DCPS Selective HSs: What to know.

[Anonymous]

Walls is better than fine, got lunch with a development officer from Dartmouth who used to be in admissions there and other places, and they love Walls (and it has a great reputation at that kind of school). I feel like we’re arguing about really fine, inconsequential margins here,

The guy didn’t have any real sense of McKinley, and I told him he should. I think McKinley in particular is a great school that is very early in building a brand

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:- No full courses of AP science classes every year - this is accurate
- No science labs - this is accurate
- No math classes after Calculus - this is accurate
- No STEM elective classes - does AP stats count? I think so.
- No computer science or coding classes - accurate.
- No robotics team- not accurate. It exists just not very good.
- No STEM clubs- they have science Olympiad
- No STEM internship opportunities- accurate.

What exactly does the robotics club do? I don’t get it.

Do they have a robotics lab and builds and codes robots from scratch to then compete with the other schools in the DMV in tournaments? If so what tournaments?

Above was asked and no answer. Just silence.

I don’t know about their robotics club but DCI’s does, supposedly- I think that’s a function of parents and sponsors who more or less “do that” for a living. Friends of friends.

I don’t understand what you are trying to say PP. What do you mean?

She’s just being racist. Their mentality is that kids who live outside ward 3 can’t be excellent. Disgusting.

Well then I would argue, Walls is not excellent in STEM if they can’t even field a robotics team to compete which lots of schools do in the DMV.

I know some of these kids on the DCI robotics team and they are amazing, good, and kind kids. DCI actually has 3 teams and all the teams are very diverse with kids who are white, black, asian, hispanics and that’s a great thing to represent a school.

Also FYI, the middle school and high school teams last year and this year advanced the most in the DMV to regionals and district even against the privates like SiDwell or the schools in the burbs like those in Bethesda and McLean.

The program is based at DCI as a club after school and the teacher who runs it is amazing. He started the club, got the school and outside companies as sponsors to fund building the lab and all the equipment and has done so much to advance the program.

Walls does not purport to be a STEM school. McKinley is. Why do you want them to be something they are not designed to be?

People have said this that it is not a STEM school and does not offer as much STEM offerings. It is well known that it is more a humanities school.

But read the thread how so many Walls parents can’t acknowledge that and why there are pages of the discussion what Walls actually offers with STEM programming.

No one has claimed tgat Walls is a "STEM school."

Several posters have said their STEM kids are happy at Walls and are getting a good HS education.

Is it really that hard to understand the distinction?

As the kids say "no lies detected."

I have STEM kids and would happily send them to Walls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Walls is better than fine, got lunch with a development officer from Dartmouth who used to be in admissions there and other places, and they love Walls (and it has a great reputation at that kind of school). I feel like we’re arguing about really fine, inconsequential margins here,

The guy didn’t have any real sense of McKinley, and I told him he should. I think McKinley in particular is a great school that is very early in building a brand

One tidbit that is overlooked is that Walls, Banneker, and Duke were all established in roughly their current models in the 1970s, and McKinley only opened as a STEM-focused school in 2007. (Prior to that, it was a regular neighborhood high school.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Walls is better than fine, got lunch with a development officer from Dartmouth who used to be in admissions there and other places, and they love Walls (and it has a great reputation at that kind of school). I feel like we’re arguing about really fine, inconsequential margins here,

The guy didn’t have any real sense of McKinley, and I told him he should. I think McKinley in particular is a great school that is very early in building a brand

One tidbit that is overlooked is that Walls, Banneker, and Duke were all established in roughly their current models in the 1970s, and McKinley only opened as a STEM-focused school in 2007. (Prior to that, it was a regular neighborhood high school.)

This is only partially true -- it opened in in 1902 as a white-only technical school. Then after desgregation it flipped to mostly black, though they still had technical and challeging math and science classes for a while.

But then enrollment slowly dropped through the end of the 20th century and they shuttered in the late 90s, and were reopened in the early 2000s as a STEM application school.

[Anonymous]

Yes, the McKinley tech brand really appears to be on the verge of turning into something.

I think it's a combination of organic success in STEM, which is great, combined with oversubscribed Banneker and Walls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:- No full courses of AP science classes every year - this is accurate
- No science labs - this is accurate
- No math classes after Calculus - this is accurate
- No STEM elective classes - does AP stats count? I think so.
- No computer science or coding classes - accurate.
- No robotics team- not accurate. It exists just not very good.
- No STEM clubs- they have science Olympiad
- No STEM internship opportunities- accurate.

What exactly does the robotics club do? I don’t get it.

Do they have a robotics lab and builds and codes robots from scratch to then compete with the other schools in the DMV in tournaments? If so what tournaments?

Above was asked and no answer. Just silence.

I don’t know about their robotics club but DCI’s does, supposedly- I think that’s a function of parents and sponsors who more or less “do that” for a living. Friends of friends.

I don’t understand what you are trying to say PP. What do you mean?

She’s just being racist. Their mentality is that kids who live outside ward 3 can’t be excellent. Disgusting.

Well then I would argue, Walls is not excellent in STEM if they can’t even field a robotics team to compete which lots of schools do in the DMV.

I know some of these kids on the DCI robotics team and they are amazing, good, and kind kids. DCI actually has 3 teams and all the teams are very diverse with kids who are white, black, asian, hispanics and that’s a great thing to represent a school.

Also FYI, the middle school and high school teams last year and this year advanced the most in the DMV to regionals and district even against the privates like SiDwell or the schools in the burbs like those in Bethesda and McLean.

The program is based at DCI as a club after school and the teacher who runs it is amazing. He started the club, got the school and outside companies as sponsors to fund building the lab and all the equipment and has done so much to advance the program.

omg. the ridiculousness of this thread.

How in the world does someone interpret the indecipherable comment about DCI robotics as "racist" and as having anything to do with Ward 3???

And then the comment just above -- Walls has a robotics team. Meanwhile, DCI is not a "selective DCPS high school" (see thread title) so I continue to be confused why someone keep pumping DCI.

People have given answers to questions and no matter the answer, some poster here keeps saying, "I'll take that as a no."

I know I shouldn't waste my time here, but it's too, too funny.

I’m the poster above and a Walls parent was the one that bought DCI into this conversation and so I responded.

Multiple posters seems to think the comment was racist and if you don’t think then that is your prerogative.

As to the Walls robotics team, the question has been asked several time and no one has answered it. What robotics competition does the team compete in? If they don’t compete then what does the Walls robotics team actually do?

You know why no one is answering the question? Because apparently none of the people responding here have kids that are involved in it. You must have some real faith in the popularity of DCUM if you think no details means it doesn't exist!

You know what I don’t have? Faith in anonymous posters who can post any BS they want on here.

Lots of Walls parents on here advocating that it’s a school with strong STEM offerings and yet not one person can answer the question…….

Walls has a robotics team. How do I know? My kid has friends on the team. The robotics team competes in competitions. How do I know? The school’s weekly bulletin mentions robotics competitions, and my kids’ friend talks about it. Which competitions do they compete in? I have no earthly idea.
Waiting for PP to come back and say the team must not exist because we don’t know the name of the competitions.

[Anonymous]

Even if people weren't posting about the robotics team or whatever, it would be crazy to conclude it doesn't exist on the basis of "I made a claim on dcum and no one told me I was wrong."

[Anonymous]

Below is updated list then for those interested.


- No full courses of AP science classes every year - this is accurate
- No science labs - this is accurate
- No math classes after Calculus - this is accurate
- No STEM elective classes - coding class
- No computer science - accurate.
- No robotics team- not accurate. It exists just not very good.
- No STEM clubs- they have science Olympiad
- No school STEM internship opportunities- accurate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Below is updated list then for those interested.


- No full courses of AP science classes every year - this is accurate
- No science labs - this is accurate
- No math classes after Calculus - this is accurate
- No STEM elective classes - coding class
- No computer science - accurate.
- No robotics team- not accurate. It exists just not very good.
- No STEM clubs- they have science Olympiad
- No school STEM internship opportunities- accurate.

And for people who prefer real info over human GrokAI: https://www.swwhs.org/academics

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Below is updated list then for those interested.


- No full courses of AP science classes every year - this is accurate
- No science labs - this is accurate
- No math classes after Calculus - this is accurate
- No STEM elective classes - coding class
- No computer science - accurate.
- No robotics team- not accurate. It exists just not very good.
- No STEM clubs- they have science Olympiad
- No school STEM internship opportunities- accurate.

And for people who prefer real info over human GrokAI: https://www.swwhs.org/academics

List in link above are potential courses but it is not accurate in that lots of courses esp languages, electives, etc.. are not consistently offered every year or at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Below is updated list then for those interested.


- No full courses of AP science classes every year - this is accurate
- No science labs - this is accurate
- No math classes after Calculus - this is accurate
- No STEM elective classes - coding class
- No computer science - accurate.
- No robotics team- not accurate. It exists just not very good.
- No STEM clubs- they have science Olympiad
- No school STEM internship opportunities- accurate.

Cool. Why are you interested in Walls vs McKinley?

Is it your desire to be right? Is it needing validation of a label?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Below is updated list then for those interested.


- No full courses of AP science classes every year - this is accurate
- No science labs - this is accurate
- No math classes after Calculus - this is accurate
- No STEM elective classes - coding class
- No computer science - accurate.
- No robotics team- not accurate. It exists just not very good.
- No STEM clubs- they have science Olympiad
- No school STEM internship opportunities- accurate.

And for people who prefer real info over human GrokAI: https://www.swwhs.org/academics

List in link above are potential courses but it is not accurate in that lots of courses esp languages, electives, etc.. are not consistently offered every year or at all.

True, and also true at any modest size school. Even privates don't have every course in their course catalog every year.

Fortunately, most courses are every year, and a student does not need to take all courses every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Below is updated list then for those interested.


- No full courses of AP science classes every year - this is accurate
- No science labs - this is accurate
- No math classes after Calculus - this is accurate
- No STEM elective classes - coding class
- No computer science - accurate.
- No robotics team- not accurate. It exists just not very good.
- No STEM clubs- they have science Olympiad
- No school STEM internship opportunities- accurate.

And for people who prefer real info over human GrokAI: https://www.swwhs.org/academics

List in link above are potential courses but it is not accurate in that lots of courses esp languages, electives, etc.. are not consistently offered every year or at all.

True, and also true at any modest size school. Even privates don't have every course in their course catalog every year.

Fortunately, most courses are every year, and a student does not need to take all courses every year.

m

With that said, I believe the 25-26 course list is accurate (see link on page linked above), except that there is no French 1 this year due to lots of demand for higher level French classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Below is updated list then for those interested.


- No full courses of AP science classes every year - this is accurate
- No science labs - this is accurate
- No math classes after Calculus - this is accurate
- No STEM elective classes - coding class
- No computer science - accurate.
- No robotics team- not accurate. It exists just not very good.
- No STEM clubs- they have science Olympiad
- No school STEM internship opportunities- accurate.

Cool. Why are you interested in Walls vs McKinley?

Is it your desire to be right? Is it needing validation of a label?

Why are you so triggered? It’s helpful info to families as a number of posters have said on this thread.

Info and transparency is a good thing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Below is updated list then for those interested.


- No full courses of AP science classes every year - this is accurate
- No science labs - this is accurate
- No math classes after Calculus - this is accurate
- No STEM elective classes - coding class
- No computer science - accurate.
- No robotics team- not accurate. It exists just not very good.
- No STEM clubs- they have science Olympiad
- No school STEM internship opportunities- accurate.

Cool. Why are you interested in Walls vs McKinley?

Is it your desire to be right? Is it needing validation of a label?

Why are you so triggered? It’s helpful info to families as a number of posters have said on this thread.

Info and transparency is a good thing

DP - Because the poster seems more driven to make some inscrutable point than to provide info and transparency.

Walls has Multivariate Calc and AP Statistics? Do those count as classes "after calculus"? Is that different than other schools? Beats me.

Walls has other relevant electives, especially if you are looking for STEAM, such as graphic design and imaging. Those classes are on the course list, if the poster above would bother to look.

Why does the poster deem Walls robotics club "not very good"?

Why does the poster keep mentioning just one relevant club when at least three others have been mentioned up thread?

Who knows what her agenda is.