DCPS Selective HSs: What to know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

I will say that the kids who got interviews at SH vs not seem pretty random except that almost all of the 4.0s who have one teacher got interviews vs almost none of those with another. I am sure this happens at other schools too and it's really unfortunate, because I don't think either teacher did anything wrong, but I also don't think the results were intentional. I don't think SH gave teachers enough information that non-perfect recommendation = zero interview.

I would be so mad if I sent my kid to Stuart Hobson and some rando administrator or teacher was here all day posting rude comments.

Why is this a rude comment? It is saying that most of the 4.0s with one English teacher got interviews and none of the 4.0s with the other did. The students at SH figured this out quickly enough. I don't think English was tracked between the two classes, so my guess is that this outcome was not intentional and is the result of one teacher giving mostly perfect recommendations to good students and the other not. Neither is right or wrong in the abstract, but if you need a perfect recommendation to get an interview, SH needs to make sure its teachers know that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

I will say that the kids who got interviews at SH vs not seem pretty random except that almost all of the 4.0s who have one teacher got interviews vs almost none of those with another. I am sure this happens at other schools too and it's really unfortunate, because I don't think either teacher did anything wrong, but I also don't think the results were intentional. I don't think SH gave teachers enough information that non-perfect recommendation = zero interview.

I would be so mad if I sent my kid to Stuart Hobson and some rando administrator or teacher was here all day posting rude comments.

Why is this a rude comment? It is saying that most of the 4.0s with one English teacher got interviews and none of the 4.0s with the other did. The students at SH figured this out quickly enough. I don't think English was tracked between the two classes, so my guess is that this outcome was not intentional and is the result of one teacher giving mostly perfect recommendations to good students and the other not. Neither is right or wrong in the abstract, but if you need a perfect recommendation to get an interview, SH needs to make sure its teachers know that.

Wow I would be so annoyed! Playing with fate.

[Anonymous]

For all those following the conversation about how DCI robotics is wonderful and Walls robotics is "not very good," assuming it even exists...

We have data!

This weekend, DCI and Walls competed in the same robotics competition.

Walls was not at the top. They came in 30th out of 34 teams.

DCI was so much better!!! They came in 26th out of 34 teams.

Make sure to send your kid to DCI or their future on STEM is toast.

(My own view: A lot of factors go into becoming a winning team -- it's not as simple as just the student's tech savvy. The preparation and competition is a valuable learning experience. Congratulations to both teams for doing the hard work!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For all those following the conversation about how DCI robotics is wonderful and Walls robotics is "not very good," assuming it even exists...

We have data!

This weekend, DCI and Walls competed in the same robotics competition.

Walls was not at the top. They came in 30th out of 34 teams.

DCI was so much better!!! They came in 26th out of 34 teams.

Make sure to send your kid to DCI or their future on STEM is toast.

(My own view: A lot of factors go into becoming a winning team -- it's not as simple as just the student's tech savvy. The preparation and competition is a valuable learning experience. Congratulations to both teams for doing the hard work!)

Which robotics competition was this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For all those following the conversation about how DCI robotics is wonderful and Walls robotics is "not very good," assuming it even exists...

We have data!

This weekend, DCI and Walls competed in the same robotics competition.

Walls was not at the top. They came in 30th out of 34 teams.

DCI was so much better!!! They came in 26th out of 34 teams.

Make sure to send your kid to DCI or their future on STEM is toast.

(My own view: A lot of factors go into becoming a winning team -- it's not as simple as just the student's tech savvy. The preparation and competition is a valuable learning experience. Congratulations to both teams for doing the hard work!)

Which robotics competition was this?

One of the FIRST events. Is it really important?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For all those following the conversation about how DCI robotics is wonderful and Walls robotics is "not very good," assuming it even exists...

We have data!

This weekend, DCI and Walls competed in the same robotics competition.

Walls was not at the top. They came in 30th out of 34 teams.

DCI was so much better!!! They came in 26th out of 34 teams.

Make sure to send your kid to DCI or their future on STEM is toast.

(My own view: A lot of factors go into becoming a winning team -- it's not as simple as just the student's tech savvy. The preparation and competition is a valuable learning experience. Congratulations to both teams for doing the hard work!)

To be fair, one competition doesn’t make a very good data point. If you know anything about robotics, things can go great or things can go wrong with your robot or issues come up. Above is disappointing based on past performance.

You need to look at the big picture. I was not there this weekend but season is not over and there are other competitions and wait and see how teams do.

But I do know that DCI’s high school team was the only team in all of the DMV that advanced last year to districts. After districts is works competition. They also won a number of awards. Will see how they will ultimately do this year.

Also 1 of the 2 DCI middle school team this year advance to regionals. It was the only school team in the DMV to do that. They did not advance to world championships but regionals is a big accomplishment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For all those following the conversation about how DCI robotics is wonderful and Walls robotics is "not very good," assuming it even exists...

We have data!

This weekend, DCI and Walls competed in the same robotics competition.

Walls was not at the top. They came in 30th out of 34 teams.

DCI was so much better!!! They came in 26th out of 34 teams.

Make sure to send your kid to DCI or their future on STEM is toast.

(My own view: A lot of factors go into becoming a winning team -- it's not as simple as just the student's tech savvy. The preparation and competition is a valuable learning experience. Congratulations to both teams for doing the hard work!)

To be fair, one competition doesn’t make a very good data point. If you know anything about robotics, things can go great or things can go wrong with your robot or issues come up. Above is disappointing based on past performance.

You need to look at the big picture. I was not there this weekend but season is not over and there are other competitions and wait and see how teams do.

But I do know that DCI’s high school team was the only team in all of the DMV that advanced last year to districts. After districts is works competition. They also won a number of awards. Will see how they will ultimately do this year.

Also 1 of the 2 DCI middle school team this year advance to regionals. It was the only school team in the DMV to do that. They did not advance to world championships but regionals is a big accomplishment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For all those following the conversation about how DCI robotics is wonderful and Walls robotics is "not very good," assuming it even exists...

We have data!

This weekend, DCI and Walls competed in the same robotics competition.

Walls was not at the top. They came in 30th out of 34 teams.

DCI was so much better!!! They came in 26th out of 34 teams.

Make sure to send your kid to DCI or their future on STEM is toast.

(My own view: A lot of factors go into becoming a winning team -- it's not as simple as just the student's tech savvy. The preparation and competition is a valuable learning experience. Congratulations to both teams for doing the hard work!)

To be fair, one competition doesn’t make a very good data point. If you know anything about robotics, things can go great or things can go wrong with your robot or issues come up. Above is disappointing based on past performance.

You need to look at the big picture. I was not there this weekend but season is not over and there are other competitions and wait and see how teams do.

But I do know that DCI’s high school team was the only team in all of the DMV that advanced last year to districts. After districts is works competition. They also won a number of awards. Will see how they will ultimately do this year.

Also 1 of the 2 DCI middle school team this year advance to regionals. It was the only school team in the DMV to do that. They did not advance to world championships but regionals is a big accomplishment.

Some posters clearly just need to boost DCI no matter what data points are presented.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For all those following the conversation about how DCI robotics is wonderful and Walls robotics is "not very good," assuming it even exists...

We have data!

This weekend, DCI and Walls competed in the same robotics competition.

Walls was not at the top. They came in 30th out of 34 teams.

DCI was so much better!!! They came in 26th out of 34 teams.

Make sure to send your kid to DCI or their future on STEM is toast.

(My own view: A lot of factors go into becoming a winning team -- it's not as simple as just the student's tech savvy. The preparation and competition is a valuable learning experience. Congratulations to both teams for doing the hard work!)

To be fair, one competition doesn’t make a very good data point. If you know anything about robotics, things can go great or things can go wrong with your robot or issues come up. Above is disappointing based on past performance.

You need to look at the big picture. I was not there this weekend but season is not over and there are other competitions and wait and see how teams do.

But I do know that DCI’s high school team was the only team in all of the DMV that advanced last year to districts. After districts is works competition. They also won a number of awards. Will see how they will ultimately do this year.

Also 1 of the 2 DCI middle school team this year advance to regionals. It was the only school team in the DMV to do that. They did not advance to world championships but regionals is a big accomplishment.

Some posters clearly just need to boost DCI no matter what data points are presented.

This is a great accomplishment, and this is a data point? I’m genuinely confused.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For all those following the conversation about how DCI robotics is wonderful and Walls robotics is "not very good," assuming it even exists...

We have data!

This weekend, DCI and Walls competed in the same robotics competition.

Walls was not at the top. They came in 30th out of 34 teams.

DCI was so much better!!! They came in 26th out of 34 teams.

Make sure to send your kid to DCI or their future on STEM is toast.

(My own view: A lot of factors go into becoming a winning team -- it's not as simple as just the student's tech savvy. The preparation and competition is a valuable learning experience. Congratulations to both teams for doing the hard work!)

To be fair, one competition doesn’t make a very good data point. If you know anything about robotics, things can go great or things can go wrong with your robot or issues come up. Above is disappointing based on past performance.

You need to look at the big picture. I was not there this weekend but season is not over and there are other competitions and wait and see how teams do.

But I do know that DCI’s high school team was the only team in all of the DMV that advanced last year to districts. After districts is works competition. They also won a number of awards. Will see how they will ultimately do this year.

Also 1 of the 2 DCI middle school team this year advance to regionals. It was the only school team in the DMV to do that. They did not advance to world championships but regionals is a big accomplishment.

Some posters clearly just need to boost DCI no matter what data points are presented.

I’m the PP and I am providing facts and context.

It’s obvious the PP above is not in the robotics world. These kids are making new robots to new challenges every year. It’s a work in progress, and things can absolutely go wrong in a competition or an issue comes up with your robot. That is why the teams have time to fix, modify, and change things on their robots during the competition.

Not doing well in 1 competition does not give you the big picture and why I provided the facts and context.

PP is stating that the 2 schools robotics team are similar and that basically if you are interested in robotics/STEM, it’s equivalent. It is not because of the context. Above is not a good showing for DCI and I provide context as to why and maybe the reason.

It’s a fact that DCI robotics does better than any public or private school in the city by past performances in competitions. Facts are not boosting.

PP was the one that initiated this conversation, and I responded with what I knew being in the robotics world. It’s obvious PP is not.

[Anonymous]

Why are Walls parents so insecure?? It’s a well known fact that Walls is not a STEM school and is a humanities school. And that is OK. Every school has its strengths and weaknesses.

Starting the smug post above is really a poor showing for the Walls crowd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are Walls parents so insecure?? It’s a well known fact that Walls is not a STEM school and is a humanities school. And that is OK. Every school has its strengths and weaknesses.

Starting the smug post above is really a poor showing for the Walls crowd.

No dog in this fight, but I SO disagree. DCI boostering on here is insane. The latest has been "Walls doesn't even have a Robotics team, I don't care if PP claims their kid is on it" and "Walls teams sucks and DCI's is amazing, who would ever send their STEM kids to Walls?" So the Walls parent comes along and is like, look, both teams exist and did comparably -- if not very well -- at the first tournament. The only reason this is even relevant is the crazy and constant DCI boostering. DCI seems like a perfectly good place to send kids, but they NEED it to be better than Walls and they need everyone to agree with them. Most people don't, so they get sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are Walls parents so insecure?? It’s a well known fact that Walls is not a STEM school and is a humanities school. And that is OK. Every school has its strengths and weaknesses.

Starting the smug post above is really a poor showing for the Walls crowd.

No dog in this fight, but I SO disagree. DCI boostering on here is insane. The latest has been "Walls doesn't even have a Robotics team, I don't care if PP claims their kid is on it" and "Walls teams sucks and DCI's is amazing, who would ever send their STEM kids to Walls?" So the Walls parent comes along and is like, look, both teams exist and did comparably -- if not very well -- at the first tournament. The only reason this is even relevant is the crazy and constant DCI boostering. DCI seems like a perfectly good place to send kids, but they NEED it to be better than Walls and they need everyone to agree with them. Most people don't, so they get sad.

No, I’ve been following this thread from the get go and no one said anything you wrote in quotes above.

There was no boosting but a family stated that they were not considering Walls because it did not offer certain STEM courses. Then there were so many pages and pages of Walls families coming on saying this and that about the school and STEM offerings. Questions were then asked about specifics, one of which was about the robotics competition which did not get answered until way later on.

I suggest you re-read the thread. It wasn’t about DCI boosting but more about Walls families trying to justify as to why if you have a STEM kid, you can send your kid there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are Walls parents so insecure?? It’s a well known fact that Walls is not a STEM school and is a humanities school. And that is OK. Every school has its strengths and weaknesses.

Starting the smug post above is really a poor showing for the Walls crowd.

No dog in this fight, but I SO disagree. DCI boostering on here is insane. The latest has been "Walls doesn't even have a Robotics team, I don't care if PP claims their kid is on it" and "Walls teams sucks and DCI's is amazing, who would ever send their STEM kids to Walls?" So the Walls parent comes along and is like, look, both teams exist and did comparably -- if not very well -- at the first tournament. The only reason this is even relevant is the crazy and constant DCI boostering. DCI seems like a perfectly good place to send kids, but they NEED it to be better than Walls and they need everyone to agree with them. Most people don't, so they get sad.

No, I’ve been following this thread from the get go and no one said anything you wrote in quotes above.

There was no boosting but a family stated that they were not considering Walls because it did not offer certain STEM courses. Then there were so many pages and pages of Walls families coming on saying this and that about the school and STEM offerings. Questions were then asked about specifics, one of which was about the robotics competition which did not get answered until way later on.

I suggest you re-read the thread. It wasn’t about DCI boosting but more about Walls families trying to justify as to why if you have a STEM kid, you can send your kid there.

Everybody in the thread invested in the DCI boosterism sidetrack should read pages 10-13 of the DCI 24-25 Annual report detailing student performance ( https://dcinternationalschool.org/organizational-transparency/ ) and look at the 8th grade Science CAPE results (19% meets/exceeds, 46 out of 246 students).

Setting aside Walls for STEM, the real choice may be between DCI and homeschooling with a few Museum of the Bible field trips to learn about evolution.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are Walls parents so insecure?? It’s a well known fact that Walls is not a STEM school and is a humanities school. And that is OK. Every school has its strengths and weaknesses.

Starting the smug post above is really a poor showing for the Walls crowd.

No dog in this fight, but I SO disagree. DCI boostering on here is insane. The latest has been "Walls doesn't even have a Robotics team, I don't care if PP claims their kid is on it" and "Walls teams sucks and DCI's is amazing, who would ever send their STEM kids to Walls?" So the Walls parent comes along and is like, look, both teams exist and did comparably -- if not very well -- at the first tournament. The only reason this is even relevant is the crazy and constant DCI boostering. DCI seems like a perfectly good place to send kids, but they NEED it to be better than Walls and they need everyone to agree with them. Most people don't, so they get sad.

No, I’ve been following this thread from the get go and no one said anything you wrote in quotes above.

There was no boosting but a family stated that they were not considering Walls because it did not offer certain STEM courses. Then there were so many pages and pages of Walls families coming on saying this and that about the school and STEM offerings. Questions were then asked about specifics, one of which was about the robotics competition which did not get answered until way later on.

I suggest you re-read the thread. It wasn’t about DCI boosting but more about Walls families trying to justify as to why if you have a STEM kid, you can send your kid there.

Everybody in the thread invested in the DCI boosterism sidetrack should read pages 10-13 of the DCI 24-25 Annual report detailing student performance ( https://dcinternationalschool.org/organizational-transparency/ ) and look at the 8th grade Science CAPE results (19% meets/exceeds, 46 out of 246 students).

Setting aside Walls for STEM, the real choice may be between DCI and homeschooling with a few Museum of the Bible field trips to learn about evolution.

Ya. Choosing DCI for STEM kids is not a completely rational decision in middle school, though maybe they correct themselves during high school. The robotics team aside, their science scores and science olympiad performance makes it seem like some science education is lacking. It's great that a few kids are doing robotics though.