Washington International School Decisions
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Anonymous
Not surprised by the rudeness comment. Saddened by comments I've heard adult coaches say to students when they should be modeling appropriate sportsmanship. |
Anonymous
As a current primary school parent at WIS, I am quite impressed by the academic rigor and quality at the school, especially as someone who went through extremely competitive schools as a child. Because of how teaching is structured (by units of inquiry), students get to delve into a subject for an extended period of time in a multidisciplinary manner. They learned to research, ask questions, write papers (really research-based booklets in two languages) with a bibliography at the end, and present their findings via art and performance. I was blown away by how much kids learn there and how much my own girl is genuinely intrigued to learn more and more. We were in a different school before and the inquiry based learning really sets WIS apart from most other schools. We don't speak the second language taught at school at home, and my daughter has been able to figure out things herself and pick it up very quickly. Kids are like a sponge, and I feel that WIS is really helping them reach their full potential. Parents there are also all down-to-earth and nice people. Not much peer pressure from other parents so far. |
Anonymous
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Fellow WIS parent, and neither my partner nor I speak a second language at home. The IB system is not an American-based system and so how subjects are taught do not neatly align with how most Americans were and are likely educated.
Specific to math in later primary years, children are taught several ways to solve math problems. They are then presented with problems, required to solve those problems utilizing one of many strategies (several strategies may be successfully employed), and then explain their logic in both languages. Our child does additional math-based activities as part of the extracurricular program and we have been pleased with the overall quality of instruction, which is led by a WIS primary teacher. The children do take assessments against their peers in independent schools nationally and internationally, so parents have a good sense of how their child ranks against children worldwide, which I appreciate. The school is not for everyone and most WIS parents are not on DCUM, but if you want to compare apples-to-apples, here's a snapshot on how WIS performs against other IB schools internationally:https://www.wis.edu/academics/upper-school/ibdiploma College acceptances are strong, with 2/3rds of the students going to schools domestically and 1/3rd abroad. In short, if you learn more about and like the philosophy of the IB, dual-language learning, and want to send your child to an independent school where parents are generally friendly and low-key and the children are supported to identify and pursue their interests, WIS may be a good fit for you and your family. If that's not for you -- and I certainly understand why that may be the case for some Americans -- thankfully there are a lot of excellent schools in the area from which to choose from. |
Anonymous
Cue the racist imperialist American who wants to colonize even this ONE international school who dares to promote linguistic, geographic and cultural diversity 
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Anonymous
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WIS parent here.
In terms of answering questions for prospective parents, the primary school is generally a welcoming place. The parents help out where and when they can, with most families having two working parents. Children from the entire class and/or section (french or spanish) are invited to parties throughout most of the primary school years. I'm not aware of students taking state tests as the curriculum does not seem to lend itself to that (ie they don't take PARCC, for example.) Primary school is not a pressure-cooker but the philosophy of the school is that by 8th grade the students should have learned and developed the organizational, executive-functioning, and time-management skills so that they can manage the rigor of the IB program largely by themselves and have the confidence to ask for help if/when they need it. The school puts systems in place several years in advance to try to help the students gradually develop those skills, which I appreciate. Based on what other WIS parents have told me, intensity and potential stress grows in middle school and high school can be a pressure cooker as the IB in two languages is intense. Summer reading in two languages and graded assignments based on those readings start the summer between 5th and 6th grades and continue to expand throughout their time at WIS. WIS is an international school in DC and they, like most independent schools, hired a Director of DEI for the upcoming school year. I therefore do expect how the school discusses issues such as race, class, and gender to be bolstered, which is a net positive for the school IMO. Here's a link related to how the international school focuses on DEI: https://www.wis.edu/about/mission/enriched-by-differences I am also including a link to the Justice by Design Initiative WIS and six other schools (title i and parochial schools included) spearheaded in 2019 with Harvard University: http://www.agencybydesign.org/node/466 Hopefully this information is helpful. |
Anonymous
this sounds completely like it was written by an administrator. |
Anonymous
| WIS sounded like a hot mess to us when it comes to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging and they tried to hide behind being “international.” Their admissions person actually says that they like to have some percentage of non-international kids for the benefit of the international students and families - so they can feel connected to DC/USA. We heard nothing about why that would be good/positive for the non-international kids. Sounded a lot like white people saying they want a few but not too many POC around for the benefit of white people. We were totally turned off. We are UMC African-American. |
Anonymous
Yes. The school has been surprisingly (and increasingly) disastrous when it comes to handling DEI, both on a deeper level (whom they admit) and on an experiential level (celebrating differences, etc.) It used to be a school that truly had kids from all over the world, including the US. But over time, there seems to have been a choice to try to become more like the better private schools in the area and to homogenize the student body (racially and socio-economically). Historically there were plenty of international non-white families who were interested in a school like WIS but over time, these families started making other choices. Even if you control for the fact that many international orgs no longer subsidize school costs for their employees, many of those families are still choosing to pay out of pocket for a private school - just not WIS as often as before. When you look at the link on their homepage about DEI that was posted previously, the changes they are implementing are fairly superficial. If the admissions continue to be heavily white, and kids have no diversity in their day-to-day student lives, then sending emails every week about what DEI activities are happening on campus is just box-ticking. |
Anonymous
| We were really surprised the admissions team and all school leadership seemed to be white Americans. |
Anonymous
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[quote=Anonymous]We were really surprised the admissions team and all school leadership seemed to be white Americans.[/quote]
HoS and Associate HoS identify as women of color |
Anonymous
WIS’s racial problems are a mirror of the world’s racial problems. WIS is not just dealing with race through the American lens. The school is looking at it through the French and Spanish lens as well, not to mention Latin American and African lenses. Ghanaian and Nigerian families can have very different perspectives of race. There is a lot of work to be done in America alone. When it comes to the entire world, there is even more. WIS is a work in progress, as is the world. The school doesn’t have a solution for the entire world, but it is a place to converse. That is the benefit for the American student should the American student want it: an understanding of the wider world |
Anonymous
| It’s an international school. There are students from all over the world there from countries that have people of all races and who speak multiple languages. It’s not a school that is lumped in with the same racial lens of an American type school. This is why we chose this school. It takes a globally diverse perspective, not a narrow American one which is always preoccupied with how many people of one color or another there are. |
Anonymous
| Spoken like a white-presenting person, which always has been and remains a privileged place across the globe. |
Anonymous
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I live outside of DC, but have a positive view of WIS because the parents I know who send their kids there are smart, accomplished and totally down to earth. They are a multiracial family and were educated internationally.
If I moved to DC, WIS would be my top preference for DS. |
Anonymous
And yet somehow from all of these countries they can only find mostly white children? Also not sure you can say it reflects the world/global perspectives if there are barely any kids from Africa or Asia. This seems like a very white European definition of what international means. Also, the US is not the only country where conversations about diversity and representation are happening (it matters even in Europe! Look at France as one example) and it’s not about just counting the number of POC. Being an international school should put an even bigger burden on you to be a home for a student body that is a true array of cultures and ethnicities. Several moons ago, WIS used to manage this really really well so it’s not impossible. It’s a choice. |