Is it true that starting from 2017-2018 Wilson HS won't offer honors classes in 9th grade?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Last year's 9th grade PARCC in English showed a sizeable portion of students scoring below grade level.

This would suggest investing in ad-hoc teaching to push weaker students (the ones generating the achievement gap) up to their grade level.

Instead Wilson is choosing to lessen it by cutting the propulsion of students at the higher end.

Sad!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:March 14 @ 8:00 is the Coffee with the Principal at Wilson (see the Events section of their school website).

Parent should attend, as well as representatives of the feeder school community (Deal, Hardy, Oyster).

I find outrageous that this important plan was omitted from the presentations at the Wilson open house, at a time when we were making our choices, only to find out later , when for many it is too late for alternative school plans.

It's not only that I have legitimate concerns for my son's 9th grade learning experience and for his unwillingness to go through, once again, disrupted classes and learning environment geared for damage mitigation instead of focused on learning and growth. I am concerned for the longer term trends, for the next moves, e.g. cancellation of Calculus BC ? Cap to how many AP classes students can take? Even larger AP classes? We already are at 40 students per class for AP Biology.... why not 60?

I am speechless .

Give me my voucher.

Wow, dramatic much???

Agree. It is TWO classes.

It's two important classes. It can really negatively affect the overall 9th grade experience, especially if you come from a school where you already had to go through this in 6th grade (sharing classes with kids who are not interested in learning). My son just will not want to take it again. He will not accept it when I tell him. He was ok with Wilson just because he learned that he would be separate in all classes except for social studies (and maybe Spanish).

Please note that this is not a white mom rant. The situation is worse for black high achievers or black dedicated students, due to the racial profiling, and the inter-racial bullying (the latter does not affect white students).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:March 14 @ 8:00 is the Coffee with the Principal at Wilson (see the Events section of their school website).

Parent should attend, as well as representatives of the feeder school community (Deal, Hardy, Oyster).

I find outrageous that this important plan was omitted from the presentations at the Wilson open house, at a time when we were making our choices, only to find out later , when for many it is too late for alternative school plans.

It's not only that I have legitimate concerns for my son's 9th grade learning experience and for his unwillingness to go through, once again, disrupted classes and learning environment geared for damage mitigation instead of focused on learning and growth. I am concerned for the longer term trends, for the next moves, e.g. cancellation of Calculus BC ? Cap to how many AP classes students can take? Even larger AP classes? We already are at 40 students per class for AP Biology.... why not 60?

I am speechless .

Give me my voucher.

Wow, dramatic much???

Agree. It is TWO classes.

It's two important classes. It can really negatively affect the overall 9th grade experience, especially if you come from a school where you already had to go through this in 6th grade (sharing classes with kids who are not interested in learning). My son just will not want to take it again. He will not accept it when I tell him. He was ok with Wilson just because he learned that he would be separate in all classes except for social studies (and maybe Spanish).

Please note that this is not a white mom rant. The situation is worse for black high achievers or black dedicated students, due to the racial profiling, and the inter-racial bullying (the latter does not affect white students).

I meant to write " intra-racial bullying " (the latter does not affect white students).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Making Bio and English all honors is a big deal because History already includes all students. Electives in 9th grade are also non differentiated. This means that math is the only class left where you can attempt to separate out advanced students from regular. Kim Martin's idea sounds good but it will lead to even more chaos in classes at Wilson. Most (not all) 9th grade teachers at Wilson range from bad to mediocre. They will not put in the effort to challenge kids more than the bare minimum.

Maybe this is a plan to reduce overcrowding -- by making some parents decide not to go to Wilson?

It won't work. Applications are up everywhere; enrollment is up everywhere. The school is going to keep growing.

[Anonymous]

Eventually the Janney/Deal community will prevail (as they should).

[Anonymous]

Look, 9th grade at Wilson is already academically underwhelming if your child has had decent elementary and middle school preparation. We actually considered moving our child to private school for 10th because the work at Wilson in 9th was largely remedial. The "regular" 9th grade history class at Wilson had homework easier than my 6th grader's (charter school), and the teacher admitted that he/she was overwhelmed dealing with a mix of kids stretching from kids so poorly served by DCPS that they were barely literate (unbelievably sad but true) to kids who could easily have taken AP World at age 13. Teachers simply CAN NOT COVER a reasonable amount/depth of content in these sorts of classes.

This is not the way to go. Most reasonable people can see that there are 2 Wilsons, and that kids who have been poorly prepared by DCPS through elementary and middle school deserve an opportunity to get caught up. No argument there. But this approach starts to gut the few things that DO work well at Wilson: the advanced classes, and the opportunity to excel if you're willing to put in the work.

9th grade classes at Wilson honestly can't get a whole lot easier than they already are. If the kids who are well prepared can't at least have 3 or 4 9th grade classes taught at a higher level, then Wilson will cease to be a reasonable option for those families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look, 9th grade at Wilson is already academically underwhelming if your child has had decent elementary and middle school preparation. We actually considered moving our child to private school for 10th because the work at Wilson in 9th was largely remedial. The "regular" 9th grade history class at Wilson had homework easier than my 6th grader's (charter school), and the teacher admitted that he/she was overwhelmed dealing with a mix of kids stretching from kids so poorly served by DCPS that they were barely literate (unbelievably sad but true) to kids who could easily have taken AP World at age 13. Teachers simply CAN NOT COVER a reasonable amount/depth of content in these sorts of classes.

This is not the way to go. Most reasonable people can see that there are 2 Wilsons, and that kids who have been poorly prepared by DCPS through elementary and middle school deserve an opportunity to get caught up. No argument there. But this approach starts to gut the few things that DO work well at Wilson: the advanced classes, and the opportunity to excel if you're willing to put in the work.

9th grade classes at Wilson honestly can't get a whole lot easier than they already are. If the kids who are well prepared can't at least have 3 or 4 9th grade classes taught at a higher level, then Wilson will cease to be a reasonable option for those families.

Maybe this is the goal of DCPS and Martin? Terrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look, 9th grade at Wilson is already academically underwhelming if your child has had decent elementary and middle school preparation. We actually considered moving our child to private school for 10th because the work at Wilson in 9th was largely remedial. The "regular" 9th grade history class at Wilson had homework easier than my 6th grader's (charter school), and the teacher admitted that he/she was overwhelmed dealing with a mix of kids stretching from kids so poorly served by DCPS that they were barely literate (unbelievably sad but true) to kids who could easily have taken AP World at age 13. Teachers simply CAN NOT COVER a reasonable amount/depth of content in these sorts of classes.

This is not the way to go. Most reasonable people can see that there are 2 Wilsons, and that kids who have been poorly prepared by DCPS through elementary and middle school deserve an opportunity to get caught up. No argument there. But this approach starts to gut the few things that DO work well at Wilson: the advanced classes, and the opportunity to excel if you're willing to put in the work.

9th grade classes at Wilson honestly can't get a whole lot easier than they already are. If the kids who are well prepared can't at least have 3 or 4 9th grade classes taught at a higher level, then Wilson will cease to be a reasonable option for those families.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Last year's 9th grade PARCC in English showed a sizeable portion of students scoring below grade level.

This would suggest investing in ad-hoc teaching to push weaker students (the ones generating the achievement gap) up to their grade level.

Instead Wilson is choosing to lessen it by cutting the propulsion of students at the higher end.

Students below grade level need remedial help.

Not to be placed in an honors class, modified or otherwise.

Principal Martin is incompetent and/or certifiably insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look, 9th grade at Wilson is already academically underwhelming if your child has had decent elementary and middle school preparation. We actually considered moving our child to private school for 10th because the work at Wilson in 9th was largely remedial. The "regular" 9th grade history class at Wilson had homework easier than my 6th grader's (charter school), and the teacher admitted that he/she was overwhelmed dealing with a mix of kids stretching from kids so poorly served by DCPS that they were barely literate (unbelievably sad but true) to kids who could easily have taken AP World at age 13. Teachers simply CAN NOT COVER a reasonable amount/depth of content in these sorts of classes.

This is not the way to go. Most reasonable people can see that there are 2 Wilsons, and that kids who have been poorly prepared by DCPS through elementary and middle school deserve an opportunity to get caught up. No argument there. But this approach starts to gut the few things that DO work well at Wilson: the advanced classes, and the opportunity to excel if you're willing to put in the work.

9th grade classes at Wilson honestly can't get a whole lot easier than they already are. If the kids who are well prepared can't at least have 3 or 4 9th grade classes taught at a higher level, then Wilson will cease to be a reasonable option for those families.

My head is spinning . . . aren't all the kids at Wilson either IB or coming from a feeder school? Aren't all the Wilson feeder MS and ES supposed to be some of the best DCPS has to offer? How is it that these kids are poorly prepared from these well-regarded ES and MS? How is it that there isn't more conversation and efforts directed towards understanding how this pipeline is failing so many kids? Typically, at other schools, you get the excuse of there's so much student turnover and so many OOB students. Aren't these Wilson MS and ES feeder schools some of the most stable in terms of student turnover and have the highest IB percentages? It seems like this is an area for some deep exploration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look, 9th grade at Wilson is already academically underwhelming if your child has had decent elementary and middle school preparation. We actually considered moving our child to private school for 10th because the work at Wilson in 9th was largely remedial. The "regular" 9th grade history class at Wilson had homework easier than my 6th grader's (charter school), and the teacher admitted that he/she was overwhelmed dealing with a mix of kids stretching from kids so poorly served by DCPS that they were barely literate (unbelievably sad but true) to kids who could easily have taken AP World at age 13. Teachers simply CAN NOT COVER a reasonable amount/depth of content in these sorts of classes.

This is not the way to go. Most reasonable people can see that there are 2 Wilsons, and that kids who have been poorly prepared by DCPS through elementary and middle school deserve an opportunity to get caught up. No argument there. But this approach starts to gut the few things that DO work well at Wilson: the advanced classes, and the opportunity to excel if you're willing to put in the work.

9th grade classes at Wilson honestly can't get a whole lot easier than they already are. If the kids who are well prepared can't at least have 3 or 4 9th grade classes taught at a higher level, then Wilson will cease to be a reasonable option for those families.

My head is spinning . . . aren't all the kids at Wilson either IB or coming from a feeder school? Aren't all the Wilson feeder MS and ES supposed to be some of the best DCPS has to offer? How is it that these kids are poorly prepared from these well-regarded ES and MS? How is it that there isn't more conversation and efforts directed towards understanding how this pipeline is failing so many kids? Typically, at other schools, you get the excuse of there's so much student turnover and so many OOB students. Aren't these Wilson MS and ES feeder schools some of the most stable in terms of student turnover and have the highest IB percentages? It seems like this is an area for some deep exploration.

PARCC isn't perfect, but drill into the scores at the elementary schools which feed Deal and Hardy, as well asl the Deal and Hardy scores. There are plenty of high achieving students at each, and at many there are significant numbers of kids who are not at grade level.

Here's the link to get you started. http://results.osse.dc.gov/

[Anonymous]

13L52 again.

You also have to keep in mind that there are students, and younger siblings of students who attended other feeder elementaries and middle schools who were grandfathered into Wilson during the DME process.

So looking at the feeder schools will only tell you part of the story.

[Anonymous]

Percentage of 8th grade students at grade level in 2015-2016 in English Language (ELA). All Wilson feeder schools:

Deal: 62% (44% Black ; 79% White)
Oyster: 63% (Black or White not available)
Hardy: 55% (48% African-American ; White n/a)

Taking into account attrition of feeder students who opted for School Without Walls and private schools (and are thus at at least grade level) you can see that about 50% of the students heading to 9th grade at Wilson are below grade level.

Data available only for Deal, show that these are predominantly Africa-American. And this is the achievement divide that Ms Martin was referring to, which clearly starts before high school.

Good (trivial) assessment Ms Martin!! However your proposed solution - HONORS FOR ALL - in this context it's stupid , and pure propaganda.

It won't help the 50% below grade level, who are BELOW GRADE LEVEL, and thus not ready for honors by definition.

It will hurt the 50% at or above grade level, who will share learning time with students who should rather receive remedial attention. The programming, including workload and homework, will inevitably be leveled at the lower bottom of the class.

[Anonymous]

I don't understand why different communities are fighting for Wilson access. It is an extremely overrated school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why different communities are fighting for Wilson access. It is an extremely overrated school.

Not if you are a good or advanced student. In that case the school offering is unbeatable. None of the area schools, not even the top-5 private schools have such a large variety of AP classes available.

If you are a below-grade student or lazy student, well then all schools are equally bad for you.

Looks like the idea is now is to make Wilson equally bad for all, to close the achievement gap.