Reply to Any Walls boosters / haters these days?

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[quote=Anonymous]Our daughter is a current 10th grader at Walls. For her, the small school size/feel and the focus on humanities has been great (the math instruction has been good, too; she's currently taking Pre-Calculus and she'll take take AP Pre-Calculus BC next year).

The school prepares all students to take AP courses starting in 10th grade. All 10th grade students take AP World History and many (if not most) will take another AP, as well. Most students will take multiple AP classes junior year. While there aren't a ton of elective offerings, there are a variety. Art, music, and AP electives are popular.

All students will complete an internship during junior or senior year and complete senior research project. There's also a freshman research paper and a sophomore speech. At the end of sophomore year, students can apply to dual-enroll at GW.

There is a counselor per grade level that follows students students from their freshman year until senior year (some are better than others) and a really helpful team of social workers and mental health therapists.

Our daughter has made friends from across the city and has taken advantage of clubs and sports. Walls usually comes in second to most of the J-R athletic teams; they've taken first place in a number of city-wide club events.

Most of the teachers are fantastic; a few do a  better job at assigning work than actually teaching students how to do it (but as a former MS/HS teacher myself, that's common) - many go above and beyond and really care.

I'd say that almost all of our daughter's friends seem to take academics seriously (some more than others) and they enjoy being at GW with off-campus lunch.

The parties don't tend to be too wild and drug and alcohol use is no worse than any other school I've worked at.

Like any school, there are issues...

In my opinion, there's limited communication from the school in any coordinated way and the communication we do get is often last minute. Thankfully the Home School Association puts out a weekly newsletter.

Having worked in larger high schools were there's a bigger focus on student activities, Walls offers some school-wide programming and school-wide spirit days - but it definitely does not have a pep-rally type of culture.

In terms of Summer Bridge, two summers ago it was held in mid-August (with the rest of the DCPS Summer Bridge programming). Last summer, though, Walls held it at the start of the summer (like was previously done at Walls). It is optional, but it is also when students select their electives and language placement tests are offered.

Walls also gets to do their own thing when it comes to some of the course curriculum and doesn't have to follow the DCPS pacing guides - which can be good or bad. Students will get an incredible sampling of American literature in 10th grade, but students will spend an entire term reading the Epic of Gilgamesh in 9th grade (it'll be a painful quarter!).

Overall, we've been satisfied with Walls, though I think the future is uncertain - especially with budget cuts. As other posters have mentioned, Walls is cutting a world language position and the theater arts position next year. The budget is not looking much better for FY 26, so it will be interesting to see what will be cut.[/quote]

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