissions for three years now. The new head doesn't have a clear vision for the place, and that's putting it mildly. Some good teachers, yes, good crew team, not much else to cheer about at Walls these days.

This is incredibly inaccurate. I have a child at Walls and they love it and I am very please with it as well. Nothing is perfect but so far almost all of their teachers have been great. Also, they don't have a crew team. They used to be allowed to row for Jackson Reed but stopped offering that as an option two years ago I believe.

Not inaccurate. Embarrassingly and painfully accurate.

Incorrect, a bunch of Walls students still row for J-R, including first-year students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why worry, OP, your odds of admission to Walls aren't good. Moreover, the school is going downhill without standardized test scores in admissions for three years now. The new head doesn't have a clear vision for the place, and that's putting it mildly. Some good teachers, yes, good crew team, not much else to cheer about at Walls these days.

This is incredibly inaccurate. I have a child at Walls and they love it and I am very please with it as well. Nothing is perfect but so far almost all of their teachers have been great. Also, they don't have a crew team. They used to be allowed to row for Jackson Reed but stopped offering that as an option two years ago I believe.

Not inaccurate. Embarrassingly and painfully accurate.

Incorrect, a bunch of Walls students still row for J-R, including first-year students.

I completely disagree with your assessment of Walls but am happy we have had a great experience.

Yes, current rowers are allowed to stay on the JR team but they stopped allowing Walls students to join this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:9th grade is better at SWW than JR.
I had one kid go through JR and one through Walls. Most Walls 10th graders do AP World History. JR does not offer AP World any more.
Both my kids are doing Engineering in college.
The Walls kid was not hindered by Walls being a Humanities school. The Engineering classes at JR are not all that great. A couple of the Engineering teachers are meh. You also now can’t do Engineering + CS at JR because the academy model has become restrictive and strict. The Biomed academy at JR gets mixed reviews from parents and kids. Counseling was way better at Walls than JR at least in my experience. If you want to row, you should probably go to JR although I believe there are a couple of club teams in the DC area. Robotics team is better at JR but it is chaotic and leadership is usually hogged by a few kids so many kids get turned off. The newspaper is better at JR but Walls has a decent one. Model UN is good at Walls. Probably same at JR. Wall’s sports kids have to travel all over for practice and games. That is not great but the upside is that they get to know the city really well. Any other questions?

I also have one child at each school and want to make a point of clarification- it is true that J-R does not have World AP anymore but there are several APs that sophomores can take (e.g., Psych AP, Human Geography AP, African American Studies AP). Many sophomores take one, two, or (very rarely) three. In addition, some of the academy classes (which start in 9th grade) are as much work as AP classes. This is all to say that while I agree that Walls is better for 9th grade, starting in 10th grade J-R can be every bit as challenging if your child wants to challenge themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:9th grade is better at SWW than JR.
I had one kid go through JR and one through Walls. Most Walls 10th graders do AP World History. JR does not offer AP World any more.
Both my kids are doing Engineering in college.
The Walls kid was not hindered by Walls being a Humanities school. The Engineering classes at JR are not all that great. A couple of the Engineering teachers are meh. You also now can’t do Engineering + CS at JR because the academy model has become restrictive and strict. The Biomed academy at JR gets mixed reviews from parents and kids. Counseling was way better at Walls than JR at least in my experience. If you want to row, you should probably go to JR although I believe there are a couple of club teams in the DC area. Robotics team is better at JR but it is chaotic and leadership is usually hogged by a few kids so many kids get turned off. The newspaper is better at JR but Walls has a decent one. Model UN is good at Walls. Probably same at JR. Wall’s sports kids have to travel all over for practice and games. That is not great but the upside is that they get to know the city really well. Any other questions?

I also have one child at each school and want to make a point of clarification- it is true that J-R does not have World AP anymore but there are several APs that sophomores can take (e.g., Psych AP, Human Geography AP, African American Studies AP). Many sophomores take one, two, or (very rarely) three. In addition, some of the academy classes (which start in 9th grade) are as much work as AP classes. This is all to say that while I agree that Walls is better for 9th grade, starting in 10th grade J-R can be every bit as challenging if your child wants to challenge themselves.

Which academy classes are as much work as AP classes? Not Biomed or Engineering or Hospitality for sure.
AP Psychology and AP Human Geography are pretty hard to get into. Not sure about AP African American History.

[Anonymous]

Biomed is a ton of work, especially the second and third years of the pathway.

I don’t know any students in the past few years who haven’t been able to get into HUG or AP Psych (not sure about African American Studies). If you register for them in the spring you will almost always get them (not true if you try to switch into them in the fall).

The downside is that the class size can be quite big for these classes…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why worry, OP, your odds of admission to Walls aren't good. Moreover, the school is going downhill without standardized test scores in admissions for three years now. The new head doesn't have a clear vision for the place, and that's putting it mildly. Some good teachers, yes, good crew team, not much else to cheer about at Walls these days.

This is incredibly inaccurate. I have a child at Walls and they love it and I am very please with it as well. Nothing is perfect but so far almost all of their teachers have been great. Also, they don't have a crew team. They used to be allowed to row for Jackson Reed but stopped offering that as an option two years ago I believe.

Not inaccurate. Embarrassingly and painfully accurate.

Incorrect, a bunch of Walls students still row for J-R, including first-year students.

I completely disagree with your assessment of Walls but am happy we have had a great experience.

Yes, current rowers are allowed to stay on the JR team but they stopped allowing Walls students to join this year.

How are first-year Walls students rowing then?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:9th grade is better at SWW than JR.
I had one kid go through JR and one through Walls. Most Walls 10th graders do AP World History. JR does not offer AP World any more.
Both my kids are doing Engineering in college.
The Walls kid was not hindered by Walls being a Humanities school. The Engineering classes at JR are not all that great. A couple of the Engineering teachers are meh. You also now can’t do Engineering + CS at JR because the academy model has become restrictive and strict. The Biomed academy at JR gets mixed reviews from parents and kids. Counseling was way better at Walls than JR at least in my experience. If you want to row, you should probably go to JR although I believe there are a couple of club teams in the DC area. Robotics team is better at JR but it is chaotic and leadership is usually hogged by a few kids so many kids get turned off. The newspaper is better at JR but Walls has a decent one. Model UN is good at Walls. Probably same at JR. Wall’s sports kids have to travel all over for practice and games. That is not great but the upside is that they get to know the city really well. Any other questions?

I also have one child at each school and want to make a point of clarification- it is true that J-R does not have World AP anymore but there are several APs that sophomores can take (e.g., Psych AP, Human Geography AP, African American Studies AP). Many sophomores take one, two, or (very rarely) three. In addition, some of the academy classes (which start in 9th grade) are as much work as AP classes. This is all to say that while I agree that Walls is better for 9th grade, starting in 10th grade J-R can be every bit as challenging if your child wants to challenge themselves.

Which academy classes are as much work as AP classes? Not Biomed or Engineering or Hospitality for sure.
AP Psychology and AP Human Geography are pretty hard to get into. Not sure about AP African American History.

Athletic Achievement

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why worry, OP, your odds of admission to Walls aren't good. Moreover, the school is going downhill without standardized test scores in admissions for three years now. The new head doesn't have a clear vision for the place, and that's putting it mildly. Some good teachers, yes, good crew team, not much else to cheer about at Walls these days.

This is incredibly inaccurate. I have a child at Walls and they love it and I am very please with it as well. Nothing is perfect but so far almost all of their teachers have been great. Also, they don't have a crew team. They used to be allowed to row for Jackson Reed but stopped offering that as an option two years ago I believe.

Not inaccurate. Embarrassingly and painfully accurate.

Incorrect, a bunch of Walls students still row for J-R, including first-year students.

I completely disagree with your assessment of Walls but am happy we have had a great experience.

Yes, current rowers are allowed to stay on the JR team but they stopped allowing Walls students to join this year.

How are first-year Walls students rowing then?

Yes current Walls freshman are allowed to row but starting in the fall, new Walls students will not be allowed to row for JR. So if incoming students are interested in rowing they would have to join a club team.

[Anonymous]

Why can't Walls have its own rowing team?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why can't Walls have its own rowing team?

Exactly. It would seem they are closest to the facilities, after all!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why can't Walls have its own rowing team?

Probably not enough interest (in a small school) to field a full team?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of an 11th grader. SWW is... fine. Some good teachers, some crummy ones. Nice community, lots of good clubs, kid has made good ffriends. But (nerdy, diligent, perfectionist) kid has been surprised by how few classmates are as hard-charging academically as they are.

As another person chimed in above, biggest benefit of the application-school status is there are no behavioral issues.

Biggest downside is the facilities. Very crowded building, effectively no lab spaces, and no athletic facilities, so the sports teams have to travel to get to their practice sites. I was surprised to hear that some teams get released early from their 7th period every day to go to practice.

Someone earlier said Walls stands to lose three teachers--actually, it's two. Not that that's great on such a small faculty. Unless things change significantly, SWW will lose a language teacher and the theater teacher.

This is tremendously helpful - thank you. Do you think your kid is getting a strong foundation in the academic skills they'll need in college? I'm particularly thinking about whether they receive regular/substantive writing feedback, decent foreign language instruction, and sufficient depth in math/science (including lab sciences) to pursue those areas in college, if they so choose.

Mostly, I'm trying to figure out if Walls teachers will establish a strong academic foundation and set a high bar for my extrinsically motivated kid to work toward, or if it will take more self-direction/motivation.

I'm PP. My kid is super self-motivated, so it's hard for me to tell whether their excellent study skills come as a result of the school or because of their inner drive. They don't talk much about school aside from minor complaints (typical teenager, I think, nothing out of the ordinary). I don't think they get a lot of feedback on writing.

They took Spanish starting with Spanish 1 and the first two years were pretty bad (taught by a nonnative speaker, no less), but I have the impression this year's teacher is a bit better.

DC loves science and has tried to take everything they can in this area but was shut out of certain classes this year (after being told there was only space for 12th graders) and at least one of those classes (AP chemistry) won't be offered next year. That's another downside--there are limited course options particularly at the upper levels, and kids can get shut out. Still, I think my kid will graduate with enough sciences and related fields (AP physics, AP bio, AP Calc BC, AP stats, maybe AP psych or envtl science next year) that if they choose to go into that area, they'll be fine.

[Anonymous]

Parent of one about to graduate offering my thoughts on Walls.

Administration? Bless their hearts, they're trying (if we're being generous), but it feels like they're steering the ship with a broken compass. Their master plan? Convincing DC's finest students and their hopeful parents to partake in a battle royale for a golden ticket—150 spots in the Wonka factory. Their next move? Seemingly to kick back and let the school run itself.

Navigating teacher quality feels like spinning the wheel of fortune, where the outcomes can range from jackpot to bust in what's acclaimed as the district's educational pinnacle. Our workaround? Augmenting the curriculum with external expertise to bridge the voids.

The campus? Picture this: No theater, no gym, metal detectors and elbow to elbow without a locker in sight and sports logistics that make you yearn for a simpler life.

The students are the highlight, stars, but let's not pretend they wouldn't shine just as bright elsewhere.

Landed a spot? Pop the champagne! No need to relocate or sell a kidney for private school fees. But let's be clear: this isn't Hogwarts. Your kid won't be conjuring up academic spells overnight.

Deciding between JR or Walls? How splendid for you! Envious parents are lined up, ready to trade in their treasures for your dilemma.

Pondering private over public? If it's feasible, your choice could very well be the lifeline to maintaining another parent's sanity in this community. (Holy S**t people are on edge)

Missed out on the coveted spot but found a place at Banneker, McKinley, or Basis etc.? Your child's future is still as bright as ever.

Here's to rooting for all DCPS high schools and bidding farewell to the educational scarcity games.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parent of one about to graduate offering my thoughts on Walls.

Administration? Bless their hearts, they're trying (if we're being generous), but it feels like they're steering the ship with a broken compass. Their master plan? Convincing DC's finest students and their hopeful parents to partake in a battle royale for a golden ticket—150 spots in the Wonka factory. Their next move? Seemingly to kick back and let the school run itself.

Navigating teacher quality feels like spinning the wheel of fortune, where the outcomes can range from jackpot to bust in what's acclaimed as the district's educational pinnacle. Our workaround? Augmenting the curriculum with external expertise to bridge the voids.

The campus? Picture this: No theater, no gym, metal detectors and elbow to elbow without a locker in sight and sports logistics that make you yearn for a simpler life.

The students are the highlight, stars, but let's not pretend they wouldn't shine just as bright elsewhere.

Landed a spot? Pop the champagne! No need to relocate or sell a kidney for private school fees. But let's be clear: this isn't Hogwarts. Your kid won't be conjuring up academic spells overnight.

Deciding between JR or Walls? How splendid for you! Envious parents are lined up, ready to trade in their treasures for your dilemma.

Pondering private over public? If it's feasible, your choice could very well be the lifeline to maintaining another parent's sanity in this community. (Holy S**t people are on edge)

Missed out on the coveted spot but found a place at Banneker, McKinley, or Basis etc.? Your child's future is still as bright as ever.

Here's to rooting for all DCPS high schools and bidding farewell to the educational scarcity games.

NP but without getting too specific which subject areas do you feel like your kid hit the jackpot in terms of teachers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why can't Walls have its own rowing team?

Crew is a club sport that is entirely self-funded by parents/kids. You probably need close to $50k+ to recreate the equipment that JR has, plus pay to use a boathouse. On top of that, you probably have $25k+ of annual expenses for coaches and what not (and out of pocket for travel to regattas).

JR crew was started in the 1980s. The regattas told HS teams they could no longer mix HSs as private schools were creating super teams.