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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you dumb down the honors classes far enough, i'm sure previously failing students will appear successful like in Illinois.

Advanced kids won't learn a thing, but who cares.

Can you cite specific evidence that the IL curriculum was "dumbed down"? I didn't see that the data.

Is this based on a study of one single school? Because that seems more correctly datum. One point in time in one location with one population of students. Let's see how well this works in competitive districts before deciding its the model to chase.

[Anonymous]

I taught at Wilson and many of my AP courses contained students two or three or more grade levels behind. If you point this out they'll call you a racist or they'll say your expectations are too low and therefore the reason why the students are doing poorly is because of you. You teach what's in front of you and when the principal says you're to give some "make-up" work or to forgive a dozen or so absences and you have a kid in college and a mortgage what do you do?

[Anonymous]

The Evanston, IL freshman program does h=not look like Honors for All -- there is an 8th grade placement test with a cut off score (a low one, but a cut off nonetheless).

[Anonymous]

And that is the best D.C. has to offer. Glad it is your kids and not mine

[Anonymous]

We have high quality models nearby we could follow.

We don't because in DC, closing the achievement gap means stunting the growth at the top since we can't spike the growth at the bottom.

It is what it is. Wilson will go down hill for this decision. Count on it.

Hope your property value isn't important to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I taught at Wilson and many of my AP courses contained students two or three or more grade levels behind. If you point this out they'll call you a racist or they'll say your expectations are too low and therefore the reason why the students are doing poorly is because of you. You teach what's in front of you and when the principal says you're to give some "make-up" work or to forgive a dozen or so absences and you have a kid in college and a mortgage what do you do?

Did the Wilson admin react when those kids failed the AP test?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I taught at Wilson and many of my AP courses contained students two or three or more grade levels behind. If you point this out they'll call you a racist or they'll say your expectations are too low and therefore the reason why the students are doing poorly is because of you. You teach what's in front of you and when the principal says you're to give some "make-up" work or to forgive a dozen or so absences and you have a kid in college and a mortgage what do you do?

Did the Wilson admin react when those kids failed the AP test?

I'm not the PP/former teacher but am a Wilson parent. I don't think Wilson parents and students are ever given a breakdown of the AP scores of the student body. If this info is publicly available, I would love to see it.

[Anonymous]

Whats frightening is that they will want to extend this no-honors model to all grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whats frightening is that they will want to extend this no-honors model to all grades.

I can't believe they would do that. I've never heard of a school that would break down an honors program into nothing. Source?

[Anonymous]

A lot of folks on this board are just speculating without any evidence whatsoever. So take a lot of this with a grain of salt.

[Anonymous]

Race to the bottom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whats frightening is that they will want to extend this no-honors model to all grades.

I can't believe they would do that. I've never heard of a school that would break down an honors program into nothing. Source?

If Martin decides it "worked" for 9th grade, the logical externsion is the othet grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to a high school where I learned almost nothing but got straight A's. I did very well on the SAT and ended up at a great college.
Freshman year was horrendous because I had never seen any of the material before (in college Chemistry, Biology, etc) while it was entirely review for my classmates from good high schools.


Because of my background my I really fear sending my kids to college with A transcripts but no real knowledge. We all have our particular sensitivities based on our personal background and this is mine.
If this is where Wilson is headed (my kids are in late elementary) then we will scrape together every dollar we have to pay for private school.

+100. Had a similar experience at an Ivy.

Us, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of folks on this board are just speculating without any evidence whatsoever. So take a lot of this with a grain of salt.

Give us a break. DCPS doesn't differentiate nearly enough in ES in this city for many of us, yet we're supposed to be OK with their lumping 9th graders who lack basic skills into the same academic classes as those capable of college work. This is bad policy, pure and simple. Don't take it with a grain of salt, take it for what it is - PC BS that will hurt Wilson as a school, and many freshman at the high AND low ends of the academic spectrum there.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately all the Wilson principal and DCPS cares about are raising the scores of the lowest 25%. Despite trying all sorts of quick fixes, they are making zero progress even in this. Ultimately they need really strong teachers across the board to make a difference for all students but strangely they don't seem to care too much about or appreciate good teachers. By the way, AP scores across DCPS are horrendous, mostly 1s and 2s. Central office is a disaster and keeps coming up with hare-brained new initiatives just to show they are doing something.