DC Graduation Problems Extend to Wilson High School, Councilmember Says

[Anonymous]

I am a former Wilson student. During my senior yr, I know I missed over 70 days. Despite missing those days, I graduated, attended the University of Maryland and now have a rewarding career. Just because students miss class, doesn't mean they can't grasp the concepts. Students can watch online content to learn and receive support in other places. School is just a building where learning is "expected" to occur. Tons of learning happens outside of the classroom and online now. Also, alot of the senior courses are unnecessary classes. In my case, I only needed to take an English class to graduate, however my counselor gave me other classes that I could BS through and pass easily without attending regularly.

Just my thoughts

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a former Wilson student. During my senior yr, I know I missed over 70 days. Despite missing those days, I graduated, attended the University of Maryland and now have a rewarding career. Just because students miss class, doesn't mean they can't grasp the concepts. Students can watch online content to learn and receive support in other places. School is just a building where learning is "expected" to occur. Tons of learning happens outside of the classroom and online now. Also, alot of the senior courses are unnecessary classes. In my case, I only needed to take an English class to graduate, however my counselor gave me other classes that I could BS through and pass easily without attending regularly.

Just my thoughts

Great idea. Let's let all seniors do all their coursework online only. That will save money on teacher salaries, and as a bonus, Wilson will be less crowded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where are you all seeing the data that the studentsabsent at Wilson are from OOB? Or kids under the poverty line?

You must be new here. Behold:

https://osse.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/osse/publication/attachments/2017%20PARCC%20State%20Results%20Public%20Presentation_updated%20Sept.%2027%2C%202017_0.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a former Wilson student. During my senior yr, I know I missed over 70 days. Despite missing those days, I graduated, attended the University of Maryland and now have a rewarding career. Just because students miss class, doesn't mean they can't grasp the concepts. Students can watch online content to learn and receive support in other places. School is just a building where learning is "expected" to occur. Tons of learning happens outside of the classroom and online now. Also, alot of the senior courses are unnecessary classes. In my case, I only needed to take an English class to graduate, however my counselor gave me other classes that I could BS through and pass easily without attending regularly.

Just my thoughts

I’m not a Wilson graduate but I missed more than the allowed number of days my senior year in high school too. Went to a good college, graduated from a top 10 law school, productive member of society.

[Anonymous]

Why did none of the reports mention teacher vacancies or substitutes? Many of the students reported missing classes as FCPS provided no teacher...

[Anonymous]

Pp here... that should have said DCPS not FCPS...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps DCPS should establish a magnet school for all students with attendance problems. That way, they could deal with them all in one place, rather than in every school

It certainly would be a huge school -- since "75 percent of the 2,307 graduates systemwide missed more than 10 percent of the school days"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-schools-increasingly-graduating-chronically-absent-students-report-finds/2018/01/16/a1722404-bf01-44bc-a8c7-e9d9e3b3e9df_story.html?utm_term=.b60ce4514275

right but not many would show up on any given day...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are you all seeing the data that the studentsabsent at Wilson are from OOB? Or kids under the poverty line?

You must be new here. Behold:

https://osse.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/osse/publication/attachments/2017%20PARCC%20State%20Results%20Public%20Presentation_updated%20Sept.%2027%2C%202017_0.pdf

That’s 54 pages. It says in there somewhere that the third of the students from Wilson who have chornic absences are from out of boundary? That doesn’t make sense because around50% of kids are in boundary.

[Anonymous]

I am excited to read all of the excuses in here given for the Wilson kids.

No excuses for this until it’s wilson and then the excuses come out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am excited to read all of the excuses in here given for the Wilson kids.

No excuses for this until it’s wilson and then the excuses come out.

So true. "Apply the rules with no exceptions for those other kids. Not mine."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am excited to read all of the excuses in here given for the Wilson kids.

No excuses for this until it’s wilson and then the excuses come out.

So true. "Apply the rules with no exceptions for those other kids. Not mine."

I'm glad someone else sees it too. I'm waiting for the push back to my post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am excited to read all of the excuses in here given for the Wilson kids.

No excuses for this until it’s wilson and then the excuses come out.

I'm not seeing a whole lot of excuses.

It's interesting that some of the highest performing students at Wilson have chronic absenteeism. Also, I assume that some of the lowest performing students also have chronic absenteeism. Neither should be given a pass. Or a diploma.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a former Wilson student. During my senior yr, I know I missed over 70 days. Despite missing those days, I graduated, attended the University of Maryland and now have a rewarding career. Just because students miss class, doesn't mean they can't grasp the concepts. Students can watch online content to learn and receive support in other places. School is just a building where learning is "expected" to occur. Tons of learning happens outside of the classroom and online now. Also, alot of the senior courses are unnecessary classes. In my case, I only needed to take an English class to graduate, however my counselor gave me other classes that I could BS through and pass easily without attending regularly.

Just my thoughts

If that’s the case, then there’s obviously something wrong with the high school. Either you weren’t taking classes that were sufficiently challenging and interesting enough to compel your attendance or those classes weren’t offered. If they weren’t offered, that’s a problem that should be fixed. If you weren’t taking the most interesting and rigorous courseload, well, that’s on you and you shouldn’t have been granted a diploma for taking up space and taxpayer money to do nothing your senior year of high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am excited to read all of the excuses in here given for the Wilson kids.

No excuses for this until it’s wilson and then the excuses come out.

I'm not seeing a whole lot of excuses.

It's interesting that some of the highest performing students at Wilson have chronic absenteeism. Also, I assume that some of the lowest performing students also have chronic absenteeism. Neither should be given a pass. Or a diploma.

Excuses:

the record keeping is inaccurate and it's too hard to get it corrected
my child only has legitimate absences including family vacation and protest marches
the real issue is their test scores. my kid is passing parcc/has a high GPA so it doesn't matter that they miss 5-20% of school days (e.g. 10-36 days)
it's ridiculous that DCPS counts one / two periods as a whole day absent

[Anonymous]

wow. I've often heard Wilson HS and BCC HS compared as more or less equivalent.

clearly, that's not the case.