Walls Admission - No Test?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t have an eighth grader in DCPS this year but I feel for those kids who have worked hard the past few years hoping to earn a spot at Walls and now it could be a complete crapshoot.

how do you think the seniors in high school feel...

It’s not a competition, you know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Setting GPA higher is the equity issue. Keep GPA to what it always is and do a lottery.

Walls kicks out/counsels out students every year and backfills with new students in 10 and even 11th. Any ‘problem’ will right itself pretty quickly. And maybe SWW actually have to ‘deal with’ high achieving students with learning disabilities.

Win-win.

grades have been so lax since Covid that any 8th grader who actually attended class has a 3.0. So a 3.0 standard is essentially straight lottery with no admission requirements at all.

I think it is safe to say that we'll be able to poke holes in any alternative solution DCPS comes up with.

Sure, which is fine.

But if you select from the 3000 kids who will apply and take anyone you will have a ton of kids who never intend to take an honors or AP class in high school. You'll simply have kids apply because they want a smaller school.

I know a number of kids who have 3.0s who are 2 years behind in math and can barely read (including one of mine and several of his/her friends). These kids would never in a million years pass the Walls exam but
have 3.0s because of Covid grading. My kid can't do pre-Algebra in 8th grade!!
But they intend to apply for Walls this year.

Which again, is fine. But you're fundamentally changing the entire school.

I think "fundamentally changing the entire school" is a stretch. First, it is one class of new students and not the whole school that will be entering with the changed criteria. Second, it is a big assumption that 3,000 kids will apply. Third, one could surmise that even a random lottery selection would land some of the same kids that would have done well on the test in the entering class.

If the result was a year of the average DC HS student, it would absolutely fundamentally change the school. They will either need to counsel out 75% of the kids or just have one year that operates in a different universe from the rest of the school. It would be insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Setting GPA higher is the equity issue. Keep GPA to what it always is and do a lottery.

Walls kicks out/counsels out students every year and backfills with new students in 10 and even 11th. Any ‘problem’ will right itself pretty quickly. And maybe SWW actually have to ‘deal with’ high achieving students with learning disabilities.

Win-win.

grades have been so lax since Covid that any 8th grader who actually attended class has a 3.0. So a 3.0 standard is essentially straight lottery with no admission requirements at all.

I think it is safe to say that we'll be able to poke holes in any alternative solution DCPS comes up with.

Sure, which is fine.

But if you select from the 3000 kids who will apply and take anyone you will have a ton of kids who never intend to take an honors or AP class in high school. You'll simply have kids apply because they want a smaller school.

I know a number of kids who have 3.0s who are 2 years behind in math and can barely read (including one of mine and several of his/her friends). These kids would never in a million years pass the Walls exam but
have 3.0s because of Covid grading. My kid can't do pre-Algebra in 8th grade!!
But they intend to apply for Walls this year.

Which again, is fine. But you're fundamentally changing the entire school.

I think "fundamentally changing the entire school" is a stretch. First, it is one class of new students and not the whole school that will be entering with the changed criteria. Second, it is a big assumption that 3,000 kids will apply. Third, one could surmise that even a random lottery selection would land some of the same kids that would have done well on the test in the entering class.

If the result was a year of the average DC HS student, it would absolutely fundamentally change the school. They will either need to counsel out 75% of the kids or just have one year that operates in a different universe from the rest of the school. It would be insane.

People on this Board are by-and-large thinking of the average Wilson student or, at a push, what the average Stuart-Hobson student would be like as a HSer. That is *so* different than the average DC HSer. Now, I assume folks will self-select to some extent so maybe we say none of the bottom 20% applies... but, on the flip side, there will be fewer applicants from Wilson feeders and more from MSes that feed other HSes, because there always are... so it really might end up as the average DC HS student. It would have a bizarre effect on the school. For one thing, they'd have to offer at least two years of math prior to the current easiest math class unless they just accepted that 50% of kids would fail math in the first year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Setting GPA higher is the equity issue. Keep GPA to what it always is and do a lottery.

Walls kicks out/counsels out students every year and backfills with new students in 10 and even 11th. Any ‘problem’ will right itself pretty quickly. And maybe SWW actually have to ‘deal with’ high achieving students with learning disabilities.

Win-win.

grades have been so lax since Covid that any 8th grader who actually attended class has a 3.0. So a 3.0 standard is essentially straight lottery with no admission requirements at all.

I think it is safe to say that we'll be able to poke holes in any alternative solution DCPS comes up with.

Sure, which is fine.

But if you select from the 3000 kids who will apply and take anyone you will have a ton of kids who never intend to take an honors or AP class in high school. You'll simply have kids apply because they want a smaller school.

I know a number of kids who have 3.0s who are 2 years behind in math and can barely read (including one of mine and several of his/her friends). These kids would never in a million years pass the Walls exam but
have 3.0s because of Covid grading. My kid can't do pre-Algebra in 8th grade!!
But they intend to apply for Walls this year.

Which again, is fine. But you're fundamentally changing the entire school.

I think "fundamentally changing the entire school" is a stretch. First, it is one class of new students and not the whole school that will be entering with the changed criteria. Second, it is a big assumption that 3,000 kids will apply. Third, one could surmise that even a random lottery selection would land some of the same kids that would have done well on the test in the entering class.

If the result was a year of the average DC HS student, it would absolutely fundamentally change the school. They will either need to counsel out 75% of the kids or just have one year that operates in a different universe from the rest of the school. It would be insane.

People on this Board are by-and-large thinking of the average Wilson student or, at a push, what the average Stuart-Hobson student would be like as a HSer. That is *so* different than the average DC HSer. Now, I assume folks will self-select to some extent so maybe we say none of the bottom 20% applies... but, on the flip side, there will be fewer applicants from Wilson feeders and more from MSes that feed other HSes, because there always are... so it really might end up as the average DC HS student. It would have a bizarre effect on the school. For one thing, they'd have to offer at least two years of math prior to the current easiest math class unless they just accepted that 50% of kids would fail math in the first year?

right, Walls offers a ton of APs. It will be hard to support that many if kids aren't able to take them/don't want to take them. You can't run classes with 5 students in them (because you'll need a ton more teachers). I don't think i'm being overly dramatic... right now the test really ensure that the kids you're getting are objectively functioning at a certain level. you eliminate that, and you get just
about every 8th grader in the city. Those from many schools will have a 3.0 (esp. in Covid times) without even being literate. (which is crazy that kids can do well and graduate without literacy but that's another conversation)

[Anonymous]

Maybe they could require a summer program for those that lottery in to see which ones are up to speed and which ones will be in over their heads and not a good fit. Require a test at the end of the summer. May be some last minute changes, but gives an opportunity for kids who want to work hard over the summer to get up to speed in math or whichever part of the curriculum they (school) think will be limiting for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Setting GPA higher is the equity issue. Keep GPA to what it always is and do a lottery.

Walls kicks out/counsels out students every year and backfills with new students in 10 and even 11th. Any ‘problem’ will right itself pretty quickly. And maybe SWW actually have to ‘deal with’ high achieving students with learning disabilities.

Win-win.

grades have been so lax since Covid that any 8th grader who actually attended class has a 3.0. So a 3.0 standard is essentially straight lottery with no admission requirements at all.

I think it is safe to say that we'll be able to poke holes in any alternative solution DCPS comes up with.

Sure, which is fine.

But if you select from the 3000 kids who will apply and take anyone you will have a ton of kids who never intend to take an honors or AP class in high school. You'll simply have kids apply because they want a smaller school.

I know a number of kids who have 3.0s who are 2 years behind in math and can barely read (including one of mine and several of his/her friends). These kids would never in a million years pass the Walls exam but
have 3.0s because of Covid grading. My kid can't do pre-Algebra in 8th grade!!
But they intend to apply for Walls this year.

Which again, is fine. But you're fundamentally changing the entire school.

I think "fundamentally changing the entire school" is a stretch. First, it is one class of new students and not the whole school that will be entering with the changed criteria. Second, it is a big assumption that 3,000 kids will apply. Third, one could surmise that even a random lottery selection would land some of the same kids that would have done well on the test in the entering class.

If the result was a year of the average DC HS student, it would absolutely fundamentally change the school. They will either need to counsel out 75% of the kids or just have one year that operates in a different universe from the rest of the school. It would be insane.

People on this Board are by-and-large thinking of the average Wilson student or, at a push, what the average Stuart-Hobson student would be like as a HSer. That is *so* different than the average DC HSer. Now, I assume folks will self-select to some extent so maybe we say none of the bottom 20% applies... but, on the flip side, there will be fewer applicants from Wilson feeders and more from MSes that feed other HSes, because there always are... so it really might end up as the average DC HS student. It would have a bizarre effect on the school. For one thing, they'd have to offer at least two years of math prior to the current easiest math class unless they just accepted that 50% of kids would fail math in the first year?

If you look at the data way fewer kids apply from MS that aren’t Deal, Hobson, Basis, DCI, Latin than you think. There is a real messaging problem for MSs east of the river. Way fewer kids apply from those schools.

[Anonymous]

Isn't Walls self-selective? Kids who apply usually are willing to work hard (or their parents make sure they do).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn't Walls self-selective? Kids who apply usually are willing to work hard (or their parents make sure they do).

+1

I agree with this. I don’t think it will be this year of total slackers. In fact I hope that the freshmen class is very successful to show that there are lots of students in DCPS who can handle the work at Walls, not just kids from Deal.