Reply to Did Walls interview invites go out?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It all comes down to whether or not you have a teacher who maxes out the recommendation form. When my kid went through this a few years ago at Deal there was one English teacher who didn't max it out for any students on that team and zero kids from that team got in despite many of them having a 4.0 and being school leaders.

It's a deeply flawed process but it's DCPS and that's what they do. [/quote]

My kid suspected this. He was shocked his friends with 4.0’s in geometry, physics, and who are in national junior honors society, student council, etc, did not get interviews. He suspected it was partially because one of the teachers they all had write their recs is pretty tough on them.[/quote]

Yes, but don't blame the teachers. People write recs in different ways and I don't think DCPS communicates to teachers that anyone with less than a perfect rating won't move on. Teachers who know this will pass through everyone who is decent. Teachers who don't have in the past dinged even the top kids because this is a very reasonable way to complete a rec (i.e no one is perfect, there is room for improvement, etc). [/quote]

Honestly if there is one takeaway for me of this process it is that teacher recommendations should not be required. They are a massive burden on teachers and can be arbitrarily unfair if the teacher has a different standard than others or doesn’t understand the game. Grades and essays should be enough - schools that want to assess writing or other skills could do a test, workshop, portfolio or interview. [/quote]

And their effect is magnified when recs play such a big role in deciding who gets an interview. I think it is absolutely true that many teachers (and parents) don’t understand the impact of these recommendations on students’ chances. Middle school leadership or counselors may have some ability to communicate this to teachers, but there is inherently going to be variation from teacher to teacher, especially without some system for norming these recommendations.

The problem remains that the pool of highly qualified kids is larger than the number of spots available. It’s not simple to come up with a fair admissions process and I can appreciate the value of rec letters as part of an overall application package, but the way the current application process uses them seems flawed.[/quote]

A big flaw is that recs count for so much.  Much more than GPA and it is way overweighted.

I think this is because it gives the school much more leeway in who they want to admit and goal is not the top of the top kids as it should be.  [/quote]

Why is that "as it should be"? Is the school clear that they are taking the very highest academic performers or is it a more nuanced selective process? And, do they include things like interesting, dynamic, hard working? (I actually don't know the answers but guess I'd want my kids to have peers that were good students and also well rounded, well liked people (assuming well liked is related to being a good engaged person)).[/quote]

There is plenty of top kids who are interesting, dynamic, and hard working.  It doesn’t have to be one or the other.

Plenty that apply.  So you make the cut off an objective test and then you select from there these other criteria’s if you want.

The point is that these top kids who are interesting, dynamic, and hard working are being passed for lower academic performers.

We can’t even have one “magnet” school in this town.  Why is that too much to ask?  Why does DCPS have to destroy whatever it touches in the name of equity?[/quote]

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