DCPS Selective HSs: What to know.

[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.

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.

+1. It's especially weird because, while there are other DC public/charter schools which are for sure better on some of these, none of them checks all of the boxes in a way that would apparently satisfy this person. If the case you want to make is that you need to get out of DC because your kid needs linear algebra in high school (and not from a dual enrollment program), knock yourself out, but that's not specific to SWW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

+1. It's especially weird because, while there are other DC public/charter schools which are for sure better on some of these, none of them checks all of the boxes in a way that would apparently satisfy this person. If the case you want to make is that you need to get out of DC because your kid needs linear algebra in high school (and not from a dual enrollment program), knock yourself out, but that's not specific to SWW.

This person has been on multiple threads spouting the same thing over and over. From what I can tell they want us all to "demand better" from DCPS. They refuse to accept that other people have different priorities and will characterize any deviation from their ideal as either ignorance or lack of care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

NP. How is this different than what you are replying to?

[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.

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.

FYI, I don’t think it is just one poster and there are multiple posters responding to the list and reposting.

Also whoever posted those answers I suspect is actually a Walls parent and the “not very good” about the robotics club.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

FYI, I don’t think it is just one poster and there are multiple posters responding to the list and reposting.

Also whoever posted those answers I suspect is actually a Walls parent and the “not very good” about the robotics club.

Whoever posted that list is not a Walks parent or it could not have been so chronically inaccurate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

FYI, I don’t think it is just one poster and there are multiple posters responding to the list and reposting.

Also whoever posted those answers I suspect is actually a Walls parent and the “not very good” about the robotics club.

Whoever posted that list is not a Walks parent or it could not have been so chronically inaccurate.

Not the list itself because it said Walls parents chime in to correct but the answers initially to the list

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

+1. It's especially weird because, while there are other DC public/charter schools which are for sure better on some of these, none of them checks all of the boxes in a way that would apparently satisfy this person. If the case you want to make is that you need to get out of DC because your kid needs linear algebra in high school (and not from a dual enrollment program), knock yourself out, but that's not specific to SWW.

This person has been on multiple threads spouting the same thing over and over. From what I can tell they want us all to "demand better" from DCPS. They refuse to accept that other people have different priorities and will characterize any deviation from their ideal as either ignorance or lack of care.

Omg is this the Stuart hobson admin posting again? I’m excited to hear how you decide which “other priorities” you are focusing on. Because your school is letting down all students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

FYI, I don’t think it is just one poster and there are multiple posters responding to the list and reposting.

Also whoever posted those answers I suspect is actually a Walls parent and the “not very good” about the robotics club.

DP- robotics team scores are publicly available and you can research them yourself. Many students do robotics via private organizations. The team at Walls hasn’t done that well but that’s just the way it goes sometimes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It definitely exists but maybe should be doing better but I think interested students tend to do private programs.

[Anonymous]

There are lots of things DCPS is messing up on. Linear algebra is nowhere on my list. Like, change the SWW admissions process to better prioritize taking kids with advanced academic needs instead of relying on the applicant pool to take care of that, and then you can revisit whether that leads to a big enough pool of students who need more math.

[Anonymous]

"better prioritize taking kids with advanced academic needs"

vs

"kids who got good grades so far and recommendations from their teachers"

Is that the request?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

+1. It's especially weird because, while there are other DC public/charter schools which are for sure better on some of these, none of them checks all of the boxes in a way that would apparently satisfy this person. If the case you want to make is that you need to get out of DC because your kid needs linear algebra in high school (and not from a dual enrollment program), knock yourself out, but that's not specific to SWW.

This person has been on multiple threads spouting the same thing over and over. From what I can tell they want us all to "demand better" from DCPS. They refuse to accept that other people have different priorities and will characterize any deviation from their ideal as either ignorance or lack of care.

Omg is this the Stuart hobson admin posting again? I’m excited to hear how you decide which “other priorities” you are focusing on. Because your school is letting down all students.

Nope, DP. But you are a very rigid thinker who doesn't seem to understand that you're not going to build a coalition by exaggerating and insulting anyone who doesn't 100% agree with everything you say.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"better prioritize taking kids with advanced academic needs"

vs

"kids who got good grades so far and recommendations from their teachers"

Is that the request?

Different poster here. My oldest is in 7th so I’ve been paying close attention both in my personal life and on here to the SWW discussion. I know many brilliant students who were not even interviewed. I’ve tried very hard to figure out why without being rude. But it doesn’t seem to make sense. I have also noted that SWW seems great BUT there are definitely areas where DC could improve. I personally thought SWW took the top students but I’m learning that probably we should look at other options as well if our our wants to take some classes. Which is fine and normal. Just a bit sad that there seem to be more great students for a small about of spots and the process doesn’t make a lot of sense to me so far.

In other words, SWW seems great but could be better and the process doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Why no testing or review of the courses the kids took? I understand there is a short written test but that seems odd. Are they disputing the CAPE results? Should I not even bother having my kid take the cape this year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

+1. It's especially weird because, while there are other DC public/charter schools which are for sure better on some of these, none of them checks all of the boxes in a way that would apparently satisfy this person. If the case you want to make is that you need to get out of DC because your kid needs linear algebra in high school (and not from a dual enrollment program), knock yourself out, but that's not specific to SWW.

This person has been on multiple threads spouting the same thing over and over. From what I can tell they want us all to "demand better" from DCPS. They refuse to accept that other people have different priorities and will characterize any deviation from their ideal as either ignorance or lack of care.

Omg is this the Stuart hobson admin posting again? I’m excited to hear how you decide which “other priorities” you are focusing on. Because your school is letting down all students.

Nope, DP. But you are a very rigid thinker who doesn't seem to understand that you're not going to build a coalition by exaggerating and insulting anyone who doesn't 100% agree with everything you say.

Sorry how is it rigid to want kids to be at grade level? And I doubt it’s a different poster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

+1. It's especially weird because, while there are other DC public/charter schools which are for sure better on some of these, none of them checks all of the boxes in a way that would apparently satisfy this person. If the case you want to make is that you need to get out of DC because your kid needs linear algebra in high school (and not from a dual enrollment program), knock yourself out, but that's not specific to SWW.

This person has been on multiple threads spouting the same thing over and over. From what I can tell they want us all to "demand better" from DCPS. They refuse to accept that other people have different priorities and will characterize any deviation from their ideal as either ignorance or lack of care.

Omg is this the Stuart hobson admin posting again? I’m excited to hear how you decide which “other priorities” you are focusing on. Because your school is letting down all students.

Nope, DP. But you are a very rigid thinker who doesn't seem to understand that you're not going to build a coalition by exaggerating and insulting anyone who doesn't 100% agree with everything you say.

Sorry how is it rigid to want kids to be at grade level? And I doubt it’s a different poster.

I don’t think anyone is trying to “build a coalition”?