Reply to Overcrowding at Wilson

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am a parent of a 9th grader at Wilson. when we went to the school presentation by the principal (it was Deal night at Wilson I think), I think she said, if I understood correctly, that the "honor for all" thing in 9th grade was based on the fact that classes in 9th grade were small, 10-15 students, so all students could be properly followed and they could all get to honor level the following year. I was a little skeptical because I have done some volunteering in DCPS schools and saw kids who can barely read in 6th grade, literally. it would take a lot more than a class of 10 to help them learn a rigorous curriculum when they are unable to read 10 pages of a regular book.  My kid started the year and in one of her classes, honor biology, there are 37 kids, 37!!  in math there are 24, which is a lot better than 37 but certainly a lot more than 10. [/quote]

Nice bait and switch.

Honors for all is honors for none.

Dont worry, many of those kids wont bother showing up for their "honors" class.[/quote]

No tracking but small classes so everyone can get to honor level the following year? Really???  And parents believed that BS when some of these kids are so far behind?

Oh then surprise, large classes still and now 10th is honors for all, physics is honors for all.

That’s right, it’s honors for none.  Everyone gets the same no matter where they are.  Why don’t we just call the school communism Wilson high.[/quote]

I'm a parent of a 9th grader too - here's what got me with back to school night besides the fact that classes were not small :)

Lost track last night of how many teachers/clubs asked for donations due to the funding cut.  Especially paper.  Many of the teachers said that they wouldn't be giving duplicates of handouts this year due to their paper budget being drastically cut.  Which is fine.  But this raises multiple points.

1.  No textbooks for the kids.  The math teacher openly expressed frustration with this - the kids have some old text books to use as reference but essentially teachers hobble together lessons from multiple sources because DCPS keeps changing the curriculum without providing text books.  Ergo...the need for more paper.  Is this just the way things are now?  I could see some classes working fine with this as things change but I can't imagine learning math/science cohesively without a text book.

3.  Funding was cut - $170,000 but the Beacon article seems to say it's coming back in October 1 thanks to a bill from Mary Cheh.  If that is the case - is the funding that was cut what is impacting the shortages to the teachers or is that because be a different funding source being cut?  https://thewilsonbeacon.com/15410/news/wilson-loses-over-170000/

4.  Does anyone know if funding went up based on enrollment?

5.  One teacher last night told us that DCPS just puts everyone in bounds in the system - whether they have enrolled or not.  And if parents do not directly contact the school - they stay there for the first month or two of school.  WTF?  How on earth can they plan?  If that is true.[/quote]

Per pupil funding was NOT cut. There are fewer high needs students so Wilson is getting less money in total. Part of the problem (not just at Wilson) is that earmarked funds for high needs students has not been spent on targeted interventions but to cover other needs. So the kids who need more didn’t get it, the overall funding needs were masked. And Wilson is not the other school going through this in the city.

Cut back on sports and clubs. Buy some textbooks. First things first.

[/quote]

Students need those sports and clubs to stand out in college admissions it would make the school less competitive. Lots of students turn down Walls and Banneker because of it.

They need to push all teachers to go paperless...Google Docs, anyone??. [/quote]

A far higher percentage of students at Walls, Banneker and BASIS get into highly selective colleges and universities than from Wilson. There are tons of club and community opportunities for sports and arts to boost applications. Only kids who are bright but not outstanding academically need sports to get a hook into elite schools.

My only point is that if you have a child in 7th to 12th now you can’t have it all, unfortunately. Your choices are to a) accept the status quo if your student is now 7th-12th and b) choose what is most important to you and them — less crowded, more prepared cohort or lots of school sports and other extracurriculars. If your kid is in elementary now it could and probably will change. But right now you’ve gotta be a realist. [/quote]

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