Reply to SWW - when do notices go out about interviews?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]For the last few years, Walls has been fixated on GPA but, with grade inflation in DC, the school is not necessary selecting the top students.  For example, based on 9th grade PARRC results, over 30% of Walls 9th graders are [i]below[/i] grade level in math.  If they had an admission test, Walls could easily only select 9th graders who are [i]at least[/i] grade level in math.  [b]Just compare Walls to Stuyvesant, a 82% minority magnet school in NYC,[/b] which has an admissions test and where no 9th grader is below grade level in math.  Obviously, Walls is not focused on picking the top students in DC.

This year Walls changed the admissions system so that subjective teacher recs are worth three times more than a kid’s GPA.  And the teacher recs are not based on any numerical rating. [b] Thus, overworked Walls admissions staff are assigning numerical weights to these teacher recs based on general comments such as “this student is great” or “this student is solid” and using these comments to calculate the applicant’s overall numerical score to determine if he or she warrants an interview. [/b] As a result, a student with a relatively low GPA but excellent teacher recs will receive an interview over a kid with a stronger GPA who submitted more lukewarm teacher recs.

Based on this change, it is hard to see how Walls will be picking a stronger class this year than previous years.  It will be interesting to see if the new class, like previous recent ones, includes a high percentage of “straight A” kids testing below grade level.
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While I agree with you that the process leaves a lot to be desired (my 4.0 kid didn't get an interview), I also want to call into question two of your statements. First, Stuyvesant is something like 10% Black and Latino, so saying it's 82% minority effectively means it's 72% Asian. I don't think Asian kids are underrepresented in NYC's selective schools, so it doesn't seem right to include them in the minority stats.

Second, I don't think your comment about Walls choosing based on vague recommendations is correct. The recommendation forms have choices for teachers such as "5: reading level is far advanced for age and grade level," "4: Reads well above expectations for age and grade level," etc. So even though it's subjective based on the teacher's judgment, the admissions staff won't have to assign guesstimates to what "this student is solid" means.[/quote]

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