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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If 4.0 BASIS kids aren’t even being considered for Walls, I’m not sure Walls is as great of a school as people make it seem.  It’s a flawed admissions process when it doesn’t account for what it takes to get all As at BASIS, including in class subjects other middle schoolers haven’t even yet taken.  It wouldn’t surprise me if the BASIS students who end up at Walls for high school are some of the most prepared students that school has.[/quote]

As a parent of a former BASIS kid who switched to Walls (mainly for social reasons) I just want to tell any disappointed BASIS parents that[b] IMO academics are much stronger at BASIS than they are at Walls[/b] (so far).  My guess is that because BASIS has a relatively uniform curriculum that must be taught across the network, this keeps the academics/material learned at a high level.  Many (not all!) Walls/DCPS teachers just seem to phone it in/do whatever they want (in some cases not much!) with no oversight. (I am still generally happy with switch given kid's overall happiness, but do lament the loss of rigor - which is somewhat made up for by the fact that the Walls cohort is almost uniformly diligent and high performing)[/quote]

This has long been the case.  [b]And probably has not been helped with the removal of the Walls test[/b]. [/quote]

The teaching ability/curriculum (or lack thereof) at Walls has nothing to do with the removal of the Walls test.  And as far as I can tell, the cohort admitted post-test seems very motivated/high performing.[/quote]

Really because I heard almost 1/3rd of the kids are not even getting 4 on PARCC[/quote]

67% 4+ makes SWW the highest performing HS in the city for 4+ math. So your statement is true but there are no other high school students doing better.  [/quote]

Getting a 4 simply means that you have met expectations. How does a selective academic high school in DC have 33% of its student body not even meeting expectations in math? How did these students make the grade cut off?[/quote]

Walls is supposedly the  best magnet HS in DC but a 1/3 of the kids are below grade-level in math.

If you compare it to the best magnet HS in NYC, that school doesn't admit anyone who is below grade-level in math.

That certainly suggests that maybe the Walls admission system where GPA counts for 10%, 2 subjective teacher recommendation letters count for 30%, and a 10-minute interview with a high school student/teacher and 1 paragraph essay count for 60% may not be the best way to admit kids.[/quote]

I agree that the Walls admission system is seriously flawed (especially the 2 subjective teacher recommendations). The process you outline, though, is new this year. It's not the way it was done pre-pandemic and not what's been done the past few years.

Admissions aside, in order to compare magnet high schools in NYC and DC, you'd need to compare outcomes on the same tests. Students in NYC do not take PARCC (now DC CAPE) and they don't have the same state standards.[/quote]

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